Nachy
Throwback survival horror can be tricky to pull off. A lot of attempts end up missing the point of what makes older titles engaging, where a lot just throw in a pixelated filter, low polygon models, fixed camera angles and call it “inspired by classics such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill” and end up just feeling like a half-hearted attempt at it, with visuals that feel genuinely worse than any game from that period and gameplay that feels similar to contemporary dime-a-dozen asset flips.
Which makes Kwaidan a standout, for better and worse, as it genuinely feels like a survival horror game that came from the early 2000s, alongside the associated charms, warts and all.
Before diving into Kwaidan, the player is given the option to select either ‘Origin mode’ or ‘Modern mode’. ‘Origin mode’ uses tank controls with a keyboard and mouse, whereas ‘Modern mode’ uses direct controls with a gamepad. An odd quirk that’s tied to each mode is the visual style, where ‘Origin mode’ has a clean look and ‘Modern mode’ uses cel-shading. Both modes look fine visually, but it’s a weird choice to tie these styles to a given control method.
Both control methods work well enough, but I personally prefer the ‘Origin mode’ as I feel like the tank controls and use of mouse for the inventory and exploration works better for the overall experience. Although I will admit ‘Modern mode’ can feel a bit more fluid in some combat scenarios. Either option will also take some time to get used to, as there is a bit of jank to consider, but thankfully you only need to take note straightforward concepts with movement, weapon switching, quick turning and blocking.
The game wastes no time in throwing the player into actual gameplay. At the start, a brief tutorial serves to familiarize the player with its movement and combat mechanics, and immediately starts the player off with a boss fight. This kind of first impression also serves as an indicator of how the game is paced throughout.
The combat mechanics themselves are rather straightforward, but feels unique for a survival horror game. It’s a mostly melee focused system, but not exactly in an action hack-and-slash fashion. You have three options to cycle through on the fly. You have a regular attack that hits opponent in the middle about your height with the naginata, a mirror amulet that serves as an aerial attack for enemies above you, and a magatama which explodes with a small area of effect, which is primarily for enemies that your naginata can’t reach but can also serve well for crowd control. The latter two options consume ‘magic’ which you can replenish by killing enemies and blocking attacks.
The combat emphasizes positioning and timing, where you learn how each enemy moves and attacks. It’s rare to find yourself in a position that you can’t fight off enemies, as they all go down in one to two hits. It feels pretty good as well to master how the combat works and familiarize yourself with how each enemy works. This then extends to how resource management works. You only have two types of consumables, which is a healing item and an item that allows you to save or upgrade your weapons.
Saving works by using save amulets on shrines. Healing items are one-time use and heal about 40% of your health. The way these all works create the tension on how you approach combat, as while you never really run out of options to dispatch enemies, your character is completely vulnerable with limited ways to recover. Aggression is often punished and you have to take a patient approach on even the simplest enemy or else risk losing a bit of health that can set you back in the long term.
The game does balance resource distribution well enough, where you won’t have an abundance to just steamroll through everything, but you aren’t exactly starved off either to the point of frustration.
On top of the consumable healing items, there are a few spots that the player can eat or drink from a single time, which is a nice touch as well in giving an incentive to explore environmental backdrops.
The majority of the game takes place in the titular Azuma Manor, and it is quite a nice set piece to explore. There’s no space wasted, with each area serving a purpose, even if it isn’t obvious during the first encounter. Backtracking is also made less painful as you progress, you’ll uncover new shortcuts that interconnect parts of the manor even more.
All of this is further enhanced with the overall presentation. The visuals do feel like a game that’s trying its best to look good with early 2000s technological limitations, while having a few liberties here and there that further serves its purpose to enrich the visuals. On top of that, the game has a nice mix of piano and electronic music that serves the atmosphere and mood quite well.
The enemy designs themselves are all distinct, with animations and looks that look good and help in recognizing them on the fly during tense combat scenarios.
The boss fights themselves are neat, nothing amazing but they serve a good purpose of looking intimidating at first especially with how your character controls, but figuring out how their attack patterns work which encourages more on careful observation rather than just brute force.
Puzzle solving is also mostly straightforward, and a couple challenging ones that may require taking physical notes or screenshots. They aren’t too ridiculous and are fun to solve, but it actually would have been nice to have an option in-game to review what you found. It can be argued this serves to further enhance that ‘throwback feel’ where some games forced the player to actually whip out a pencil and paper to map things out themselves, but I feel like it just adds unnecessary tedium.
Speaking of tedium, without spoiling too much details, the game unfortunately loses some steam during the final stretch. You go through a new area which is a lot more boring visually compared to the manor, and it’s filled with some really frustrating moments. Enemies can just spawn suddenly near you and you have to keep in mind to block.
One moment in particular that stood out like a sore thumb is a part where you have to backtrack to somewhere while having no option to run or attack. All of this with enemies still chasing you and a timed obstacle you have to avoid. It’s not a deal breaker but considering how well paced the previous section was, it really stands out in a negative way.
You’re also forced to fight the previous two bosses again before the final boss, but this time with more health and enemies spawn alongside. This is less challenging and more on just making the same fights drag on longer. Which is pretty bad since the interesting part about these bosses are more on figuring out the safest approach how to damage them rather than repeating it numerous times.
At the very least the final boss is a bit creative, if somewhat a bit long as well. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but once you figure it out it feels satisfying to do so. My only complaint is that it really could had its health lowered a bit and would have helped it flow better without losing its challenge.
