Crisis Wing

Crisis Wing is perhaps the most Truxtan game I've played since Tatsujin. Like that Toaplan shooter, it features fast enemies that can take a few hits, sparse upgrades that make the game way easier if you can manage to max them out and keep them and giant skull faced bomb attacks. Among other things. I'm not wired to be good at Toaplan shooters. So, I find them to be extremely challenging. Given the extremely low percentage of players the even the meager achievements I done, it appears I'm not alone in this. Fortunately, Crisis Wing is generous with the continues. It does use a checkpoint system like some shooters of old. Which prevents the game letting players credit feed their way to the end easily. Especially since you start without any power ups. Did I mention that power ups are few and far between? Speaking of power ups, like Truxton, there's three. Well, four if you are unlucky enough to just get an extra bomb when you don't have any power ups. There's the red spread shot, which is good for crowd control, but even many popcorn enemies can take a few hits before being destroyed. There's the green shot, which is a wide, upward/forward firing wide shot. And finally, blue missiles which have a slower rate of fire. The control is good, though fast. I don't know if it me with poor routing or what, but I find the game wanting to me to squeeze through narrower windows of bullets and that controls often allow sometimes. If you can keep destroying the enemy ships, you can keep the game from becoming a bullet hell, but if your ship is powered down (or you let yourself get out of position grabbing a power up) it can be tough to stay on top of that. I recommend Crisis Wing. But not to newer/novice/casual shump players or even players that don't like how 20th century shooters were. Crisis Wing is a refinement of those 90s shooters, but it also carries a lot elements that made those games quarter munchers. I don't know if I will ever beat this game, even as generous as it is to let me keep trying.

I'm writing a review because shmups have so few in general on steam... Excellent game! This is most definitely an homage to Truxton/Tatsujin. If you're a fan of that game stop reading and just buy this now, especially at its low price. This game is challenging, but rewarding. The timed mode is also a welcome addition that I thoroughly enjoy.

Fantastic shmup that pays homage to the golden era of shooters. The controls are tight and responsive, the gameplay is satisfying, and the level designs are creative and unique. As a newcomer to the genre, I've spent over six hours with this game and have only made it to stage 3 on one credit. Considering there are 7 stages total, I'll be enjoying this game for a long time before I finally hit my goal of completing the game on one credit (1cc). Definitely recommended for any fan of the genre, and the $7 price tag is definitely worth it. Pieslice Productions, keep up the good work!

Very enjoyable. Quite good difficulty. Many of the enemies take quite a few hits to go down. You really need to be aggressive to take down enemies as quickly as possible when they appear on-screen before they can shoot at you otherwise the number of projectiles can become overwhelming and difficult to dodge. So you can't play the game defensively, you have to be pretty offensive in your approach. Ironically the game becomes easier with practice primarily because it does suffer a wee bit of Gradius syndrome. That is, if you get killed the base weapon is weak. Once you get better at bullet dodging and can reduce the number of lives lost (and hence keep your upgraded weapon intact) the easier the enemies go down. The challenge in this one is that your bullets don't cancel out enemy bullets and it's almost impossible to shoot down enemies before they let out at least a few bullets your way. So you have to get good at aggressively going after enemies while being prepared to dodge at the same time. There's a certain 1-2-3 rhythm with most enemy squadrons in the game that once you get the feel of, can be conquered.

TOO MUCH MEMO

Challenging STG to play through, but I had a great time the entire ride.

One of my new favorites! Feels like a classic PC ENGINE shooter. Intense but fair gameplay with an excellent difficulty curve. Excellent music & graphics. Highly recommended to classic Toaplan / TechnoSoft / Compile SHMUP fans.

8/10

(Y)

Solid, simple, sturdy, standard, strong, speedy s'old school shooting. BEST way to play Truxton nowadays.