Its like Cho-Ren-Cha!
Thats why i like it!
Reviews for "Starmada"
Vibe13 responds:
not sure what Cho-Ren-Cha refers to....I'll have to look that one up
EDIT: ok, I looked it up - see what you mean now!
This game is SO sXe.
Vibe13 responds:
yeah I think it looks and sounds pretty good, although at times I think I let the fx dominate over gameplay which probably isn't a good thing - but you live and learn: next time I'll try to improve the gameplay while hopefully retaining the look
I may be epileptic now, but I ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE OF THIS SEIZURE. Love the upgrades, love the offhand humor, love the utter SHMUPNESS of this. Quintessential SHMUP, if you will.
Vibe13 responds:
thanks for the support - it adds fuel to my fire to keep on trying
BLARRGH! STARMADA IS HERE TO SHOW ALL YOU PUSSIES HOW TO MAKE A GAME! GRRAGH! FLY THROUGH SPACE WHILE FLYING THOUSANDS OF ENEMIES, DESTROYING THEM WITH YOUR FUCKIN' LASER BLAST! YOU ARE UNSTOPPABLE, EXCEPT WHEN YOU AREN'T! BLOOD AND THUNDER! VICTORY AT SEA! (SPACE?) HOMING MISSILES? FORCE FIELDS? MEDIC KITS? ARRRRRGH! COME AT ME BRO! CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES! SEE THEM DRIVEN BEFORE YOU! THERE ARE NO WOMEN IN THIS GAME BUT IF THERE WERE, YOU CAN'T BET YOUR ASS YOU'D HEARING THEIR LAMENTATIONS! THE BOSSES ARE ALL MADE OF SKULLS AND BONES! THEY SHOOT FIRE OUT OF THEIR EYES! THIS GAME IS COMPLETELY FUCKING BONKERS! CRANK OUT! RRRRRRRAAAARRRGH!
Vibe13 responds:
my thoughts exactly..........glad you liked it, (at least I think you did).
Quite good installment in fly'n'shoot types of games. But still can use some improvements.
1) Diversity in upgrades. It exists per se but at the same time there is none gameplay-wise. Not only prices force you to basically buy them "in bundles", not allowing to focus on something decently. There is no meaning in choosing whatsoever. What I felt was not the choice what to upgrade but more like existence of "right logic" and "wrong logic" of buying. Right one being "buy every gun the start upgrading them all", the wrong one being "focus on upgrading anything other than everything". Basically, there is no choice. Now, a good example of what I am thinking would be Jets'n'Guns or Tyrian 2000 (second one being classic). There you have a choice of weapons. There is a point in upgrading one gun while neglecting other, but upgrading everything slightly is still viable.
2) Bonuses. Yeah, they break the game so badly, that I am giving them independent section. They are way unbalanced and too random. Let's start with the balance. Additional lives falling as often as weapons in other games? Impenetrable AND long lasting shield? What it basically means, is that if I get this shield - I will survive current wave in any case. And even more, let's add randomness. I can basically have unlimited shield as long as the game feels like it. I get the first shield, I fly dead center in tough enemies OR in cloud of smaller enemies. Chances are, I will find one or two lives and/or another shield before my current expires. At some cases game literally broke, when I flew 2/3 of stage with shield AND dealt to boss an insane amount of early damage because I flew inside it while my shield lasted. There is an opposite side of the medal however. In many cases I simply had no way to beat a level. Just because suddenly game didn't feel like giving me anything in tough situation. This unbalanced feature basically reduced what is supposed to be pure skill bullet hell in complete and utter randomness. While early levels don't demonstrate this flaw that obviously, whether I beat the latter levels or not mostly depended on my luck rather than my skills. What I would suggest is either have dedicated enemies, which drop bonuses with a good chance, so player can actually choose whether he wants to risk getting this bonus or not. And it would let the player expect bonus drop, not see it for one millisecond after explosion effect wears off and there is indeed bonus, but already near the lower border of the screen. You can also take note from games like "Gradius", in which bonus drops (among other things) from the last enemy of the wing, if you manage to obliterate it completely. At the same time you should tone down effectiveness of the bonuses, or make them relatively scarce and available only during the toughest waves of enemies.
3) Bullet hell as it is. You ALMOST nailed it. At some cases I was pleasantly surprised that I could actually see where I should go to evade all bullets, in the nick of time. Unfortunately, there are way too many times when you are forced to memorize level rather than to display skills. More often than not I find myself forced in what seems to be safe spot just to be greeted by new wave of enemies in the next second, shooting in this very spot if not spawning near it. Again this adds randomness and necessity to memorize, which derives from pure skill needed in such games.
4) Bosses. One of the most important things in such games. They are too plain and too simple in this one. In each and every level getting to the boss was an incomparably more difficult goal than defeating them. Not only that, but they reuse patterns of previous bosses way too often. It is a good idea to have such element in final boss (which would use all previous patterns, but make them harder, yet again testing your skills). But not to such extent. Additionally, it would seem that changes between patterns in boss battles are dependant on time not their missing health. Again, not a bad idea for some battles, but not every battle.
I have more to say... but limit...
Vibe13 responds:
thanks for the in-depth analysis!
I think you're pretty spot on with all your ciriticisms - I'll paste your post into my todo-list for the next version!