Task Force Kampas (PS4)

I have decided to do this review differently, and include my Youtube video review. I took to Twitch to stream some hands-on impressions, and go over the features and mechanics which I then exported to Youtube, and have in turn included here. As it turns out I found a shmup with potential lost to artificial difficulty. Through a narrow playing field, oppressive bullet hell/enemy population, and recovery options that reduce the long lived potential of a playthrough things are made much harder than they should be. It left me unable to make it past the first boss on Easy difficulty despite choosing different pilots with different perks that each offered a different advantage in regards to shot type and health. Visually the game is very appealing, and the soundtrack quite impressive. Sadly I found out that it was a game experience not worth buying into. Hopefully the developer can heed my advice, and improve upon this game or the next.

Freedom Finger (PS4)

Wide Right Interactive's "Freedom Finger" is an unapologetic middle finger to everything anti-freedom, and everything anti-American. It is coined as being a "Bat Sh*t Crazy Space Shooter", and that's exactly what it is. It takes politics, throws in some 'HEAVY METAL" inspired songs, and sends your ship the Eagle Claw on a fight and flight mission against communist China, and their imperial leader Kang. All while giving you absurd real world quotes during intermissions from real world politicians. At times inserting profanity the likes of which haven't been seen in a PS4 video game since I don't know when. Through grabbing, middle finger shooting, and fisting mechanics you will literally give the opposition what for in the most crude of ways. Led by a foul mouthed general whose daughter has been kidnapped, and a mission control supervisor of mediocre mannerisms you'll face a campaign, and arcade mode experience unlike any other as you fight for freedom. Complete with top tier voice acting, trippy visuals, a rocking soundtrack and pro-American sentiment this shoot 'em up is likely to go down in history as the final middle finger to those who go against human rights.

Red Death (REVIEW)

Returning with a shmup that foregoes the nature of the first entry in their series, Panda Indie Studios brings to us a worthy prequel to 'Project Starship'. A four tone shoot 'em up that not only ramps up the challenge, and does away with the rogue-like formula, but that also gives background on the main two characters of the first game. Following pilot RED-001 we are invited along with the accompanying instructor to see the demise of worlds at the hands, or rather tentacles of the old gods. Gods of Lovecraftian origin who have decided to wage war on the Earth, and force pilots like Nick (aka, RED-001) to face a final fight for the remainder of humanity. In his fight, and flight of nightmarish proportions we learn that Nick's wife departs the planet via shuttle during his skirmish with a baby on the way. A surprise bundle of joy that ties-in with the 'Project Starship' plot. It is in the eerie, and ominous revelation of potential doom, and hope for the future that the color scheme of reds, greens, whites, and greys along with thematic music elements geared towards intensifying the situation plays out in a per stage basis, and in an oldschool way.

Project Starship (PS4)

For five dollars you are getting what you paid for with Panda Indie Studio's, "Project Starship". It's nothing large scale, or new-gen, but in it's flashy simplicity it harbors a surprisingly impressive replay value if you look beyond the lack of an online leaderboard. Said replay value coming in the form of high score opportunities that can be streamed for record sake. That and some easy to earn PSN trophies. With the noteworthy replay value you will also find randomized rogue-like features which will alter the experience in each of the given playthroughs making no playthrough exactly alike.

At base level Project Starship is a top-down upward auto-scrolling shmup of chunky proportions set in an Lovecraftian universe with rogue-like elements at play. A very flashy display of nonstop action filled with amateurish hand drawn art put into lightly animated pixel form. All accented by an oddly digitized voice inclusive chiptune soundtrack. It features two playable protagonists in the form of Garret, and Gwen who are each made available from the start alongside two distinct difficulty settings. These male and female astronauts who fly in their own blue and red colored spacecraft of the same build face the cosmic horrors before them as you guide them along through the lit up abyss.

Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo (REVIEW)

Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo puts the anime into aerial combat with six wacky wave based games centered around an unusual roster of characters. Included in this bundle is a mix and match of two well renown trilogies. Including that of Samurai Aces, and GunBird. Each sporting their own plots, settings, mythologies, and mechanics. All done up in both side-scrolling, and top-down shoot 'em up fashion. It's fast and frenetic gameplay with new optional bells and whistles to help you see each game through to the end beyond the staple quarter munching mockery, and seven different difficulty settings. If you are a fan of shmups, bullet hell, or even brick breaking of the retro kind this might just be the ultimate collection for you!

Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire (PS4)

Some people play shmups for the story ... Who am I kidding!? People play shmups for the high score opportunities! Yep, that's it. Interestingly enough though Alfa Systems shmup "Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire" offers the best of both worlds. A story regarding five fabled sisters destined to stop an ultimate evil known as Seytan (Satan???), and unique shoot 'em up mechanics with which to top the global leaderboards. As far as the story goes it's an interesting tale of sibling rivalry that ends up doing an about face over a man who is the romantic center of attention. The five leading ladies including Sonay, Selma, Nur, Ece, and Lale all have their hearts set on wedding the man of the hour, Yashin. What transpires between them is a wacky war of words, and will. With their familiars, their sharp tongues, and their magic abilities they enter the heat of battle as brides to be or not to be.

Doughlings: Invasion | A New Entry In A Series That Reinvents Retro Games

The Doughlings franchise by Hero Concept is a sort of series of games with it's own unique lore that utilizes retro gaming genres as it's core gameplay element. This particular installment of the Doughlings series, for example, features a tale of the Doughlings being invaded by space invaders who aim to conquer the residents of the Doughling world through a sneaky preemptive meteor strike. They basically send down a meteor of mass destruction down to the Doughling planet to obliterate all existence there, but Dr. Morpheus finds out the plan, and launches a counter offensive against the would be invaders. Packing heat in the form of a color gun, and utilizing various personas, or abilities gained from elixir allocation Morpheus must make a stand or risk the very existence of his own kind. A story which is nicely packaged in comic book panel form with a spoken voice-over inclusive introduction at the start.

Vasara Collection | A Classic Shmup Revival With A New Mode Of Play

For the first time on console. You don't often see such a claim when it comes to video games. Even when it's shmups from Asia. That being said QUBytes did indeed bring to us the "Vasara Collection" in all it's wonderful glory for the first time on consoles, and modern consoles at that. Included in the collection are the two older game ports titled, "Vasara" and "Vasara 2" from the respective series developed by Visco as well as "Vasara Timeless" which seems to be a more modern version of those older releases with it's own unique mechanics for an up to four player local co-op session. All in all it's a three for the price of one kind of deal which may or may not be worth it to you depending on what kind of game genres you like ...

Most of you reading this are probably wondering what theme this particular shoot 'em up series contains at this point, and if you guessed samurai you'd be close. The two main games take some of the real life feudal Japanese history/lore, and put a sort of fantasy anime twist on it all. As one of a handful of various fully named male, and female protagonists sporting different period attire according to profession (Ninja, Samurai, Rogue, Shogun, Monk), and piloting a variety of different mechanized ships you go into battle against the forces involved in the fall of Osaka Castle of 1600 as well as against Oda Nobunga, and his army of loyal generals. At your disposal on your journey to rid the world of the nefarious opposition is a blocking melee attack, and rapid fire shot of varying types according to ship/character as well as the usual bullet hell clearing bombs. Utilizing your tools of destruction you must clear out enemies large, and small in order to face off against the main enemies that lie in wait within the six stage playthrough. Whether it be soldiers, sub-boss generals, or boss type generals piloting enemy craft. With each defeated enemy leaving in their wake a banner that adds to an end score tally along with other tallied loot found hidden away you could find yourself on at the top of the games' global leaderboards, and in the footnotes of feudal fantasy history if you can prove yourself worthy enough to capitalize on such point earned fame and fortune.

Pawarumi (NS)

Rock, paper, scissors, and a shmup. A shmup, and an Aztec theme. These are things we usually wouldn't think of as something that would go together so easily or smoothly. Thankfully the French studio Manufacture 43 put them together quite seamlessly, and in such a way as to create one of the genre's most unique experiences, to date, for the Nintendo Switch.

Utilizing divine creatures, and a future mythos taken lightly from Aztec mythology we find a shmup that foregoes the need for upgrades, power-ups, and the usual shoot 'em up approach. In the place of the usual staple features the developer has applied a system where shields, and supers are gained by pitting certain colored weapons of the animal variety (Red Jaguar Missiles, Blue Condor Lasers & Green Serpent Gatling) against opposing ship colors to build up respective meters, and the use of a crushing mechanic to do bonus damage in a similar fashion. The triple color scheme, and how it works is explained away in a hands-on demo style tutorial that can be intimidating at first, but more understandable as you play. A tutorial that tells you to build up a shield via a boost mechanic you have to shoot colored enemies with the same color weapon. That to build up your super via a drain mechanic you have to play a sort of rock-paper-scissors opposite game putting the weaker weapon color against the stronger enemy ship color. Needless to say earning the crushing blow is done by using a stronger weapon color to destroy ships of a weaker color. To make things easy pressing a button will show you what each shot type does in accordance to colors with a color coded meter, and crush indicator at the bottom of the screen.

