Fast Striker is a Shoot-'Em-Up game, developed and published by NG:DEV.TEAM, which was released in Japan in 2012D arcade shooting game with emphasis on scoring originally developed for NEO·GEO. The game lets the player choose between 3 game modes with different scoring systems. Novice Mode for beginners, Original Mode for classic Shoot’ em Up players and Maniac for very experienced players. It features six stages of excellent 2D arcade game play with over 40 unique enemy types, super smooth 3D scrolling backgrounds, huge CGI bosses and it features the biggest megabit count ever since the beginning of NEO·GEO games0.
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I think it's the definition of an "ok shmup" -- has some fun stuff going for it, including surprisingly solid fundamentals, but gets dragged down by a million little annoyances.
Let's start with the good: the scoring system on Original mode is fun! It's a medal collectathon with a few twists--all enemies release tiny gold nuggets that increase your multiplier just a little; bigger enemies (when killed with missles) release larger ones that increase your multiplier a good amount; and each stage has a few secret triggers that turn all medals into little demon guys, which increase your multiplier by a lot. The incentive to kill big guys with focus shot for reward is tried and true, secrets are cool and not too difficult to uncover, and I think all of the bonus opportunities (destroying certain boss elements, keeping shields through the level, no-missing, etc.) are balanced decently well.
That and the aforementioned solid fundamentals (ship speed, fire rate and pace of the game all feel good) are where the positives end.
I'm not going to dwell too much on negatives because, frankly, it's death by 1000 cuts here as opposed to a few fatal flaws... but for a few examples: stage backgrounds often have a design that implies a physically restrictive hallway when there actually isn't one; certain objects have allowable collision that you just kinda have to figure out by trial and error; enemies shoot obscenely annoying, super-fast revenge bullets at high rank that destroy the any sense of flow or stage design; and certain levels present spams of collision dangers and bullet spewing enemies simultaneously in vomitous fashion.
I don't think a small team like this should have attempted an STG with not 1, not 2, not 3, but *4* different game modes, each with their own unique scoring structures. Just focus on a single one and do it well! Iron out every wrinkle! This is such a detail-oriented genre, and enthusiasts crave entries that are an inch wide but miles deep quite a lot more than the alternative. Feel like if they funneled all the dev and testing time into Original it could've been actually really great.
Let's start with the good: the scoring system on Original mode is fun! It's a medal collectathon with a few twists--all enemies release tiny gold nuggets that increase your multiplier just a little; bigger enemies (when killed with missles) release larger ones that increase your multiplier a good amount; and each stage has a few secret triggers that turn all medals into little demon guys, which increase your multiplier by a lot. The incentive to kill big guys with focus shot for reward is tried and true, secrets are cool and not too difficult to uncover, and I think all of the bonus opportunities (destroying certain boss elements, keeping shields through the level, no-missing, etc.) are balanced decently well.
That and the aforementioned solid fundamentals (ship speed, fire rate and pace of the game all feel good) are where the positives end.
I'm not going to dwell too much on negatives because, frankly, it's death by 1000 cuts here as opposed to a few fatal flaws... but for a few examples: stage backgrounds often have a design that implies a physically restrictive hallway when there actually isn't one; certain objects have allowable collision that you just kinda have to figure out by trial and error; enemies shoot obscenely annoying, super-fast revenge bullets at high rank that destroy the any sense of flow or stage design; and certain levels present spams of collision dangers and bullet spewing enemies simultaneously in vomitous fashion.
I don't think a small team like this should have attempted an STG with not 1, not 2, not 3, but *4* different game modes, each with their own unique scoring structures. Just focus on a single one and do it well! Iron out every wrinkle! This is such a detail-oriented genre, and enthusiasts crave entries that are an inch wide but miles deep quite a lot more than the alternative. Feel like if they funneled all the dev and testing time into Original it could've been actually really great.