Shikhondo: Soul Eater (PS4)

I am in love!!! ... maybe lust!!! There's finally a shmup with a mature Asian folklore theme that I can get behind!!! This shmup I speak of is none other than Deer Farm's original shoot'em up creation, "Shikhondo: Soul Eater". A shmup brought to us by Nephilim Game Studios via conversion, and published by Digerati Distribution. The game itself is a five stage fright fight featuring a female Grim Reaper protagonist, and some sword wielding girl with equally soul sapping powers. They face off alone or in co-op against some of ancient Asia's/Korea's most frightful haunts. Ultimately battling through bullet hell, and facing off against truly hellish forms of yokai bosses after having bested their slightly lesser than hellish forms. It's a shoot'em up with expertly choreographed bullet hell patterns fitting of the bosses, and 6 modes of play that cater to all the challenges, and desires a shmup enthusiast might like. The experience itself is complimented by an electronic soundtrack filled with haunting melodic tunes, laughter, screams, and heavy hitting synthesized sounds when the action is at it's most intense. Combined with the traditional, and layered style of Asian scroll-like artwork everything comes to life in a way befitting of the theme it encompasses.

Aces of the Luftwaffe - Squadron (PS4)

Every shmup has a gimmick. From the lesser involved mechanics of games like that of "Space Invaders" to deeply applied mechanics of games like Rising Star's "Akai Katana" you'll find each game within the genre contains either a unique spin on shoot'em ups or borrows mostly from others that they take inspiration from. In the case of Handy Games' "Aces of the Luftwaffe - Squadron" the developer does a bit of both. Through character radio interactions that build upon a story being told they create a World War II era shooter that goes well beyond the realm of the given theme, and the traditional shmup setup. As the last part of the title suggests you are a part of a squadron. A squadron consisting of four named pilots who each contribute to the fire fight at hand against a Nazi regime of sci-fi proportions. The fight has Mark, Melissa, John, and Steve all facing off against the enemy as they follow the fight to the US in an attempt to turn the tides of battle. Each pilot in the closely knit squadron comes complete with their own unique fears, ailments, and personality quirks that sometimes conflicts with the missions that are given. They either temporarily drop out of formation, become afflicted with negative status effects, attack other allied pilots or even fall asleep behind the cockpit. This gimmick adds a level of challenge to the already challenging fight. A fight which also carries with it side missions that will have you doing everything from escorting friendly aircraft to taking out specific targets, or even rescuing civilians among other things. Each chapter within the limited tale will have you taking on several missions in total as you upgrade your squadron's skill trees via gained skill coins ultimately affording you a more sustainable crew with added benefits to boot.

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.

Super Hydorah (PS4/PS VITA)

Locomalito & Gryzor87's side scrolling shmup, "Super Hydorah" is in every way a tribute, or homage if your prefer, to similar oldschool arcade experiences. It plays very much like the classic Gradius series, and features the signature shmup power-up system reminiscent of a series like that. It is a hardcore scored based shoot' em up in which learning patterns, secrets, and surviving through multiple enemy filled stages is a must if you hope to top the local leaderboard. While the game is fairly straightforward in gameplay in that you'll be tasked with killing waves of statically placed enemies, collecting the power-ups left in their wake, and acquiring new weapons from bosses to progress further it does host a mild story of it's own about a space pilot fighting for humanity against an alien threat. As pilot Delta Lance you'll be taking your Unit 87 combat fighter to face the Meroptian threat at the command of your colonel. A story setup that is squared away instantly in an initial launch cutscene. You are fairly much thrust into the heat of intergalactic battle with basic weapons, and a ship that can be upgraded via randomized power-ups of a select variety. As you down enemy craft, and alien life forms you'll sometimes reveal power-up items in the form of turbo boosts, single use super weapons, shot upgrades, and shields among other things. The end goal is simple, but is also an unforgiving multiple path driven fight for survival that will take you from right to left, and up and down in automated fashion across the game's sectioned off stage inclusive universe.