Q-YO Blaster (NS)

Out of all of the shmups I've ever reviewed I'd say "Q-YO Blaster" is by far the zaniest of them all. It surpasses the wacky content of the Parodius series, and takes an odd approach to the old shoot 'em up formula. Blending what could be best described as a PIXAR studios storytelling path, and the old style cartoon antics of Cuphead, the team at TEAM ROBOT BLACK HAT conjures up a tale about Earth's last stand against an intergalactic plague of insects. Through the comic book panel conversations of the misfit casting therein we find the Earth contact Mr. Cheeks, a humanoid hamster, preparing for the impact of a worm carrying meteorite through radio conversations of an intergalactic team out to stop the threat from spreading further across the galaxy. As one of several pilots of anime, and creature/mechanoid fame you must pilot through the interiors of houses, apocalyptic urban streets, and into realms unknown. Ultimately facing off against weaponized insects of the common garden variety, souped up by futuristic enhancements.

AngerForce Reloaded (PS4)

I have been playing "AngerForce Reloaded" by Zodiac Interactive for review purposes. I like it. It manages to add in a few tweaks to the standard bullet hell gameplay formula including an energy meter, and tied-in dual skills that can be used to maximize scoring potential. For some reason it reminds me of Borderlands in some ways, it's graphical design. Definitely with the visual cell-shading, and the named bosses you encounter. The fact that it has a campaign for each of the four main characters spanning 7 stages in total divided between Noob, Normal, and Hardcore difficulties really adds that incentive to play through it thoroughly. The perk system in Arcade, and Campaign mode adds a bit of enhancement to possible gameplay perfection for those who commit to the grind. In the campaign you'll use earned points to upgrade characters across the board. Things pertaining to health, energy, bombs, power-up suction, and other things can be upgraded to improve upon point earning potential as well as prolonged survival. These points can not only be spent at the final stage of the set difficulty or upon death, but can also be used to revive characters as well as buy intermediate power-up refills should you need them.

In total there are four main characters in the game that you can play as, and as the title suggests they all have some sort of anger issues, each pertaining to a sought out fight against a mysterious masked figure and a war against robots and humans. The characters include the adopted, and orphaned Samhill, Echo who happens to be the daughter of the man behind the creation of the robots, Asimo who is a robot himself, and a forest spirit named Shin who obviously has a beef with all the destruction and mayhem brought on by the ongoing conflict.

Horizon Shift '81 (Nintendo Switch)

I had a double dose of nostalgia today going into the playthrough for this review. On one hand I was once again able to play, and review a game from an old XBLIG developer favorite. That developer being Flump Studios. On the other hand I got to experience an oldschool style shmup which encompassed all the classics of old. From Space Invaders to Centipede, and even Asteroids the game at hand had it all going on. Not in a way as to be a copycat shooter, but one that actually had it's own core gimmick with the classic mechanics included on the side, and collectively so. When it comes to the experience that is, "Horizon Shift '81", it is a retro themed shmup that gets it's name from it's horizon baseline. A line centered in the middle of the screen in which the controlled ship can face or rather flip north or south while dodging, shooting, and jumping among a wide assortment of approaching and stationary lesser or greater enemy threats. It is with this grounded line that you must deal with each enemy type differently on their respective sides, and collect what can be collected according to the sides the collectibles are on. The asteroids, for example, are an enemy threat that will knock holes into the horizon creating a pitfall for your ship. A gap that can be jumped, or avoided altogether. Other enemy types like the space invaders style enemies will land on either side of the horizon line, and can only be defeated by a side dash to the left or right using the Switch's shoulder buttons once they land. Ultimately leading to score combo opportunities. Needless to say with each enemy type comes it's own set of rules. In turn making the challenge at hand all the more challenging.