In the end, despite lacking some polish and the noticeable flaws towards the final hour of the game, I still enjoyed playing through Kwaidan. It’s impressive how this is all made by a solo developer, and I think he managed to succeed in capturing the spirit of a classic survival horror game, even if it doesn’t exactly land on all of its ideas. There's a lot of charm to the presentation and atmosphere, and the largest chunk of the game is thankfully spent during its best parts.
If you’re a fan of said classic survival horror, and you have the patience for some jank, I definitely recommend giving Kwaidan a go.
Which makes Kwaidan a standout, for better and worse, as it genuinely feels like a survival horror game that came from the early 2000s, alongside the associated charms, warts and all.
Before diving into Kwaidan, the player is given the option to select either ‘Origin mode’ or ‘Modern mode’. ‘Origin mode’ uses tank controls with a keyboard and mouse, whereas ‘Modern mode’ uses direct controls with a gamepad. An odd quirk that’s tied to each mode is the visual style, where ‘Origin mode’ has a clean look and ‘Modern mode’ uses cel-shading. Both modes look fine visually, but it’s a weird choice to tie these styles to a given control method.
Both control methods work well enough, but I personally prefer the ‘Origin mode’ as I feel like the tank controls and use of mouse for the inventory and exploration works better for the overall experience. Although I will admit ‘Modern mode’ can feel a bit more fluid in some combat scenarios. Either option will also take some time to get used to, as there is a bit of jank to consider, but thankfully you only need to take note straightforward concepts with movement, weapon switching, quick turning and blocking.
The game wastes no time in throwing the player into actual gameplay. At the start, a brief tutorial serves to familiarize the player with its movement and combat mechanics, and immediately starts the player off with a boss fight. This kind of first impression also serves as an indicator of how the game is paced throughout.
The combat mechanics themselves are rather straightforward, but feels unique for a survival horror game. It’s a mostly melee focused system, but not exactly in an action hack-and-slash fashion. You have three options to cycle through on the fly. You have a regular attack that hits opponent in the middle about your height with the naginata, a mirror amulet that serves as an aerial attack for enemies above you, and a magatama which explodes with a small area of effect, which is primarily for enemies that your naginata can’t reach but can also serve well for crowd control. The latter two options consume ‘magic’ which you can replenish by killing enemies and blocking attacks.
The combat emphasizes positioning and timing, where you learn how each enemy moves and attacks. It’s rare to find yourself in a position that you can’t fight off enemies, as they all go down in one to two hits. It feels pretty good as well to master how the combat works and familiarize yourself with how each enemy works. This then extends to how resource management works. You only have two types of consumables, which is a healing item and an item that allows you to save or upgrade your weapons.
Saving works by using save amulets on shrines. Healing items are one-time use and heal about 40% of your health. The way these all works create the tension on how you approach combat, as while you never really run out of options to dispatch enemies, your character is completely vulnerable with limited ways to recover. Aggression is often punished and you have to take a patient approach on even the simplest enemy or else risk losing a bit of health that can set you back in the long term.
The game does balance resource distribution well enough, where you won’t have an abundance to just steamroll through everything, but you aren’t exactly starved off either to the point of frustration.
On top of the consumable healing items, there are a few spots that the player can eat or drink from a single time, which is a nice touch as well in giving an incentive to explore environmental backdrops.
The majority of the game takes place in the titular Azuma Manor, and it is quite a nice set piece to explore. There’s no space wasted, with each area serving a purpose, even if it isn’t obvious during the first encounter. Backtracking is also made less painful as you progress, you’ll uncover new shortcuts that interconnect parts of the manor even more.
All of this is further enhanced with the overall presentation. The visuals do feel like a game that’s trying its best to look good with early 2000s technological limitations, while having a few liberties here and there that further serves its purpose to enrich the visuals. On top of that, the game has a nice mix of piano and electronic music that serves the atmosphere and mood quite well.
The enemy designs themselves are all distinct, with animations and looks that look good and help in recognizing them on the fly during tense combat scenarios.
The boss fights themselves are neat, nothing amazing but they serve a good purpose of looking intimidating at first especially with how your character controls, but figuring out how their attack patterns work which encourages more on careful observation rather than just brute force.
Puzzle solving is also mostly straightforward, and a couple challenging ones that may require taking physical notes or screenshots. They aren’t too ridiculous and are fun to solve, but it actually would have been nice to have an option in-game to review what you found. It can be argued this serves to further enhance that ‘throwback feel’ where some games forced the player to actually whip out a pencil and paper to map things out themselves, but I feel like it just adds unnecessary tedium.
Speaking of tedium, without spoiling too much details, the game unfortunately loses some steam during the final stretch. You go through a new area which is a lot more boring visually compared to the manor, and it’s filled with some really frustrating moments. Enemies can just spawn suddenly near you and you have to keep in mind to block.
One moment in particular that stood out like a sore thumb is a part where you have to backtrack to somewhere while having no option to run or attack. All of this with enemies still chasing you and a timed obstacle you have to avoid. It’s not a deal breaker but considering how well paced the previous section was, it really stands out in a negative way.
You’re also forced to fight the previous two bosses again before the final boss, but this time with more health and enemies spawn alongside. This is less challenging and more on just making the same fights drag on longer. Which is pretty bad since the interesting part about these bosses are more on figuring out the safest approach how to damage them rather than repeating it numerous times.
