I grinded basically an entire day to get a 1cc of this. Thank you neo-geo AI.

A very fun competitive shmup with cute visuals that is pretty much the granddaddy of the subgenre. Puzzle style mechanics are utilised well to create an addictive gameplay loop of racking up chains and timing your shots well enough to reflect your opponent's bullets back at them. That said, this is much more fun when played against other people because some of the things that make this game so fun for casual competition against other humans make it annoying to play against AI opponents.

queen memory kicked my ass until i kinda stopped paying attention and somehow won.

the bad:
the un-smash-able projectiles are really rude and uhh sometimes the sprites are hard to discern against the colorful backgrounds, especially when many things are flying around.

the good:
one of my favorite shmups for real. such a fun silly joyful game.

Edit: Who am i kidding this game is fucking awsome. 5 stars

It's a fun versus shmup, patience is rewarded as the goal is to destroy the bigger enemies which cause an explosion an then chain-kill the smaller enemies. This will send a projectile to the enemy, which can then be sent back to you by destroying it as an "enhanced"(faster/glowy) projectile and if you send this projectile back to your opponent, it will send a special attack which is different for each character.

The more you play, the more you start noticing the same patterns.

Each stage has different models for the monsters, different songs, backgrounds, etc. The music is very good, it has high-energy vibes.

There are some slowdowns when there is a lot happening on screen, it can actually be helpful to understand what's going on as there can be a lot on the screen at once.

The AI is weird. Sometimes it will dodge everything you throw at it in stage 1 and other times it will fail in stage 5 in the first 20 seconds. Your best bet is to try and do as many chain attacks as possible and survive for as long as possible, but the CPU can move faster than you so it can dodge stuff you can't. In the end, you get the feeling it all boils down to a little bit of luck.

I recommend this one. One run is around 20-30 minutes, beating it with every character took me around 7 hours.

Twelfth GOTW finished for 2024. Cool concept of mixing SHMUPS with a competitive match-puzzle game like Kirby's Avalanche. I got the basic idea behind the gameplay and the controls, but I beat the entire game and I'm STILL not sure I actually knew what I was doing. Pure chaos in the later levels, and that final boss was a massive difficulty spike that I feel like I only somehow scraped through. Neat idea, cute sprites and characters, just didn't gel with this one. Maybe it's better in multiplayer.

very unique shmup. i dont really play many games in this genre and i know this isnt the first game to do vs in this genre but its a cool idea and it makes for a cool competitive game. the characters all also play differently which is cool, i feel like a game like this i'd expect all of the characters to play the same but they all have unique attacks so character choice actually makes a difference. it also feels like there's a lot of moves you can make in this game with intent, like mashing the regular shot button vs using a charged shot, or holding on until theres a bunch of enemies on screen to chain a bunch of enemy kills together. i like that it feels a lot more intricate than just dodge and shoot and eventually you win. the only thing i think i dont really like that much that i noticed quickly is that i noticed the enemy patterns kept repeating over and over and it felt like the same one or two patterns. i wish there was a little more variance in that respect because it feels like it can get a little old that way. overall though, neat game, definitely check this out through fightcade and try to get some games with people if you can