Riddled Corpses EX Mixes Old School Mob Brawlers With Shmup Mechanics

Complete with two co-op score based modes, and a cooperative story mode with five stages of progression CowCat Games, and Diabolical Minds challenges the gamer or gamers to take on one of the most grueling fights for apocalyptic survival ever! Whether you love the oldschool appeal of the side-scrolling wave filled brawlers, or the arcade shoot' em ups of old you will find tons of replay value in this story driven fight against the evil of all evils. A furious fight against an evil which has, and continues to resurrect the dead in order to destroy all of humanity. Through a character upgrade system that alters gun play Gradius-style, and unlockables in the form of other characters and weapons with their own unique combat offerings you will face wave after wave of the undead in an attempt to best the true prince of darkness. The ultimate end goal being a complete story playthrough, or an arcade mode playthrough. Each with a different way to experience the trek through madness. That and one of the most difficult static survival modes to ever grace the shmup genre!

10tons Shmup "Tesla vs Lovecraft" Is An Improbable Battle Of Genius And Madness

Like the epic battles between King Kong, and Godzilla 10tons studios takes two iconic characters from the world of man, and pits them against one another in a decisive battle made somewhat plausible yet not. In this battle of science versus fiction we find famed scientist Nikola Tesla battling horror author H.P.Lovecraft. A man whom had warned Tesla in a live demonstration that he did not know the powers he was meddling with. Those powers being free electricity for all. A tale we all know too well. After being imprisoned for the theatrical disturbance Lovecraft unleashes hell on Earth Eldritch horror style causing Tesla to counteract the threat with weaponized inventions of his own. Through mechs, augmented artillery, and perks of the shmup kind Tesla faces off against fiendish foe after fiendish foe in portal spawned waves powered by Cthulhu statues. Ultimately going between planes of existence including that of Arkham, the Aether, and Eldritch Tesla dares the adverse difficulty as he faces the monstrosities of old.

RIVE (PS4)

Two Tribe's "RIVE" is one of those indie experiences that wants to be everything. It wants to pay homage to the great classics like 'Gradius', duplicate retro experiences like 'Tetris', and sarcastically embody the AI versus test subject relationship that was presented in "Portal". Despite these obvious nods the game at heart is a Metroidvania in the 2.5D platforming sense mixed with transitional phases that apply shmup style gameplay. As the redneck hacker protagonist, 'Roughshot' you enter a seemingly derelict spaceship inside your spider tank only to find it still operational, and under the command of an AI drone named, Daryl Lloyd Lancaster (DLL). Once the main character meets this obnoxious droid, and finds that he is doomed to rinse, and repeat the trial by fire set before him he makes it his end goal to destroy the ship, and escape. DLL has other plans though, and through a warp device, and defense robots he keeps the roughneck spider tank piloting space trucker from doing what it is he has in mind. The ongoing conversations between the pair, and the slapstick conflicts therein are constantly sarcastic in nature setting a proper tone for the mission based campaign that acts as a means to unlock everything else there is to unlock in this highly unusual game.

Ghost Blade HD (PS4)

Hucast's Playstation 4 port of their Dreamcast shmup "Ghost Blade" is a perfect HD upgrade with plenty of challenges, and tweaks to appease a fan of the genre. It is a sensory overload filled with vibrant colors, detailed designs, and impressive art that holds up to today's shoot 'em up standards. The game itself stars three intergalactic female pilots (Milan, Ghost & Rekka) who each pilot a ship/tank that has it's own style of bullet fire, and satellites. The ships are color coded to match their pilot's uniform, and each carry a unique design. With these ships you must brave one of three different difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Hard) along with five top-down enemy filled stages as well as the five boss battles within each stage that are in themselves a proper challenge. The difficulty settings included have their own accompanying perks including a specific number of continues, lives, and bombs/bomb usage types. The 'Easy' mode in particular will have you focusing mostly on the screen filling bullet hell spray, and less on the bombs as the bombs activate automatically when you get hit making you temporarily invincible. Supposing you have some in stock In the other two difficulties bombs are a manual deal meaning that you must activate them in order to use them. Along with the bombs comes main weaponry in the form of a focused fire attack, and a spread attack. A feature that's included in all levels of difficulty. The focus attack streamlines the bullet fire from your ship making the beam it creates more powerful, and in the process slows down your movement so that you can dodge bullet hell spray easier. It also doubles as a means to create tech orbs which add to your combo focused score. The standard wide spray shot only gifts you stage stars, and gold when shooting down enemies, but adds to the growing score, nonetheless. It is also weaker making it more useful against smaller enemy types.

