Boss 101

Nice!

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At first glance this game seems like an all too simple side scrolling shooter. But after about 2 and 1/2 hours of gameplay and the helpful insights from my 11yr old son, BOSS 101 is a bit more complex than originally thought. The game is filled with plenty of lenghty cut scenes that are full of humor and puns for most age levels. The best part of the interations in the game, to us, are the little jabs at gaming companies and the special throwbacks to some of the classic games. While BOSS 101 can be super enjoyable, it also can be very frustrating when starting out. Making sure your guns and specialities (hats) match the particular bosses was a bit of a mystery starting out. Once you have figured that part out, the game really takes off and becomes far more enjoyable. I will definietly be keeping this in my favorites and I'm sure you will as well.

What the hell... First off, this has to be one of the most front-heavy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tutorial sequence I have EVER seen. "Welcome to the game, here is EVERYTHING there is to know about EVERY menu item and game concept." Around 15 minutes of reading before I could get to any kind of action. The I stumble across menus to start the first stage.... Which goes of for like 5 minutes before time runs out and the boss is left with 80% of its health... Find out I can equip any hat for some reason, some grant infinite time, so I restart and kill a boss in a fight that lasts 10+ minutes of pretty bland shmup action. Worse, I can basically tank all enemy shots aside from a few slower bombs. My health doesn't go down. Then I buy a gun, and it's weaker than my starting pea-shooter. What am I missing here? I'm not going back in for a boring 15 minute boss fight. Seemed like a fun idea, but I don't get what's going on here.

Too much filler, not enough killer. After a few levels and some basic upgrades, the game stopped introducing new ideas in the gameplay. All fights reduced to holding down the fire button while dodging slow-moving projectiles and popcorn enemies. In total, I spent 3 hours to finish the game, but it felt twice as long. Being able to spawn a different big robot to fight with better vulnerabilities sidesteps the need of the player getting better over the player stats getting better. The levels all blur into one, except for the few "hand-made" boss fights. There was attempt to cram in a lot of stuff. The collectibles in each level, the story, the busy screens at the Command. But the core gameplay is too simple and the amount of stuff piled on top of it fails to hide it.

A fun chill/casual shmup with more story than expected. The dialogue is a bit cheeseball and cringy; not exactly written professionally, but its simple and wholesome. At first the gameplay felt a little too repetitive and grindy, but the more I played the more interesting it became. For half the game I thought secondary weapons were useless. The main gun is more powerful when fully upgraded. But at some point its not enough to defeat bosses anymore before the timer runs out. I didn't realize you can choose them based on Boss weakness to do extra damage. Def has replayability and fun little secrets and quirks. Its grindy, but not too grindy. I found it enjoyable. There are plenty of things to collect to scratch your completionist itch. While its not the most mind blow game out there, its decently fun. Id even go as far as calling it a cute little hidden gem. Dont expect to be knocked off your seat by it, but if you like shmups and collecting things, this is definitely loads better than so many other ones I've played on steam. And though flawed, you can tell it was an indie product of passion.