Great retro graphics, but I'm not sure about the play mechanics. It's a bit easy. I played for about 5 minutes and didn't get hit once. Perhaps if you added bullets to dodge, limited ammo and special hit areas on each creature to up the strategy and challenge... A cool start though.
It's a very interesting twist that incorporates some older (Atari) era game elements. It's a very good start and has some great visual designs. Overall, while fun, it's a bit unbalanced. I didn't lose any ships by the fourth level my first time through. Also, the weapon power up with the meter decreases the fun a bit. Once the weapon is leveled up quite a bit it is impossible to hold down the button and be able to effectively do anything. A mid-range level is the ideal stopping point. My suggestion would be to not have the higher level weapons decreases the meter so quickly. One option would be take out 95% of the powerups. Perhaps, make them difficult to find or hard to earn. Great start and thanks for sharing.
I agree with some of the other comments regarding the difficulty being to easy. However, this is easily one of the best controlling top-down shmups I've ever played with a mouse. You did a terrific job on that, which is the backbone of a good game. I would love to see this revamped in the vein of 90s & beyond shmups (where the average player has a difficult time getting past the third stage) (e.g., Strikers 1945, Giga Wing, Gunbird, etc.). In addition some risk-reward bonus functions like those games have would be cool too. This isn't a criticism of what you do have. Instead I think the base of what you have could make one of the best online shmups out there. Either way, great job and thanks for sharing.
It's got some great stuff going for it, but right now there really isn't enough challenge or variety to keep one playing. It's a terrific start and I would love to see it expanded upon. My main suggestion is too rework it so there is a substantial challenge. That way it is so difficult, but fairly so, that most people won't play it long enough to be bothered by the lack of variety. (e.g., old school arcade games like Galaga or Tempest). Great work and thanks for sharing!
Hi, for some reason it's not remembering my in-game achievements. Is that intended? I finally got above 17% and when I came back the next day all of them were gone. Perhaps it's to make the game even more difficult? :)
First off, this is an amazing start. The shell of what you have built is one of the slickest browser-based shmups I've seen yet.
I agree with many of the comments on the balancing. The colors cycle too quickly for the weapon powerups. Many times I go for the red and end up getting the green even though only (seemingly) a second before it was blue. The weapons are unbalanced, as mentioned above. Perhaps making the red pulse going for 2 seconds bursts 1 second off, or something like that. The control is fairly smooth on my machine, but having that customizable would be nice. I've always like the option to hold down a key and then the ship moves pixel by pixel (slow movement, but not screen/enemy slowdown).
Thanks for posting and sharing your game.
This is a great start. One of the best balanced top-down shmups on Kongregate. I'd love to see updates and a sequel. Thanks for sharing it. My only concern is that the heat function for the main gun seems a bit odd, perhaps make a auto normal rate button that doesn't overheat the gun and an optional higher rate that can overheat the gun.
Would be great, but the shaking and blur really work against the genre. It really hurt my eyes after about a minute. Other than the presentation, you've done some really nice work!
I couldn't select or exit the first upgrade screen. Agree with the comments. Needs a mute button clearly available.
Still, it's a great start and I would love to see this polished up a bit.
Great start - I agree on upgrades to the control and sliding. One thing that would be nice is a combo score system. When a string of the arrows comes at you, a Galaga type bonus for hitting all in a row might add a nice challenge. Good job.
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oh yes, I remember the Amiga well.....68K machine-code, DPaint and weird gfx modes....halcyon days indeed!....and thanks for the vote of confidence.