Great presentation on this game, music and sounds effects are slamming. The graphics and the aesthetic are top-tier, at least for my taste. Absolutely no qualms with the presentation.
Make no mistake, this is essentially a Gradius game with some tweaked mechanics. The level design is very Gradius, and it reminds of Gradius in that, when your ship is fully powered your OP and the game a little too easy but if/when you die, you're far too weak. Your main shot does essentially nothing, even when it's fully powered, so you're going to find yourself spamming charged shots. I found it too hard to clear enemies sitting at the top and bottom of the screen for this reason -- the charged shot is just three big tentacles that reach out in front of you.
The pod in this game is kind of interesting, R-type inspired but different. It blocks enemy bullets when it's connected to your front, but can't be connected to the back. When you shoot it out, you can't do charged shots anymore, but the pod will extend even more tentacles and stick to the weak spot of an enemy and just do constant and decent damage. Since your uncharged shot is awful, a lot of my boss strategies consist of me shooting the orb at the weak spot, letting it do a bunch of damage, and just dodging bullets.
Game is good but not well-balanced. The boss fight on level two takes way too long. You're too strong when fully powered, but too weak after death. I never have liked when ship speed is tied to a power-up, since that just traps you in a death cycle of feeding quarters into your (likely virtual) machine until you can snag another one. Worth a play for the visuals alone but frustrating.
Make no mistake, this is essentially a Gradius game with some tweaked mechanics. The level design is very Gradius, and it reminds of Gradius in that, when your ship is fully powered your OP and the game a little too easy but if/when you die, you're far too weak. Your main shot does essentially nothing, even when it's fully powered, so you're going to find yourself spamming charged shots. I found it too hard to clear enemies sitting at the top and bottom of the screen for this reason -- the charged shot is just three big tentacles that reach out in front of you.
The pod in this game is kind of interesting, R-type inspired but different. It blocks enemy bullets when it's connected to your front, but can't be connected to the back. When you shoot it out, you can't do charged shots anymore, but the pod will extend even more tentacles and stick to the weak spot of an enemy and just do constant and decent damage. Since your uncharged shot is awful, a lot of my boss strategies consist of me shooting the orb at the weak spot, letting it do a bunch of damage, and just dodging bullets.
Game is good but not well-balanced. The boss fight on level two takes way too long. You're too strong when fully powered, but too weak after death. I never have liked when ship speed is tied to a power-up, since that just traps you in a death cycle of feeding quarters into your (likely virtual) machine until you can snag another one. Worth a play for the visuals alone but frustrating.