HYPER VOID is Coming to Xbox One January 6th!!!

Earlier in 2015 I had the privilege to review one of the year's more interesting shmups (shoot'em ups). It was a unique game developed by indie studio, "IN|Framez Technology Corp". The title of said game was "Hyper Void". What "Hyper Void" offered the gamer was new-gen quality visuals, and a complimentary soundtrack bundled together with a retro style of 3D oriented gameplay which goes back to the earlier years of arcade experiences. The game was filled with vibrant colors, bullet hell madness, and even bosses to beat as you traversed the unique universe within. I personally ended up on the fence about the game due to the lack of replay value, but did find some good points to it. Being a shmup fan the gameplay definitely drew me in, but the lack of extra replay worthy features made it a bit of a disappointment. Luckily you guys, and gals (who own an Xbox One) will be able to give the game a proper try come January 6th, and with a new leaderboard feature in place. This new addition to the already interesting gameplay improves on one of the bigger faults I found with the overall experience, and thankfully so. I definitely suggest giving it a chance when it hits the Xbox Live store if you have the holiday cash to spare. In case you want to catch up on my original PS4 review I'll leave that here for reference purposes.

Kromaia Ω (PS4)

Mine eyes are ablaze with the aftermath of the light show spectacle that is "Kromaia Ω"! It burns! It burns!!! All joking aside do be aware that this shmup bares some intense lighting effects that are sometimes flashy. Those who are prone to having seizures, or who have a family history of seizures should probably avoid this game. Even those who can tolerate such loud, and vibrant displays should only play for short amounts of time at a time as it can definitely effect your vision afterwards ...

When it comes to "Kromaia Ω" I can't say I've really ever seen another 360 degree shoot 'em up like it. The first thing that comes to mind is that this revenge against the gods space shooter could easily be a VR game compatible with a virtual reality headset. It is visually immersive on the highest level, and definitely looks like new-gen material. Whether it warrants the $30 price tag will be subjective though. I think 'Kraken Empire', the developers behind this 'Rising Star Games' publication were trying to base their pricing on it's "WOW Factor", and I have to admit it is definitely impressive enough in those regards. As far as gameplay, and modes of play go it is a bit limited in what it offers, though the open universe you traverse is anything but small in scale. For those of you wondering 'Kromaia Ω' is, at heart a free roaming 360 degree shmup that takes in account simple objectives, and an ultimate goal which does not demand that you stay on a linear path. The objectives being the gathering of level advancing items, and the end goal being that of getting revenge for your father's/mother's death by shooting down four galaxy sized gods.

Vitamin Z (PS Vita)

Like the 'World War Z' flick, and the 'Day Z' survival horror game Namazu Studio's 'Vitamin Z' takes the zombie genre to an entirely different level. The game, which is free to play, and could easily be described as 'Dexter's Labortory' meets 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' utilizes a simple arcade style shoot'em up formula to challenge the gamer in a score based fashion. In 'Vitamin Z' you'll descend down a laboratory elevator via a platform as you kill off waves of living dead veggies, and fruits for their internal fluids. It's these fluids (aka, Vitamin Z) that boost the scientific protagonist's weaponry, and gives her the ability to conduct other ungodly experiments on god knows what? While the game is "free-to-play" micro-transactions do creep in like some ghastly apparition, but in doing so doesn't really hinder non-paying players from earning the accompanying trophies nor does it keep said players from progressing deeper into the laboratory depths. Sure paying real world money for in-game currency will give you a boost in the form of extra lives, and shields, but playing the game without them is manageable regardless. You simply have to put in more effort to be the best.

Project Root (PS4/PS VITA)

The guys, and gals over at 'Reverb Triple XP', and 'OPQAM' bring to us a RAIDEN style (Top-Down) free-roam shmup that is of a mixed presentation. By mixed presentation I mean that "Project Root" only partially incorporates traditional shmup style scoring, and gameplay mechanics. It also does so with a story driven plot about a war for resources, and freedom from oppression as it's main focus. Basically, as a rebel pilot of the F72-Zonda you are presented with a mission to take down various Prometheus Corporation targets, and defenses in an effort to stop their greed ridden expansion, and stock hold of energy resources. Your weaponry for the assault comes in the form of air, and ground projectiles as well as special weapon power-ups that help to clear enemies even more quickly. Utilizing all available options of attack properly for the on ground, and in the air threats is what's going to mean the difference between failure, and victory.