At the very least the final boss is a bit creative, if somewhat a bit long as well. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but once you figure it out it feels satisfying to do so. My only complaint is that it really could had its health lowered a bit and would have helped it flow better without losing its challenge.
In the end, despite lacking some polish and the noticeable flaws towards the final hour of the game, I still enjoyed playing through Kwaidan. It’s impressive how this is all made by a solo developer, and I think he managed to succeed in capturing the spirit of a classic survival horror game, even if it doesn’t exactly land on all of its ideas. There's a lot of charm to the presentation and atmosphere, and the largest chunk of the game is thankfully spent during its best parts.
If you’re a fan of said classic survival horror, and you have the patience for some jank, I definitely recommend giving Kwaidan a go.
1989
Fire Shark at its surface seems like a typical shmup from the late 80s. You got your WW2-esque military presentation that was common at the time, intensified with a kicking soundtrack and nice visuals to wrap around its straightforward core gameplay of piloting a biplane that goes down in one hit, but with the ability to collect various powerups and speed boosts to even the odds against the enemy forces.
If you're playing either the localized or home console Mega Drive release, then that is what you mostly get, a fun little shmup with a decent variety of enemies and stages with just a dash of jank that was to be expected of hardware limitations at the time.
What makes Fire Shark special however is its original Japanese arcade release from March 1987, named with the more energetic title 'Same! Same! Same!' which translates to 'Shark! Shark! Shark!'.
(Moving forward as well, I'll refer to the game as Same x3 to differentiate it from the Mega Drive and localized release Fire Shark).
Arcades were putting pressure on developers to create games that would keep the credits coming, which of course translates to designing games with nearly unfair difficulty balance and other kinds of bullshit. This resulted in Same x3's developer Toaplan ditching their intended balanced difficulty and having the arcade release start at a later loop which meant everything is amplified and harder by default.
Now it's easy to dismiss this game as well of just being another game during an era where games were designed with high difficulty to compensate for their usually short runtime. But Same x3 just somehow manages to strike a balance between complete bullshit and genuine challenge and ends up creating a strangely compelling game.
To start things off, Same x3's original arcade release uses a checkpoint system, whereupon death you're reset into an earlier part of the stage and with all your powerups and speed boosts stripped out, similar to other shmups like Gradius and R-Type. This of course makes recovery a challenge, and a large potential of chain deaths can immediately end runs. Even if you use a credit to continue, you're still faced with the same dilemma of being put into a bad checkpoint where it's just frustrating to climb back up from.
If that wasn't scary enough, powerups and speed boosts are all deliberately programmed to move randomly, inviting you to potential scenarios where you can collide head-on with a stray bullet.
The game even limits the amount of bullets that can come out from your ship, whether you're using autofire or tapping like a maniac. What this means is if you go over the maximum shot limit, you'll create gaps between your curtain of bullets that will create blind spots that enemies can potentially slip through and survive long enough to hit a surprise bullet at you point blank.
Then you also have large hitboxes, where it feels like your entire plane's sprite is vulnerable to any sort of projectile, on top of that, your bombs don't even give you the luxury of invincibility periods, on top of having a delay before they explode.
Enemy bullets are also notoriously fast despite their low density. If that wasn't evil enough, enemies as well can fire at you even before or after they appear from the screen. Expect to get sniped by a tank that just left the screen a few frames ago.
All this with 10 stages to boot, which can easily take upwards of 40 minutes in total for just a single loop clear. Finally, if you die, you don't even die immediately, as your plane goes up in flames first as you flail around and at least try to shoot down the same enemy that shot you down first, which while it gives you an opportunity for one last revenge hit, also rubs in your own mistake.
Despite all of this sounding like a recipe for just pure frustration, there's still a lot of the core gameplay mechanics that make Same x3 shine and still have a completely routable game that can be finished under a single life.
Bombs may not give invincibility, but they are powerful and will clear everything on the screen and some even above it. This encourages deliberate and strategic bombing in advance for certain parts of the stages to minimize risk for the player. Balancing this part however is that bombs in stock create a large multiplier for the player's score, and more score means more lives which means further chances of clearing the game. The player is then given a choice whether to stockpile bombs and take the risk for more lives later or spend their bombs and try to wing it towards the next stage.
You also have a few powerups to pick and choose from. The one you want to avoid is the awful green powerup that gives you a green linear shot (which is also completely common and stays onscreen the longest). The ones you want to stick to is the default blue wide spread shot and the red flamethrower shot that fires a consistent linear line and more power-upped versions provide side options that widely moves left and right (which is the only rapid-fire shot in the game you can hold without the tapping rapidly or using autofire). The latter two have their specific uses, and players who optimize their routes may try to deliberately switch between the two depending on the stage and part of the stage.
Despite the sheer brutality of the game, each stage is designed in a distinct and varied manner, with enemies having unique formations and patterns either on the ground or in the air, which creates interesting and memorable parts that not only complements the game's charm but helps in memorizing routes and strategies better due to how well defined they are. Stages also take place in different environments which are appreciated in giving personality even more throughout its large 10-stage set.
The game gets more thrilling and enjoyable as you get further with full powerups, as one mistake can mean a large setback in not only retreating to an earlier part of a stage but also recovering from your powerful state. This then extends to the satisfaction of completing the game even with continues, as the checkpoint system still provides a genuine point of difficulty that you can't credit feed yourself out from.
