I've heard about this game for a long time. After finally getting to play it, I can happily say it lives up to the hype! There's a lot of cool levels and boss fights, with some bosses effectively acting as a level you fight them throughout. The action is bombastic the whole way, with a tough-but-fair challenge, and several difficulty choices. After several hours of getting blown up, I finally beat the prestigious Very Easy difficulty.

There are no weapon pickups. Instead, you have access to your entire arsenal at all times, with the ability to level them up through the points they earn. This means scoring matters even in a survival run, but the ways you get those big points (color-chaining and boss dismantling) are fun to learn so it only adds to the experience. All the weapons are worth using and experimenting with, you even get a melee weapon that can erase some projectiles and transform into your super screen-clearing attack.

There are 2 main modes. Arcade mode is the traditional lives+credits affair, with extra credits and eventually free-play unlocked over time. Story Mode, as the name implies, has some little story scenes throughout it, and plays like a rougelite; There are no continues, but you can keep your weapon levels between runs, and gain more starting lives over time. It's also got some additional sections not in the arcade mode. There are Score Attack versions of both modes, with leaderboards for every difficulty, and a training mode for any stage you've reached, so you can practice that one spot giving you trouble and hopefully keep a few more lives in your next full run.

Any SHMUP fan who isn't afraid of taking a few lumps should play this!

I've heard about this game for a long time. After finally getting to play it, I can happily say it lives up to the hype! There's a lot of cool levels and boss fights, with some bosses effectively acting as a level you fight them throughout. The action is bombastic the whole way, with a tough-but-fair challenge, and several difficulty choices. After several hours of getting blown up, I finally beat the prestigious Very Easy difficulty. There are no weapon pickups. Instead, you have access to your entire arsenal at all times, with the ability to level them up through the points they earn. This means scoring matters even in a survival run, but the ways you get those big points (color-chaining and boss dismantling) are fun to learn so it only adds to the experience. All the weapons are worth using and experimenting with, you even get a melee weapon that can erase some projectiles and transform into your super screen-clearing attack. There are 2 main modes. Arcade mode is the traditional lives+credits affair, with extra credits and eventually free-play unlocked over time. Story Mode, as the name implies, has some little story scenes throughout it, and plays like a rougelite; There are no continues, but you can keep your weapon levels between runs, and gain more starting lives over time. It's also got some additional sections not in the arcade mode. There are Score Attack versions of both modes, with leaderboards for every difficulty, and a training mode for any stage you've reached, so you can practice that one spot giving you trouble and hopefully keep a few more lives in your next full run. Any SHMUP fan who isn't afraid of taking a few lumps should play this!