ASTROLANCER

Cute characters, fun and challenging. Good luck! -The enemy designs are terribly boring. Circles, squares, triangles and rectangles.

Is this game TGL 2/TGL Zero? I'm going to go against the grain and Say no despite the majority of reviews saying otherwise. This does disappoint me since The Guardian Legend is no contest my favorite NES game and this game is marketed as a spiritual successor. However That doesn't mean Astrolancer is by any means a bad game, No it's quite good! But I cant avoid heavily comparing the two and it does not favor Astrolancer It keeps the Action, some of the Aesthetic, and the carryover of weapons from Top down to SHUMP. However It removes a lot of the wandering exploration/need to take notes (You had to explore around to find shops, hints, coordinates, etc) and the RPG mechanics. The leveling system in TGL naturally scaled you with how well you scored in the game, which encouraged you to do better in the SHUMP stages in particular and the game forced you to explore to find the tools you would need to tackle the next SHUMP Challenge. Astrolancer does have SOME exploration but its more about filling out a skill tree to create a playstyle and poking around designated off the main path areas, which is not bad, but not as graceful in my opinion. The Top down is more linear which again is fine, It reminds me more of Blaster Master/Zero Trilogy which again is good! But its not TGL I find the SHUMP stages is less compile and more Touhou which is fine and good in isolation. But I think OG TGL handled it a bit more gracefully where it was about tactically using weapons you found on the overworld to handle different situations. I think Hexeye tried to evoke it but I dont think it hit the mark since Hexeye clearly was trying to make it more bullet hell and more about dodging intracate patterns in boss fights and blowing through enemies with the Thrust mechanic and subweapons rather than exploring the land to find the right tools for the next challenge. To be fair the bullet hell segments are fun and the weapons are pretty fun. I still think TGL did it more elegantly I like the story, its simple but solid and the droids gave me some good laughs and the art direction is solid. The in game manual in particular is cute. Only complaint is I think the plane the Robot lady transforms into looks silly (She's fine in her humanoid form though). I still recommend it, Its fun still, its well worth the five bucks (I would have happily spent ten or maybe fifteen). But It doesnt compare favorably to TGL in my eyes

That was a pleasant surprise! This is basically a game similar to compile's The guardian legend, meaning it play like a mix between a shmup and a top down action game like zelda, in more linear, each stage alternating between a more exploratory overhead section, and a more traditional vertical shmup section. It embrace the 8-bit look and sounds fully, and excel at it. It also plays well, and there's a good balance between the difficulty level, making it suitable for both begginer and hardcore shmup players. The upgrades are fun to find and have some impact without being a balance breaker too much. All in all, a very fun shmup, that both works well as a colleague to the guardian legend, as well as standing on it's own. Great job!

Astrolancer really makes you feel like you're playing an NES game. Instead of the left thumbstick, you're using the D pad. Diagonal shooting doesn't work the best when using the D pad. Astrolancer is aim at the target and the shoot instead of like playing a modern FPS. I almost refunded Astrolancer until I turned all cheats on. With the cheats on, Astrolancer is a very nice experience going from room to room with beautiful color palettes, and you become invincible and unlock all weapons. Overall, comforting experience. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/indieretrogamers

I was definitely most interested in the bosses, just 'cause of my proclivities, but the other parts of the game's stages were honestly really nice. I quite liked looking around for all of the secrets hidden everywhere—that was actually like a third of the game for me—and the little intro screens at the start of each stage did a lot more than i would've expected them too. It's honestly just a really good game.

I'd recommend this one only for 3 reasons: 1) you're a hardcore fan of bullet hell games. 2) You want to play (and finish) a new game just for a lazy weekend 3) You are a frustated game dev that hasn't ever even started to do your own game.

The trailer makes this game look far more exciting than it actually is. The first stage (top-down shooter and scrolling shmup sections) went on far too long and outside of the bosses was easy and boring. When the second top-down stage looked to be more of the same but with a palette swap I lost the will to continue.

An absolute blast. Short and sweet and totally worth navigating through the maze of bullets. Would highly recommend. Also: the soundtrack absolutely slaps.

Pretty fun little game!

Interesting game, but a bit generic and repetitive. Don´t get me wrong is a good guardian legend clone, but the enemyes are always the same and the shmup levels are boring. Still i recommend but not at full price.