Going back to the game's presentation, it really looks good for a game of its time, where despite its typical military aesthetics, the background and enemy designs look good with an attractive color palette that manages to pop, alongside some nice animated effects for surfaces such as water. There are even cute little sprites of people whenever you land at hangers at the end of the stage. All of this is coupled with some of Toaplan's catchiest tunes.
Overall it does feel like a testament to the developer's core design that despite its deliberate frustrating difficulty, it still manages to put out one hell of a shmup that's unique with its own kind of challenge.
I can't easily recommend Same x3 to everyone, as it is a real test of patience and dedication, but to those who seek a humbling and interesting experience, it's worth at least a bit of your time just so you can experience the crazy allure of it all yourself.
If you're playing either the localized or home console Mega Drive release, then that is what you mostly get, a fun little shmup with a decent variety of enemies and stages with just a dash of jank that was to be expected of hardware limitations at the time.
What makes Fire Shark special however is its original Japanese arcade release from March 1987, named with the more energetic title 'Same! Same! Same!' which translates to 'Shark! Shark! Shark!'.
(Moving forward as well, I'll refer to the game as Same x3 to differentiate it from the Mega Drive and localized release Fire Shark).
Arcades were putting pressure on developers to create games that would keep the credits coming, which of course translates to designing games with nearly unfair difficulty balance and other kinds of bullshit. This resulted in Same x3's developer Toaplan ditching their intended balanced difficulty and having the arcade release start at a later loop which meant everything is amplified and harder by default.
Now it's easy to dismiss this game as well of just being another game during an era where games were designed with high difficulty to compensate for their usually short runtime. But Same x3 just somehow manages to strike a balance between complete bullshit and genuine challenge and ends up creating a strangely compelling game.
To start things off, Same x3's original arcade release uses a checkpoint system, whereupon death you're reset into an earlier part of the stage and with all your powerups and speed boosts stripped out, similar to other shmups like Gradius and R-Type. This of course makes recovery a challenge, and a large potential of chain deaths can immediately end runs. Even if you use a credit to continue, you're still faced with the same dilemma of being put into a bad checkpoint where it's just frustrating to climb back up from.
If that wasn't scary enough, powerups and speed boosts are all deliberately programmed to move randomly, inviting you to potential scenarios where you can collide head-on with a stray bullet.
The game even limits the amount of bullets that can come out from your ship, whether you're using autofire or tapping like a maniac. What this means is if you go over the maximum shot limit, you'll create gaps between your curtain of bullets that will create blind spots that enemies can potentially slip through and survive long enough to hit a surprise bullet at you point blank.
Then you also have large hitboxes, where it feels like your entire plane's sprite is vulnerable to any sort of projectile, on top of that, your bombs don't even give you the luxury of invincibility periods, on top of having a delay before they explode.
Enemy bullets are also notoriously fast despite their low density. If that wasn't evil enough, enemies as well can fire at you even before or after they appear from the screen. Expect to get sniped by a tank that just left the screen a few frames ago.
All this with 10 stages to boot, which can easily take upwards of 40 minutes in total for just a single loop clear. Finally, if you die, you don't even die immediately, as your plane goes up in flames first as you flail around and at least try to shoot down the same enemy that shot you down first, which while it gives you an opportunity for one last revenge hit, also rubs in your own mistake.
Despite all of this sounding like a recipe for just pure frustration, there's still a lot of the core gameplay mechanics that make Same x3 shine and still have a completely routable game that can be finished under a single life.
Bombs may not give invincibility, but they are powerful and will clear everything on the screen and some even above it. This encourages deliberate and strategic bombing in advance for certain parts of the stages to minimize risk for the player. Balancing this part however is that bombs in stock create a large multiplier for the player's score, and more score means more lives which means further chances of clearing the game. The player is then given a choice whether to stockpile bombs and take the risk for more lives later or spend their bombs and try to wing it towards the next stage.
You also have a few powerups to pick and choose from. The one you want to avoid is the awful green powerup that gives you a green linear shot (which is also completely common and stays onscreen the longest). The ones you want to stick to is the default blue wide spread shot and the red flamethrower shot that fires a consistent linear line and more power-upped versions provide side options that widely moves left and right (which is the only rapid-fire shot in the game you can hold without the tapping rapidly or using autofire). The latter two have their specific uses, and players who optimize their routes may try to deliberately switch between the two depending on the stage and part of the stage.
Despite the sheer brutality of the game, each stage is designed in a distinct and varied manner, with enemies having unique formations and patterns either on the ground or in the air, which creates interesting and memorable parts that not only complements the game's charm but helps in memorizing routes and strategies better due to how well defined they are. Stages also take place in different environments which are appreciated in giving personality even more throughout its large 10-stage set.
The game gets more thrilling and enjoyable as you get further with full powerups, as one mistake can mean a large setback in not only retreating to an earlier part of a stage but also recovering from your powerful state. This then extends to the satisfaction of completing the game even with continues, as the checkpoint system still provides a genuine point of difficulty that you can't credit feed yourself out from.
Going back to the game's presentation, it really looks good for a game of its time, where despite its typical military aesthetics, the background and enemy designs look good with an attractive color palette that manages to pop, alongside some nice animated effects for surfaces such as water. There are even cute little sprites of people whenever you land at hangers at the end of the stage. All of this is coupled with some of Toaplan's catchiest tunes.
Overall it does feel like a testament to the developer's core design that despite its deliberate frustrating difficulty, it still manages to put out one hell of a shmup that's unique with its own kind of challenge.
