I really wanted to like this more. You can see all the care that the developers put into this game's combat system and overall feel. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve is quite steep and unbalanced. The enemy placements in some of the later levels are f***ed up, healing items are pretty rare and even in normal difficulty (which I found very similar to Streets of Rage 4's Mania difficulty... I can't imagine what the later difficulties would feel like) the game becomes very frustrating. Plus, the pixel art aesthetic is very good, but it's ruined by some post processing glow effects that hurt my eyes after a while. I can see the appeal of this game and I can understand why many people like it... it's just not for me.

This game is... not that bad actually. It's very faithful to 90s arcade games, both in a positive and negative way. The pixel art is GORGEOUS and the gameplay is simple and intuitive, but once you lose all your lives, you have to start all over again (also, there are no continues... I would have liked an option to add some). Luckily, the campaign is very short (just four levels) and the enemy patterns are relatively easy to learn. Just like older arcade games, it's meant to be replayed over and over to improve your score. There isn't too much content so I would recommend buying it only if it's on sale or in a bundle (which is what I also did).

A pretty good RTS / Tower Defense hybrid with a few shortcomings that prevent it from expressing its full potential. The biggest problem I had was the fact that the game doesn't tell you which type of enemies appear during the next battle phase (except for the new ones), so you may end up building structures and turrets you don't really need. Apart from that the gameplay loop is nice and there's a good variety of maps and mission types. Oh, and the soundtrack is amazing. One of David J. Franco's best works for sure.