Dunno if this goes here but this week I got way into Star of Providence (FKA Monolith). Initially dismissed this game because it too closely resembled Binding of Isaac, but having now played it I gotta say this game rules. It’s fast and hard and unlike Isaac you can teleport across the map at will, effectively eliminating downtime. True to its arcade inspirations, you can win (or lose) a run in under twenty minutes, so I’ve been playing it here and there, whenever I have some time to kill. Just a really fun, good-feeling shooter; I haven’t been this into a roguelite in years.
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It’s such a great game. It’s coming to the Switch iirc
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Yeah! Coming to Switch February 20th, along with a decently sized content update for all platforms
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totally missed this one existing & it is now coming to my personal Switch on February 20th, good on ya
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Picked this up on your recommendation and it is super fun! Thanks for mentioning it!
Have you figured out any secrets?
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Glad you like it!!
And I haven’t found any real secrets yet, no. Only cleared the game a couple times, which I’m told means I’ve barely scratched the surface lol
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Well, Edia snuck that Cho Aniki collection onto the US eShop the other day, but even I, a mark, cannot justify $45 United States dollars for two PC Engine roms
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Same here! If I thought that they might have included all kinds of bonus content it would be one thing, but it’s almost certainly just roms and a menu.
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I’ve only made it three or four levels. Let me know if you discover anything! We can share discoveries schoolyard style.
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not a lotta news this week but here goes:
- Terarin’s opened a Steam page for their next STG: BLAZE OF STORM, another vertical STG that seeks to differentiate itself from their last few by way of adopting a wide variety of Compile-esque overpowered weapons; it’ll be out sometime later this year, and no you’re not misremembering, their last game is only a couple months old:
- indie dev Aktane has released an alpha build of their upcoming LOVE2D-made followup to their popular pico8 game CROSSGUNNR: CrossGunner 2D : The Alpha Test by Aktane
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several Hamster and Taito Arcade Archives games on sale from today (and maybe the Taito Milestones comps as well, depending on your region; I’m an OMEGA FIGHTER dude myself
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Zuntata Night live event with new info on Nighty Striker Gear and/or Operation Night Strikers from February 15, 15:30 Japan time:
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Shikigami no Shiro III is headed to Steam (we already knew) in March (we didn’t already know). So that’s good. I like this series a lot but I’ve somehow only ever played the first two (and I’m guessing the Wii version sells for 10 million dollars now).
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- Star of Providence (fka Monolith) is out today on Switch and getting a big update on PC—it’s not a STG, exactly, but of all the bullet-heavy procgen roguelike games out there, this is the one that feels like it was made by someone who actually played a STG or two in their lifetime:
- X-Out Resurfaced is out today for consoles and PC—it’s a remaster of an old Rainbow Arts euroshmup that adds very modern visuals, a newly-arranged soundtrack from Chris Huelsbeck, etc. They’ve added preset weapon loadouts to the shop as one effort to mitigate the euroshmuppiness but I can’t imagine they’ll make much of a difference.
- Horgihugh with Friends, the expanded Switch version of Pixel Co.ltd’s casual horizontal STG, is coming to Steam within this month—this game features character art by KOU (Mega Man Zero series, later Shantaes) , and it was specifically developed as a tribute to a pet, and later a family, that the dev met through the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (which you can read about in English here and here). The original PC version’s been on Steam for a while but this version has some extra content, plus English support (which may or may not be a different translation to the Aksys-produced Switch translation, iunno.) One other bit of trivia is that this game features BGM by ex-Konami composer Motoaki Furukawa, who’s now persona non grata after a crowdfunding scam that not only screwed hundreds of backers but also Pixel, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they replaced all his music.
- Japanese dev mayonee has released a demo for the Star Force-esque vertical STG, Strect—of particular note is that it’s being made with Godot, which is slowly but surely being adopted by more JP devs:
- Zuiki’s started taking general orders for a standlone version of the X68000Z compilation Game Collection Vol.1, which contains six X68 games on SD card, preconfigured for their X68000Z “mini” replica hardware (for which they’ve just announced a second, more powerful version, btw). The relevant software for this thread is SHOOTING68K Z-EDITION, a version of a popular STG-maker tool.
- The Night Striker-related news from last weekend’s Zuntata Night stream: the version of Night Striker included in Operation Night Strikers will allow you to play with a brand-new arranged soundtrack by an assortment of Zuntata and non-Zuntata folk.
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I’m very bad at schmups (the Germanic spelling) but I have a love of the couple of shmup with rpg exp and permanent upgrade mechanics such as the guardian legend and mini shoot adventure. Have I missed any notable ones?
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You typically won’t find a lot of crossover between those kinds of games (which include, but are not limited to, “euroshmups”) and the more traditional arcade-style games that tend to come up here, but you might like these games:
- DRAINUS (PC/Switch), a horizontal game by Japanese indie studio Team Ladybug with a story mode that has a ton of unlocks/upgrades and so on, and is generally on the easier side:
- Angel at Dusk (PC/Steam), a vertical game by doujin dev Akiragoya that found surprising success last year, particularly in China: the art style’s certainly not for everyone, and it does talk a big talk about being a super hardcore no-nonsense shooting game, but it does in fact include a very lengthy campaign mode with RPG/upgrade elements, as well as an in-depth tutorial on arcade-style shooting game fundamentals (which you can experience via the free demo.
- Star of Providence (PC/Switch), more of an action roguelite than a straight shooting game, but of all the games of this type, it’s the most authentically shoot-y:
- ASTROLANCER (PC), a very direct Guardian Legend homage:
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Have been playing star of providence and had that game in mind. @Chekhonte as a fellow “shmup liker in theory” I can confirm the game is a good time.
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Thank for such a detailed answer. I added the ones I could to my Steam wishlist. They all appeal to me in the way ufo 50 games do. I might not go all the way with them but I’ll definitely try them and see what my tastes in this genre actually are. Astrolancer of course greatly appeals to me. I played the Guardian legend so much as a kid. It was my favorite 3rd party game on the nes with massive a tie with rygar.
I really like the floppy tentacles on the mantaray like ship in angel of dusk. Drainus I’ve seen recommended a bunch of times on different forums. I think it even was talked about a lot on r/ metroivania. Sometimes I think someone is going to bring up how donkey Kong is their favorite metroidvania over there. Like everything is a one. Eating lunch is the best metroivania of 2017.
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Yeah that one yes. That one also looks like something I would like.
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I played Natsuki Chronicles a while back and I think it’s sorta like what you describe. Replayable story missions, bunch of unlocks and optional grinding. Goes on deep discount on Steam fairly often.
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I really like Steel Empire for Mega Drive, which has been rereleased a million times and is currently available on steam and switch and probably other places. Your upgrades persist after dying so you wind up very powerful by the end, and your ships can take a few hits before dying (there’s a small fast one with low hp and a big slow one with with high hp). I played the 3DS version first and beat it at the first sitting, then the MD original which took a bit more effort, so I think the remakes are not exactly faithful to the original. The steam version I think is based on the 3DS, on switch it looks like you can get that version but you can also get a bundle of the MD version, the GBA version, and the NES shooter Over Horizon.
Edit: I would second Natsuki Chronicles and its prequel Ginga Force. M-KAI’s earlier Pleasure Hearts doesn’t exactly have rpg elements but you get more continues as you play more (I think it’s based on total score over repeated plays) and there’s an item collection element. Also I made the English patch so I mention it at every opportunity.
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Do Raptor: Call of the Shadows and Tyrian 2000 count?
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