I can't easily recommend Same x3 to everyone, as it is a real test of patience and dedication, but to those who seek a humbling and interesting experience, it's worth at least a bit of your time just so you can experience the crazy allure of it all yourself.
2017
Pretty damn awesome! Intense shmup bullet hell in the form of a twin-stick shooter, Nex Machina is pure arcade fun that delivers a challenging and solid experience, alongside a nice set of extra incentives to go back to.
Controls are smooth and tight, whether you're playing on a gamepad or a keyboard and mouse. Moving around feels highly responsive, which makes it ideal for the game only giving you a single health point alongside the challenging enemies and bullet patterns you have to face throughout the game.
The basic tools in your arsenal come in the form of a rapid-firing gun and a dash. Your main gun can be upgraded with extended damage range and bullet spreads through pickups located in various boxes throughout the levels, as well as random spawns. Dashing allows you to phase through most enemies and projectiles, save for a select few special types. Dashing is under a cooldown, meaning good timing and quick thinking is required to make the best use of it in avoiding enemies.
You also have a secondary weapon that can be picked up throughout levels as well. Each secondary weapon has a different style of firing and projectile alongside varying cooldown periods. They're not only all unique to each other, but also are all viable which gives room for freedom in your playstyle.
There's the Sword which is a one-hit kill for enemies and can also destroy projectiles within a close-range arc in front of your character, coupled with an extremely short cooldown.
The Laser provides longer sustained damage while slowing you down, ideal for a long row of enemies or dense groups and durable enemies. The slowdown also helps in finer movements during heavier bullet patterns.
The Smart Bomb explodes around you killing enemies and destroying projectiles within a small circular area.
The Power Shot is like a railgun that charges up for a couple of seconds and penetrates through enemies in its direction, alongside a small blastwave in front of your character.
Finally, the Detonator, which is a ranged bomb that can phase through enemies and be detonated at any time.
They all feel great to use, with some working better for certain situations, which also provides another layer of challenge in which the player has to memorize and decide what is the best secondary weapon to pick up and use for the next encounter.
On top of the upgrades for your main weapon and secondary pickups, you also have powerups that give you the ability to dash three times before the cooldown kicks in, as well as an explosive effect that damages enemies where you dashed from. Finally, you also have a shield that can give you an additional health point regardless of the enemy or projectile that hits you.
The game runs on a lives and continues system, similar to most shmups. You have a maximum of five lives and differing amounts of continues depending on the difficulty level. Anytime you die, the level fully resets to its original state, alongside the loss of one of your powerups or secondary weapons. You have the opportunity to pick up what you dropped on the subsequent life, but it will disappear if you die again before picking it back up. And when you use a continue, everything resets to your default state.
This provides another layer of challenge that encourages the player to play well to be more effective as each level goes. Because if you don't come equipped with most powerups and a secondary weapon, it becomes tremendously challenging to do recovery and fight through the later levels, especially the boss fights.
While this does mean dying during boss fights can create a rather harsh experience, this element provides an incentive to keep the momentum going and encourage mastery of the game's mechanics and levels.
There are a total of six worlds, with each world containing different levels and a boss. Alongside are secret levels that can be unlocked by shooting hidden arcade cabinets. On top of that, there are hidden enemy types, beacons, and humans to rescue.
The humans in particular are also a major element in the scoring system. Each human rescued adds a timed multiplier to your scores. The way they're laid out on each level gives the player a challenge in finding the best routes and timing their movements alongside dealing with enemies. Especially since each human can die at the hands of the enemies.
Overall, all these systems create a pretty exciting gameplay loop, where everything is chaotic on-screen and pulling off feats at the last second through skill and luck.
Coupled with the systems are the great enemy designs and beautiful bullet patterns from the boss fights. All are distinct from each other and are pretty fun to go up against, with each requiring a decent amount of memorization and planning to overcome efficiently.
Alongside the fun gameplay, the game is presented with nice visuals that are filled to the brim with satisfying particle effects, and varied environments that keep the game looking fresh through each world.
Topping off its nice presentation is an energetic electronic-synth soundtrack that fits the game's setting and gameplay rather well.
After you finish the main Arcade Mode, you also have a set of challenges through the Online Arena that provides unique conditions and challenges for familiar levels. Not only do you have a leaderboard to compete for higher ranks and scores with, but you also earn points that can unlock various cosmetics for your character. With various difficulty levels and unlocks, Nex Machina offers quite a lot to incentivize replays.
All in all, Nex Machina offers a very enjoyable experience for fans of arcade shmups and twin-stick shooters alike thanks to its well-put-together design and frantically fun gameplay that provides a lot of close-call moments.
Controls are smooth and tight, whether you're playing on a gamepad or a keyboard and mouse. Moving around feels highly responsive, which makes it ideal for the game only giving you a single health point alongside the challenging enemies and bullet patterns you have to face throughout the game.
The basic tools in your arsenal come in the form of a rapid-firing gun and a dash. Your main gun can be upgraded with extended damage range and bullet spreads through pickups located in various boxes throughout the levels, as well as random spawns. Dashing allows you to phase through most enemies and projectiles, save for a select few special types. Dashing is under a cooldown, meaning good timing and quick thinking is required to make the best use of it in avoiding enemies.
You also have a secondary weapon that can be picked up throughout levels as well. Each secondary weapon has a different style of firing and projectile alongside varying cooldown periods. They're not only all unique to each other, but also are all viable which gives room for freedom in your playstyle.