Demons Crystals (PS4)

BadLand Games' "Demons Crystals" fairly earns it's five dollar asking price. It's a classic arcade style shoot 'em up with a sort of Halloween theme going on. Centered around a story involving Urican demons, and the invasion of their world by three demonic overlords the game takes the gamer on a single, and multiplayer adventure filled with bright neon lighting, bullet hell encounters, and three unique modes of play. Either alone, or in the company of friends gamers can enjoy this wave based shmup in the guise of four different color coded Uricans as they face the hordes of the demonic armies before them, and the overlords themselves. Included in the package deal is an "Arcade Mode", a local "Multiplayer" with six game types, and a "Survival" mode for besting that highest leaderboard score. Some of the modes can be played alone while others are meant to be played via the oldschool couch co-op option.

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.

Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet (PS4)

Admittedly I went into this review rather blindly. I knew little of the Touhou anime universe, or the characters that resided therein. Despite this lack of series knowledge I do know my shmups though. I've played every possible kind of shoot 'em up from the bullet hell type to the side scrolling type, and even the top down variety. I've also played old school, and newer shmups from various publishers and developers throughout the years. Yar's Revenge on the Atari 2600 included. The thing that's always drawn me to the genre, and it's sub-genre offerings has in each case been the challenge, and the accompanying top score goals. Everybody wants to be the best at a game, but in the shmup genre this aspect of gameplay really does show, and you really do have to work hard to earn your placing among the honorable few. It's kind of like pinball in that sense. Looking back at my review playthrough I can definitely see those core values, and similarities in this game as well.

When it comes to this latest NISA release known as, "Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet" you'll find that it brings with it an all encompassing variety of shmup mechanics. By that I mean even though it is a top down shooter it uses every mechanic known to the genre, and then some. The power-ups, the bullet barrage, and even the scoring are included in the mix. While it does stay true to those more traditional elements it in some ways also seems to blend fighting game offerings with it's fleshed out character roster, story driven content, and the melee system that uses two colored rings as a way for players to dish out melee combos instead of the traditional bullet hell attacks. There's definitely a lot to this budget bullet hell title, and for what it's worth it may be one of the more interesting shmups I've ever played.

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.

Hyper Void (PS4)

In my twenty plus years as a gamer I've seen all kinds of shmups (shoot 'em ups) come to light. From the Atari 2600's "Yar's Revenge" (which basically amounted to clusters of tiny moving pixels) to the more complex, and intense bullet hell shooters of today the creations developers have designed have evolved in more diverse ways than what most video game genres can claim. I think the fact that shmups aren't the hardest thing to develop makes the interest in creating such games all the more attractive to developers thus making them an easy go to project, and one of the most plentiful of indie gaming experiences for gamers to purchase these days. I think the developers who grew up at the time I did when arcades were a hit, and such shooters were commonplace really connect with the genre on a personal level. Thankfully there are also gamers around who still love the high scoring challenges, and challenging nature that such games provide as well.

When it comes to Inframez' vision of a shoot 'em up I think it's safe to say that "Hyper Void" somewhat surpassed the visual hype that was the trailer, and at the same time kind of lived down the sickening graphics that most of you will be worried about. At the heart of the experience "Hyper Void" is a simple space saga in the making that will most likely be lost to the gamer due to the more binary terminology, and the way the story elements are presented in-game. Sure there is a story if you stop long enough to read it, but spamming the various shooting options, and control functions will often times cause you to skip the virtual panel pop-ups that house said information. Regardless of this fact the gameplay itself is a deeply involved "Wipeout" inspired gaming experience that will definitely test your mettle as a high scoring arcade game player, and try to impress you while doing so. The game is both simple in layout, easy to pick up on, and vastly complex in the way the visual environments are depicted. If you remember the wire frame computer graphics of the 80's arcade scene, and enjoyed that first introduction into the realm of 3D I think you might just enjoy 'Hyper Void' for it's visually heavy gameplay. Be warned though it does have the potential to cause seizures in those who have a family history of it. Thankfully the warning is one of the first things you'll see when the game starts up.

Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype & Last Chapter DLC (PS VITA)

Taking on it's own unique lore within a futuristic timeline of war ridden events, eastasiasoft's "Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype" aims to capture the audience's attention with hardcore Gradius style shoot 'em up action. If you are not familiar with Gradius, or the Soldner-X franchise they are two side scrolling score based shooters that basically have you piloting an upgradeable spaceship while blasting other enemy ships out of the sky amidst screen filling bullet hell spray. Unlike Gradius though, Soldner-X and it's "Final Prototype" follow-up features groundbreaking HD visuals in the form of rotating, and milti-layered moving background environments as well as eye catching ship designs that are anything, but generic. One thing in particular that sets the Soldner-X series apart from other side-scrolling shmups is the fact that the immersive audio soundtrack that accompanies it makes you feel as if you are a part of the action. In fact the female announcer this time around talks to you as if you are an actual Soldner-X pilot fighting the good fight in a universe being threatened by the oppressive D'aarg. There are plenty of bullets to dodge, and bosses to fight as you make your way through stage after stage racking up that high score while completing your mission as a designated Soldner-X fighter jet pilot. Just know that it will take some serious skill to make it to the top of the rankings, and some serious skill to also save the universe without losing all of your ship stock!

#KILLALLZOMBIES (PS4)

While shmups have been around in various forms over the years it wasn't until recently that indie developers began mixing different ideas into the genre. One of those ideas, which I love, took the zombie apocalypse, and mashed it up into a top-down military style shooter filled with bloody tidbits. While some of the provided indie zombie shmups were good others fell behind with their over simplistic designs. Some cost only a dollar to own, and were better than anyone could have hoped for while others cost a good bit more, and were piles of shite not worth the time of day. Recently while scouting the PSN store updates for review games I happened upon one of the soon to be released higher end zombie shmups which was created by a developer called Beatshapers. After having played a similar themed shmup earlier this year on the PS4 that had failed miserably I was a little skeptical. Thankfully that worry subsided once I began to play the game though. I think, in all honesty, that Beatshaper's zombie shooter is the penultimate zombie shmup. While it holds tight to traditional formulas it still does it's own thing, and does it exceptionally well.

Steel Empire (3DS)

Developed by Mebius, and published by Teyon this Japanese steam punk shmup (shoot'em up) known as "Steel Empire (originally Koutetsu Teikoku)" makes a triumphant return from it's former Sega Genesis, and Gameboy Advance glory days. Like any military based shmup you will find that 'Steel Empire' has in place groups of warring factions that each have conflicting goals. The factions this time around are grounded firmly in a science fiction world with fictitious steam punk empires that are trying to gain control of the airways. In this revamped version of the game you'll fly two different types of steam punk engineered aircraft including an eagle-like plane, and a small dirigible. Both aircraft are your empire's only saving grace. With them comes varying speeds, and attributes that will make the gameplay at hand a very different experience, and your goal an even more trying one.

Your ultimate goal, as a pilot in 'Steel Empire' is to traverse 7 side-scrolling stages filled with dangerous sci-fi terrains while blasting ships of various shapes, and sizes out of the sky. You'll have a set number of lives with which to complete the task, but 1ups, and health refills can be found to improve your odds of beating the game's campaign in a single playthrough. Along the way you'll find power-ups in the form of health refills, screen clearing electric-bombs, orbiting mini-dirigibles, and bullet hell enhancements. You'll be able to level up your aircraft of choice up to 20 times, and use that power to destroy the larger than life aircraft, and cargo carriers that aim to put an end to your mission.

Crimsonland (PS4)

Crimsonland, at the core is a minimalist's top-down twin stick shooter that incorporates creature carnage on a massive scale. The indie style shmup, which was developed by 10tons takes the simplistic controls of twin stick shooters, throws in hordes of relentless enemies in varying types, and gives the player just enough weapons, and power-ups to overcome the insurmountable odds before them. Within the game you'll find two main modes of play including, "Quests", and "Survival" in which you can test your skills, or your patience as a shoot 'em up master. By playing through all six chapters of "Quest" mode you will unlock perks, and weapons of different varieties which can then be used in the "Survival" modes that are to follow. PSN trophies are also obtainable during your main playthrough should you meet the set requirements to unlock them. As important as the quest completion is though you will find that Crimsonland's true value ultimately lies locked away in the various "Survival" modes that are unlocked through an initial 'Quest' mode playthrough.