Boring and tedious gameplay consists of long sequences of enemies spawning infinitely in the same fashion. Game speed is way too fast, had to slow it down somewhat to actually make it playable. Needlessly complicated controls. Power management between shields and missiles, while seems like a fresh idea, is poorly realised, as powerups don't replenish missiles, just shields. So in order to charge missiles, you need to lower shields, risking damage and death. Ship enhancement interface is incomprehensible. There are not that many of them and even then a big part of'em is downright useless. Ship enhancements are bought by excess powerups picked up when shields are full, so it's best to not use missiles at all to not waste powerups - simply anti-brilliant! Overall it seems to me like this game was made to only look fabulous on trailers. Too bad, because the audiovisual part is a real joy.
I saw this game getting tons of hyped reviews, so I took a shot at it, hoping for some fun in the mood of good'ole days. What I got instead was a game that wasn't just made to look retro. It's a game that literally was made in early nineties, along with all the deficiencies of technical shortcomings and gameplay annoyances. Navigation through the menu and control configuration requires some teeth clenching. Using limited color palette for the retro-look is one thing, but using sprite blinking for destructions just dilutes clarity. Enemies come at you fast in large numbers from angles your weapons don't readily cover, which results in death. Your basic weapon is ineffective. Other weapons work in ways that require you to change how you play the game, which makes them feel more like a downgrade than aid, and often ends with death. Generally gunplay feels overcomplicated and half-useless. Melee attacks seem to be much more effective at least against cannon fodder enemies, except when they not kick in, which equals death. There is considerable emphasis on forward-roll dodge, which is activated in the same way that dropping down a level works in many games, including this one. I'm not sure if this was a design overlook, or an awfully misguided conscious decision, but trying one often activates the other, leading to lot of stupid deaths. Let's couple it with touch-insta-death, atrocious level design, enemy sequences ranging from boring to clusterfυck, bosses with single-frame half-screen slashes, lack of checkpoints and general lack of balance and all of this boils down to needlessly unforgiving, unfair, hard gameplay, that's supposed to be fun, but instead is just frustrating and depressing. There is a difficulty setting, but don't get fooled. It doesn't change the game's difficulty at all, it just gives you more lives, so that the game can punish you longer and mop the floor with you even more. It's just borderline sadism which was banned by the Geneva Convention.
Pure honey. Gorgeous, SNESy-like, but way richer graphics buffed with smooth animations and deathly sick soundtrack to top an absolutely sweet gameplay with nicely weighted difficulty rise, that starts generously easy and becomes more challenging with each next level. A true masterpiece. Too bad it ends so quickly...