There's the Sword which is a one-hit kill for enemies and can also destroy projectiles within a close-range arc in front of your character, coupled with an extremely short cooldown.
The Laser provides longer sustained damage while slowing you down, ideal for a long row of enemies or dense groups and durable enemies. The slowdown also helps in finer movements during heavier bullet patterns.
The Smart Bomb explodes around you killing enemies and destroying projectiles within a small circular area.
The Power Shot is like a railgun that charges up for a couple of seconds and penetrates through enemies in its direction, alongside a small blastwave in front of your character.
Finally, the Detonator, which is a ranged bomb that can phase through enemies and be detonated at any time.
They all feel great to use, with some working better for certain situations, which also provides another layer of challenge in which the player has to memorize and decide what is the best secondary weapon to pick up and use for the next encounter.
On top of the upgrades for your main weapon and secondary pickups, you also have powerups that give you the ability to dash three times before the cooldown kicks in, as well as an explosive effect that damages enemies where you dashed from. Finally, you also have a shield that can give you an additional health point regardless of the enemy or projectile that hits you.
The game runs on a lives and continues system, similar to most shmups. You have a maximum of five lives and differing amounts of continues depending on the difficulty level. Anytime you die, the level fully resets to its original state, alongside the loss of one of your powerups or secondary weapons. You have the opportunity to pick up what you dropped on the subsequent life, but it will disappear if you die again before picking it back up. And when you use a continue, everything resets to your default state.
This provides another layer of challenge that encourages the player to play well to be more effective as each level goes. Because if you don't come equipped with most powerups and a secondary weapon, it becomes tremendously challenging to do recovery and fight through the later levels, especially the boss fights.
While this does mean dying during boss fights can create a rather harsh experience, this element provides an incentive to keep the momentum going and encourage mastery of the game's mechanics and levels.
There are a total of six worlds, with each world containing different levels and a boss. Alongside are secret levels that can be unlocked by shooting hidden arcade cabinets. On top of that, there are hidden enemy types, beacons, and humans to rescue.
The humans in particular are also a major element in the scoring system. Each human rescued adds a timed multiplier to your scores. The way they're laid out on each level gives the player a challenge in finding the best routes and timing their movements alongside dealing with enemies. Especially since each human can die at the hands of the enemies.
Overall, all these systems create a pretty exciting gameplay loop, where everything is chaotic on-screen and pulling off feats at the last second through skill and luck.
Coupled with the systems are the great enemy designs and beautiful bullet patterns from the boss fights. All are distinct from each other and are pretty fun to go up against, with each requiring a decent amount of memorization and planning to overcome efficiently.
Alongside the fun gameplay, the game is presented with nice visuals that are filled to the brim with satisfying particle effects, and varied environments that keep the game looking fresh through each world.
Topping off its nice presentation is an energetic electronic-synth soundtrack that fits the game's setting and gameplay rather well.
After you finish the main Arcade Mode, you also have a set of challenges through the Online Arena that provides unique conditions and challenges for familiar levels. Not only do you have a leaderboard to compete for higher ranks and scores with, but you also earn points that can unlock various cosmetics for your character. With various difficulty levels and unlocks, Nex Machina offers quite a lot to incentivize replays.
All in all, Nex Machina offers a very enjoyable experience for fans of arcade shmups and twin-stick shooters alike thanks to its well-put-together design and frantically fun gameplay that provides a lot of close-call moments.
2013
This game is a special kind of awful for me due to it being the first game I immediately uninstalled after finishing its campaign (or rather something that barely resembles a campaign). I recently played it again to reevaluate and see if I was too harsh on it initially, and I ended up just hating it more.
I was looking forward to Takedown: Red Sabre at the time due to it being showcased as a tactical shooter in the vein of SWAT and Rainbow Six, which are a series of games I enjoyed playing, which also belongs to a sub-genre of shooters that were increasingly becoming more niche during the period of release of this game.
Even the latest Rainbow Six games during that period were Vegas 1 & 2, a more Gears of War-Esque action shooter with less emphasis on planning, and more on cover-based shooting. I had a lot of fun with these games too but they weren't exactly tactical shooters in the same way their predecessors were.
Takedown: Red Sabre is also one of the earliest examples of a crowdfunded game that was successfully funded on Kickstarter. It raised over $200k, and its promised release date was only late by three months. Which in hindsight, was probably better off being delayed further, if not indefinitely. I didn't back the project myself but I can only imagine how even more disappointed its backers were.
Onto the game itself, it starts promising enough, albeit barebones. You have an option to choose your loadout, which includes weapons, equipment, and armor type. Nothing complex but serviceable enough to give an impression of having a variety of approaches for each mission.
You can then choose between Mission, Tango Hunt, and Bomb Disarm. Tango Hunt is a straightforward mode where you eliminate all hostiles in any chosen map, whereas Bomb Disarm has you get to specific points in the map and disarm all bombs.
Mission Mode is the campaign mode of the game, where you can go through two different training missions and five different main missions each with differing objectives.
All in all, a decent enough variety even if somewhat lacking in quantity. The first red flag however is after choosing any of the modes and then realizing you don't have many options for your AI squad other than to turn them on or off individually. There are labels for squads Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, on which you'd be forgiven to think it implies three different squads. What it actually does however is that it's the option of individual characters that would be available in the mission.
That's right, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie are individuals, which means they're simply options if you want to play completely solo or have one or two accompanying squad members.
