Enemy Mind

Great concept for a SHMUP! The stages and enemy patterns are a little lackluster, but the ship switching mechanic is more than interesting and fun enough to make up for it. Unfortunately I've been experiencing many crashes, especially around the end of level 4. Just saw the release date was 2014 so I guess they probably won't be patching those...

Помните эти игры, где звездолёт летит и стреляет? Ну вот. Если хочется вспомнить, как оно было на игровых автоматах - самое оно.

Mechanic for jumping from ship to ship is a lot of fun. It's been a few years since I played last and I decided to jump back in. There's achievements now... something to try for I suppose :D

A sacada central de Enemy Mind é bem esperta: você é uma entidade psíquica sem corpo próprio, então em vez de pilotar uma nave só, você "possui" qualquer nave inimiga que encontrar e assume o controle dela. Isso muda completamente a dinâmica de um shooter retrô comum. Funciona bem porque te obriga a pensar em estratégia na hora — cada nave tem armas e movimentação diferentes, então trocar de corpo no meio do caos é ao mesmo tempo um recurso de sobrevivência e uma forma de variar o gameplay. Com 70+ waves de inimigos, tem repetição de sobra pra quem curte esse estilo arcade. Os pontos fracos: a apresentação visual é bem simples e datada, não empolga muito visualmente, e a progressão de dificuldade em algumas fases fica desbalanceada, alternando entre fácil demais e frustrante. O modo split-screen é um bônus legal mas pouco explorado. No geral é um indie honesto que entrega uma ideia original dentro do gênero shooter, mesmo sem grandes produções por trás. Vale a pena pra quem gosta de arcade rápido e não liga pra gráficos simples.

I was admittedly unprepared for just how much fun the game's core mechanic would be. Honestly, I don't remember how Enemy Mind ended up in my library. I know I didn't go out of my way to buy it. Was it part of a bundle? A gift from a friend? Regardless, the point is that it didn't end up in my library because I was actively interested in it and went out of my way to buy it -- but if I'd known how clever the game was, I absolutely [i]would have[/i]. The mechanic of being able to take control of any ship at any time is a truly liberating experience. It completely turns the space shooter genre on its head, and empowers you as the player in an amazingly fun way. Not only that, but having multiple hits before death instead of genre staples like Gradius keeps the fun going longer (and gives you the experience of being able to swap to a ship in a better state of repair) while still punishing you with lost score multiplier, which I think is a fair way to reward those who truly dig into the game's mechanics and optimization. To be clear, this [i]is[/i] an arcade game. It does a much better attempt at a story than 90% of games in the space shooter genre, which is...not saying a lot. There isn't a lot of meat here to chew on, but when held up against similar titles, the unique ship swapping mechanic easily allows Enemy Mind to stand on its own. Progress in the game permanently unlocks the ability to start at later levels, so it's not a bad game to play in bite-size chunks if you're looking to kill a few minutes and don't have the time to start up a deeper title.

A fun but not fantastically original shoot 'em up, that definitely can captivate if you surrender your will to the flow of gameplay.