ExtraGalactica

[b]Introduction[/b] ExtraGalactica is an arcade shooter or non-scrolling shoot'em up in Early access. For now it only has a procedurally generated Infinite Mode where you have to protect a nearby planet named Celestro by surviving wave after wave of enemies including bosses and mini-bosses while not letting enemies escape. I was given a Steam key after the developer showed his game at a shmup discord channel but it would have gone on my wishlist for a future purchase otherwise because this is the type of game I enjoy. [b]Gameplay[/b] In Infinite Mode all you have to do is survive and not let any enemies escape. Enemies that escape will hurt Celestro, the spinning planet in the background, and when its health is depleted you lose. Your standard weapon has auto-fire, it starts out weak but gets better. Your secondairy weapon is a Barrel Wave Attack, it's a sideways attack. You only get three of them but the hull bar at the bottom center recharges quickly. The right bar shows when the Retro Dash is online which allows you to slow down time. During slow down your autofire rate is slowed down as well so you'll have to button mash to inflict a bit of extra damage. At the beginning of a new run or after getting hit you're handed a standard ship at level 1. Every x amount of consecutive kills your ship levels up and your gun improves. At a certain level you get (homing) Missiles you can launch. When you reach the final level you will be invincible for six seconds which you can spend barrel waving (death spiral), because at this level the three attack limit is gone. This level only lasts so long, as soon as you reach this final level a countdown timer starts. Before the level ends you can activate the Special to clear the screen. Once the Special has been activated or when the time has run out your ship goes back to square 1 and you'll have to level up again. [b]Control[/b] You can play with a controller, with keyboard + mouse (buttons only) or with just the keyboard. An analog or dual stick controller is recommended because of the x-movement sensitivity. If your auto-fire stops while moving you have your controller set up wrong and the game sees multiple inputs but only allowing one at a time. [b]Auto Deflect[/b] The game offers two ways of playing which you could see as an easy and hard difficulty mode. Starting out the game is in Auto Deflect on mode. When an enemy or bullet is close to you at the side the ship performs an automatic Barrel Wave Attack if one is available. During a Barrel Wave Attack you'll be invincible for a moment. This allows you to escape attacks with no regards for enemies or bullets in the way of your escape route, it will also save you from bosses who often attack from the sides with little warning. The disadvantage of Auto Deflect is that it will use your Barrel Wave Attacks when it's not needed as well. Especially further in the game you really need them without them getting wasted on bullets that would not have hit you. To challenge the top scores you'll need to play with Auto Deflect turned off, this mode has a steep learning curve. [b]Conclusion[/b] The game has some refreshing game mechanics, nice selection of enemies and the Infinite Mode is a good challenging score attack mode. The menu and UI take some getting used to. Once you know where everything is on the UI it's all good though. The upcoming campaign and versus modes look promising. [b]Video[/b] Here's a recording of some early gameplay using Auto Deflect, this run put me in 3rd (on the old leaderboard). https://youtu.be/teacNN8tvrA

It's fun, hard and addictive, great game to pass time! Also It has nice old school graphics, which i like.

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A very cool shmup, with INSANE visuals, and a lot of hidden depth. Despite said depth, the game is enjoyable on its base level, albeit a bit hard. It's still a brutal game even when you start learning tho so it a big skill investment, which is a good thing for anyone looking for a challenge.

My YouTube first impressions video of the Early Access version as of August, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHUwIlVwp14 I've played a lot of shmups in my day and I can honestly say there's nothing like ExtraGalactica. The roots of this project are fascinating, originally developed as a private project to run on an arcade cabinet one of the authors built. However, it ended up being so cool that they decided to turn it into a full product and I'm very glad they did. In the Early Access version at time of writing, the game is an endless score attack with online leaderboards. I don't just want to pimp my own video but there are so many different mechanics and systems in this that it's hard to explain in a short Steam review. There is a lot of RNG involved in this game but with practice and acquiring upgrades for your powers, you'll learn how to better master the numerous systems at play in order to maximize your score and learn the numerous different bosses. I've never before seen a shmup that has so many different mechanics that all somehow manage to gel together. Some will find the seeming randomness of runs to be frustrating as this isn't a shmup that you can learn to minmax by memorizing patterns like you can in many others. However, I equate it to pinball, another genre I love, despite not being greate at it. In pinball, you'll have one or several bad games in a row where it feels like nothing's going right, you're scoring badly and losing balls quick. But you stick at it going "just one more game" and then you suddenly have an incredible run where everything seems to click, you smash your previous best score and it feels like you're invincible. ExtraGalactica replicates that same feeling and experience and it's very clear that's what the developers were going for. That's the part I love about it the most. If you really prefer traditional, pattern-based shmups, this probably won't be for you. But if you are like me and want to see the genre innovated on and taken in cool new directions as well, this is something you absolutely need to play. This game deserves way more attention than it's gotten and I hope it gets some soon. I'll be continuing to cover it as things like the Campaign mode are added.

This game totally kicks ass. It is a retro inspired shmup with a lot of love put into every aspect of it. You play as a football player who is defending his rival's home turf from the dastardly villain of a retro arcade game. This is the "Infinite" mode of the full game which will include a side-scrolling story mode that I am eagerly anticipating. The platforming aspect of the full game reminds me of old adventure games like Another World and Flashback. As for the Infinite Mode, it is an endless gauntlet of arcade excitement that encompasses that "one more game" feeling. The music is a phenomenal chiptune/synth mix that fits the game perfect and gets your blood pumping, especially during boss battles - 10/10. Graphics and FX are constantly bursting with energy and adding to the excitement. The game is immaculately coded, I never encountered a single bug during my time with the game. This is a peak retro arcade experience with a bit of the 80's, 90's, and 00's all synergized into a cohesive experience. P.S. They even got Celldweller for their trailer, c'mon that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sick. 9/10 - Total retro shmup kino

This game is fantastic! Easy to learn SHMUP style with awesome new features unlike any other in it's genre. I highly recommend it for gamers who want an old school feel on a very challenging game!

we need Chinese 打了两把，没有见到BOSS，感觉游戏很有意思，画面也不错，CG也对得起这个价位。除了专注打飞机，躲弹幕外还需要处理特别的机制。感觉比一般的弹幕游戏更有难度和乐趣。但是HOW TO PLAY里只有手柄的提示，以及看不懂该如何处理机制 只能自己摸索。另外选项里音乐的调整很迷，只有一个总音量有用，而无法关闭音乐只开启音效。

Infinite/survival mode in a score attack game is very important, imo. Leaderboards are just as important and the devs have nailed both. Such a fun game! Controls work well (been using an Xbox controller). Looks amazing on a widescreen monitor. Definitely read the tutorial just to make sure you are familiar with the mechanics. Barrel Wave (a sideways attack) and Retro Dash (slow motion) are your friends. Retro Dash is ESPECIALLY important. If you enjoy SHMUPS, score attack and fighting over position on the leaderboards, then you will enjoy this game. Very impressed with what they are offering at the moment and cannot wait to see what they do going forward! I could live off of infinite/survival modes in shmups so to me, this is already awesome, haha. Highly recommend!

This game reminds me of a game made by Namco called Galaga. It's a very fun game! The game is also challenging, I was only able to reach Wave 2. The background music and the retro graphics blend really well, and the special effects are very appealing. I really hope this game enters Switch as well!