This isn't all too bad still, if somewhat disappointing since there's still a lot of potential for tactical approaches with a group of three.
Then you get to the actual gameplay. Right off the bat, there are no options to command your squad members, they only follow you and barely have any form of AI. I could forgive the lack of a planning phase, but just having straight up no options for your squad severely limits your options further, and pretty much eliminates the notion of this being a tactical shooter.
I proceeded further in this game with an open mind, thinking perhaps the solo experience would still be an intense shooter where the gunplay, mechanics, and map layouts would provide enough of a worthwhile experience.
None of those were present. The movement feels incredibly stiff and slow. If I were to describe it further, it feels like something is stuck between the buttons of your keyboard or controller and each press feels like there's a half a second delay before it actually registers. The speed of movement as well is absurdly slow, that if you were to encounter the player characters in reality, you'd be able to get away from them by walking at a regular pace and then turning towards a 45-degree angle.
This horrible movement then creates a domino effect on everything else terrible about the game. Enemies are placed on random spots in the map, with basic patrol waypoints or static in a single position. Random elements are fine in creating an interesting and replayable experience but with the nature of the game's quality, it only serves further to create a frustrating experience.
Enemies have laser-focused accuracy, and it only takes a few shots, sometimes even a single one to kill you. This is regardless of your chosen armor type as well, on which the differences between heavy and light or minuscule both in the amount of protection they provide or the difference in movement speed.
The game provides players the ability to lean, which somehow manages to be hardly useful as even having a centimeter of your character exposed is enough for an enemy to get a shot on you.
You're pretty much at the mercy of luck and being able to catch an enemy first within your sights before they do. You then also realize the true purpose of having two other members of your squad, intentionally or not, where they actually function as a sort of 'lives system' since when you get killed, you take control of the next member.
But even treating it like that, it fails to properly function as a lives system because there's a few second delay before you actually switch to the next squad member. This creates frustrating scenarios where the enemy that killed you will also kill the next squad member because they lack the AI to do anything else than to follow your position a few inches away from you.
All of this is pretty much enough to sap out any potential enjoyment out of the game. The gunplay is serviceable enough, if somewhat weightless. Visually it also looks fine, albeit really bland. Which in honesty, just makes the game worse in context because there's nothing noteworthy in any other department.
Even infamously bad games like Ride to Hell or Rogue Warrior gave me more entertainment due to being unintentionally funny. Takedown: Red Sabre lacks any sort of character or charm, and it plays awful enough to be considered bad, but not bad enough to produce unintentional hilarity. It's a sterile bad game where everything just falls into place of being dreadfully boring and completely frustrating.
If there's one positive I can get out of playing Takedown: Red Sabre, is that it made me appreciate other games more, and it provides a benchmark on how a game can end up being serviceable enough in some elements but completely bad in others, where it actually ends up feeling worse than games that are just completely bad and broken.
I was looking forward to Takedown: Red Sabre at the time due to it being showcased as a tactical shooter in the vein of SWAT and Rainbow Six, which are a series of games I enjoyed playing, which also belongs to a sub-genre of shooters that were increasingly becoming more niche during the period of release of this game.
Even the latest Rainbow Six games during that period were Vegas 1 & 2, a more Gears of War-Esque action shooter with less emphasis on planning, and more on cover-based shooting. I had a lot of fun with these games too but they weren't exactly tactical shooters in the same way their predecessors were.
Takedown: Red Sabre is also one of the earliest examples of a crowdfunded game that was successfully funded on Kickstarter. It raised over $200k, and its promised release date was only late by three months. Which in hindsight, was probably better off being delayed further, if not indefinitely. I didn't back the project myself but I can only imagine how even more disappointed its backers were.
Onto the game itself, it starts promising enough, albeit barebones. You have an option to choose your loadout, which includes weapons, equipment, and armor type. Nothing complex but serviceable enough to give an impression of having a variety of approaches for each mission.
You can then choose between Mission, Tango Hunt, and Bomb Disarm. Tango Hunt is a straightforward mode where you eliminate all hostiles in any chosen map, whereas Bomb Disarm has you get to specific points in the map and disarm all bombs.
Mission Mode is the campaign mode of the game, where you can go through two different training missions and five different main missions each with differing objectives.
All in all, a decent enough variety even if somewhat lacking in quantity. The first red flag however is after choosing any of the modes and then realizing you don't have many options for your AI squad other than to turn them on or off individually. There are labels for squads Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, on which you'd be forgiven to think it implies three different squads. What it actually does however is that it's the option of individual characters that would be available in the mission.
That's right, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie are individuals, which means they're simply options if you want to play completely solo or have one or two accompanying squad members.
This isn't all too bad still, if somewhat disappointing since there's still a lot of potential for tactical approaches with a group of three.
Then you get to the actual gameplay. Right off the bat, there are no options to command your squad members, they only follow you and barely have any form of AI. I could forgive the lack of a planning phase, but just having straight up no options for your squad severely limits your options further, and pretty much eliminates the notion of this being a tactical shooter.
I proceeded further in this game with an open mind, thinking perhaps the solo experience would still be an intense shooter where the gunplay, mechanics, and map layouts would provide enough of a worthwhile experience.
None of those were present. The movement feels incredibly stiff and slow. If I were to describe it further, it feels like something is stuck between the buttons of your keyboard or controller and each press feels like there's a half a second delay before it actually registers. The speed of movement as well is absurdly slow, that if you were to encounter the player characters in reality, you'd be able to get away from them by walking at a regular pace and then turning towards a 45-degree angle.
