Played a cabinet at CEO 2023. While I am capable of enjoying shmups, I think I just dislike bullet hells. I hate having to dodge 100 projectiles and panicking when they close in only to realize my ship’s hurtbox is only a few pixels, so shots will definitely touch my sprite but not kill and it throws me the hell off. There were also a number of times I was cornered by bullets with actually no way out. You need a goddamn paycheck to beat this game.

At the very least, it does have that innate feeling of power in shmups when you somehow thread the needle through a barrage of bullets and then return fire with lasers and missiles that cover the entire screen.