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Didn't really care for it. The enemy capture system seems like it would be fun but all it's good for is making ad-hoc shields. There's nothing groundbreaking about this game nor does it execute the existing shmup formula in an outstanding way.

This is one of two side-scrollers Toaplan made (as opposed to top-down shooters, which make up the bulk of their output) - I prefer the other one, Hellfire, much better.

Interesting and esoteric rhythm game with a dynamic judgement line that sometimes moves and rotates. Sometimes, it's judgement lines.

Lots of aspiring niche musicians in the songlist, along with some familiar names.

My only real complaint is the scoring system. I do not like combo bonuses in rhythm games. In this case, 90% of your score comes from note accuracy and the remaining 10% come from max combo. This often leads to incidents where one loses a whole letter grade because they missed one note in the middle, and it ends up being more punishing than missing 5 notes near the start or end. There is an "accuracy" rating shown next to the score but it's de-emphasized and there's no explicit notification for when you beat your accuracy record (unlike when beating a score record), so the game doesn't quite incentivize pushing on even after a missed note.

Very solid rhythm game, if not a bit luxurious due to the high initial price tag. Once you get past that, you have over 260 songs available to you, with many more available via DLC.

This game is notable for its lack of unlock systems. Outside of one or two hidden songs, all songs are immediately available once you make the relevant purchases, on all difficulties. The only real unlocks are for the background videos for watching/listening, but beyond that, the game gives you absolute freedom in what songs you want to play. If you want to start by playing an 8-key level 20 SHD chart, go right ahead!

As far as the game mechanics go, they are quite vanilla. It's simple 4-, 5-, 6-, and 8-lane gameplay. No score multiplier gimmicks, just textbook yet challenging beatmania-style gameplay. There is a quirk of the scoring system where while it apperas to be entirely accuracy-based, you get a very small bonus based on your max combo. It shouldn't be anything too crippling though.

Songlist is good and quite varied, from EZ2DJ/AC classics to modern songs by artists that may be more familiar to present-day rhythm game players.

I simply haven't played this game in a while because my PC isn't up to snuff and I need a newer, more powerful one, and I don't have a particularly good keyboard with at least 1000 hz refresh rate.

If not for the game having the obvious doujin graphics and audio, one might swear this game was made by CAVE employees or former employees thereof. Imagine the scoring mechanics of Ketsui but with the isometric horizontal perspective of Progear or Akai Katana. Solid game if you want something relatively conventional, it doesn't do much to stray from the usual arcade bullet hell tropes.

Also yes, the game is not on Steam. It has only been sold as a Japan-only physical and as a DLsite digital. If you have a little time to set up an account there, the game does not have any DRM to worry about nor do you need to install some launcher app (just run the game straight from the executable), so it's absolutely worth the extra legwork.

I sort of don't mind the rapid tapping mechanic, or at least I tolerate it enough to play through the game sometimes. Honestly the way the game was marketed, it looked as if one would only need to use it sometimes, but in practice about 80% of the game requires it.

Frankly this game needs a health warning.

Stellar soundtrack by HIROKKEY as always though.

I personally don't care for the Zero Wing side of the game, it's not badly designed but it doesn't do much to innovate or refine.

Now Hellfire, I was surprised by how good it feels to play. Having access to four different weapons at all times, each that fire in different directions, allows the player to be able to tackle threats from any direction. The 2P version of the game has multiple control schemes in addition to the original, which was infamous for being basically incompatible with rapid-fire setups due to the way the Change button works.

Check out the console ports of Hellfire too, they each add their own things. PC Engine port adds a proper story and is probably the most beginner-friendly version. Mega Drive version adds bombs and a CPU-controlled drone, and feels like a better way to experience the checkpoint-based 1P edition.

Kinda-esoteric rhythm game that's quite reminiscent of CHUNITHM and VOEZ, with lanes that frequently shift in position, width, and quantity. Lots of good songs and good rhythm game QoL (accuracy-based scoring, fast/late indicators and counts, offset), but the difficulty rating system suffers from inconsistent application - I've found that many Hard 12 charts are harder than Master 13s or even Master 13+s.

If you plan to play in English note that there are a fair number of errors and a lot of song-related text (titles, artists, chart authors) are left untranslated.

If you like the game a lot do consider getting the T3 Premium membership. It is permanent and discounts a lot of features or makes them cost no extra, and also speeds up boss unlcoks.

If you just want a vanilla vertical-scrolling rhythm game, this is a good choice for mobile. There's both "Thumb" charts for handheld play and "Multi-Finger" charts for tabletop play, so regardless of your device or play style you can still get a lot of mileage out of this. Songlist is solid too with some fresh faces and a lot of familiar rhythm game regulars and there's something for everyone. There is also the "slide input" mechanic which helps out thumb-based players by allowing them to slide their fingers across lanes to avoid wearing themselves out. I also greatly appreciate what I consider "standard rhythm game QoL features": scroll speed setting, mirror mode, timing offset adjustment, and early/late indicators. And on top of that, the standard judgement setting is pretty fair and allows for satisfactory play at most skill levels, but if you want to push yourself, there is the "Lunatic" judgement option with timing windows more akin to pop'n music or EZ2ON REBOOT : R, and scores are saved separately for that judgement type.

This game features some nice visual customziation options. In additon to being able to modify visual skins for backgrounds, lanes, etc, you can also apply stickers to the playfield, whether it be for decoration or to obscure the playfield, either as a self-imposed challenge or to fine-tune note visibility for more precise or reactive play.

It does feature some bugs and typos here and there, and amongst the community the game is infamous for its inaccurate difficulty ratings -- the general trend seems to be that newer songs tend to be easier (seriously, I've played S20s released in late 2022 that are easier than early-version S16s!!). Course-related modes leave much to be desired, either due to costing a good chunk of in-game currency or having bugs related to timing offset. Finally, while I laud the game for having thumb and multifinger modes, the hitboxes in thumb mode are unforgiving and I tend to miss notes that don't feel like they should've been misses.

There's also a decent amount of free content (albeit requiring unlocking) so you can try the game out before you start to make monetary investments into the DLC packs.