This horrible movement then creates a domino effect on everything else terrible about the game. Enemies are placed on random spots in the map, with basic patrol waypoints or static in a single position. Random elements are fine in creating an interesting and replayable experience but with the nature of the game's quality, it only serves further to create a frustrating experience.
Enemies have laser-focused accuracy, and it only takes a few shots, sometimes even a single one to kill you. This is regardless of your chosen armor type as well, on which the differences between heavy and light or minuscule both in the amount of protection they provide or the difference in movement speed.
The game provides players the ability to lean, which somehow manages to be hardly useful as even having a centimeter of your character exposed is enough for an enemy to get a shot on you.
You're pretty much at the mercy of luck and being able to catch an enemy first within your sights before they do. You then also realize the true purpose of having two other members of your squad, intentionally or not, where they actually function as a sort of 'lives system' since when you get killed, you take control of the next member.
But even treating it like that, it fails to properly function as a lives system because there's a few second delay before you actually switch to the next squad member. This creates frustrating scenarios where the enemy that killed you will also kill the next squad member because they lack the AI to do anything else than to follow your position a few inches away from you.
All of this is pretty much enough to sap out any potential enjoyment out of the game. The gunplay is serviceable enough, if somewhat weightless. Visually it also looks fine, albeit really bland. Which in honesty, just makes the game worse in context because there's nothing noteworthy in any other department.
Even infamously bad games like Ride to Hell or Rogue Warrior gave me more entertainment due to being unintentionally funny. Takedown: Red Sabre lacks any sort of character or charm, and it plays awful enough to be considered bad, but not bad enough to produce unintentional hilarity. It's a sterile bad game where everything just falls into place of being dreadfully boring and completely frustrating.
If there's one positive I can get out of playing Takedown: Red Sabre, is that it made me appreciate other games more, and it provides a benchmark on how a game can end up being serviceable enough in some elements but completely bad in others, where it actually ends up feeling worse than games that are just completely bad and broken.
A wonderfully unique game, NiGHTS Into Dreams is not only an impressive game from 1996 but also a game that remains one of a kind to this day.
Accompanying its distinctive gameplay mechanics, the game has a fantastic soundtrack and great visual design that truly captures its dreamworld premise.
The game has a simple control scheme that allows itself to ease the player into its aerial movement and level design. Despite the simple controls, the goal can be somewhat unclear at first, but it becomes more prominent quickly, especially after subsequent playthroughs.
Going from a simple clear to attaining higher ranks becomes the mantra over the course of the game. Each level also only takes a few minutes to finish, encouraging replays constantly.
The game separates level sets through a selection of two characters, Claris and Elliot. The former being the easier set and the latter being the harder one. You can start with any of the sets but it's generally encouraged to ease yourself with Claris first.
The levels are also well varied, not only in their environments and visuals but also in the layout and flow. You'll be traversing through sections each with its own unique design, ranging from different layers to another dimension of movement.
At the end of each level, there are boss fights as well with their own distinct gimmicks on how to defeat them. Facing them the first time makes them feel almost like a puzzle, and it feels very rewarding in figuring them out. Even better as you realize there are methods to defeat them all quickly, further boosting the potential for higher scores.
While there aren't a lot of levels, the amount of care and thought put into each does make up for it. Though it would have been nice if the final level was different for Claris and Elliot, or even just a slight variation from each other.
The story is also simple and charming, which works well for the dreamworld premise and showcases an easy to understand lighthearted plot requiring no dialogue to weave into the game's premise.
Overall NiGHTS Into Dreams is an enjoyable game that is remarkable both within and out of its genre. It's worth playing through even for just experiencing its unique premise all the way through. And to those who are willing to master its mechanics, it's a delight to come back to and improve on through subsequent playthroughs.
Accompanying its distinctive gameplay mechanics, the game has a fantastic soundtrack and great visual design that truly captures its dreamworld premise.
The game has a simple control scheme that allows itself to ease the player into its aerial movement and level design. Despite the simple controls, the goal can be somewhat unclear at first, but it becomes more prominent quickly, especially after subsequent playthroughs.
Going from a simple clear to attaining higher ranks becomes the mantra over the course of the game. Each level also only takes a few minutes to finish, encouraging replays constantly.
The game separates level sets through a selection of two characters, Claris and Elliot. The former being the easier set and the latter being the harder one. You can start with any of the sets but it's generally encouraged to ease yourself with Claris first.
The levels are also well varied, not only in their environments and visuals but also in the layout and flow. You'll be traversing through sections each with its own unique design, ranging from different layers to another dimension of movement.
At the end of each level, there are boss fights as well with their own distinct gimmicks on how to defeat them. Facing them the first time makes them feel almost like a puzzle, and it feels very rewarding in figuring them out. Even better as you realize there are methods to defeat them all quickly, further boosting the potential for higher scores.
While there aren't a lot of levels, the amount of care and thought put into each does make up for it. Though it would have been nice if the final level was different for Claris and Elliot, or even just a slight variation from each other.
The story is also simple and charming, which works well for the dreamworld premise and showcases an easy to understand lighthearted plot requiring no dialogue to weave into the game's premise.
Overall NiGHTS Into Dreams is an enjoyable game that is remarkable both within and out of its genre. It's worth playing through even for just experiencing its unique premise all the way through. And to those who are willing to master its mechanics, it's a delight to come back to and improve on through subsequent playthroughs.