Aerial_Knight's DropShot

I think this might be the first review I've ever left on Steam! Read about this game on The Verge, so it had been on my wishlist for a while. Booted it up. Visually, lots of rough edges, but that's fine. Played through the first couple of levels. Kinda fun! Very arcade-like, super short levels. Get to the first boss fight, some kind of dragon. Played it probably 20 times, not dying, just not able to knock out the dragon before reaching the finish line. The boss is off-screen most of the time, and the camera won't let you move 360 degrees, so you can't aim at the dragon most of the time. Just kinda move your camera around following the arrow on the side of the screen hoping the boss will come into view. I adjust my strategy; only have 10 bullets, and every once in a while the boss gets close enough that you can shoot it. I've just gotta be smart. I try chasing the dragon more intently (something the game has never asked you to do until this point). Oh whoops, there are invisible walls for the gameplay area, and if you accidentally leave and can't get back to the play area (which is again invisible, so you just guess) the game fails you. So, that's not it, and the boss doesn't stay in the play area anyway, so just gotta be perfect and shoot as much as possible during the small windows. I play the level again and again; looks like you have to land 11 shots. Gotta be perfect. I play it again and again trying to land every single shot in the cumulative maybe 6 seconds where the game will let me shoot the boss. 20 or so times in I have a perfect run. I land every single shot, exhaust my bullets. And, I'm one damage short. The dragon is off screen, like always, so I can't melee it, and I just fly to the finish line where the game tells me I've failed again. Uninstalled the game and requested a refund. An okay game ruined by just terrible boss design.

This game rules! Simple concept excuted really well, gets you right into the action within about 60 seconds, feels great to handle and easy to learn, and leaves you satisfied after every mission. The missions being about 60 seconds each means you can easily iterate, try different things, fail, and succeed without a huge commitment - and that ability to do that makes this replayable and fun. Great stuff and excellent vibes on top of all of that!

The intro story paragraph immediately hooked me. Gameplay is super fun and addictive and the soundtrack is a bop! Only issue is that I wish you could fall a little faster sometimes or there was a way to speed yourself up.

A fun game with such a cool art style! I really enjoy the arcade feel where finishing the level isn't the main challenge, but getting the highest rank is. You can still beat levels without the top score (thankfully because I'm not very good) but there's a lot of incentive to replay your rank Ds to get something better. There are many details in the visuals with little effects and sometimes text popping up that makes it feel like an actiony comic book. And the UI is slick too.