Galaxy Highways

The game looked like it'd be perfect for me, but I find it very "mid". While other reviewers write about a lot of "love" being in the game, I don't see it. The game design feels old. The levels are very repetitive: both inside a level you fight the same encounters over and over again, as well as separate levels having the same "structure", but there is barely any structure, as you move to red zones and shoot the same predictably evenly spaced enemies like in the previous zone, then you fly through the empty space to the next zone and shoot the same interceptors which appear by the same predictable timer over and over again. The enemies increase in HP and DMG in between levels, so your upgrades never feel like you're getting stronger, you're just "keeping up". Upgrades are "+ x% of Y" which is the most boring kind of upgrade you can put in a game. The hard difficulty increases enemy dmg and HP faster, so you need to grind levels for upgrades. The "secondary weapons" are boringly stronger versions of the primary weapons with very little ammo and a very long reload timer. Most do exactly the same amount of dps, so you're picking the one you like to aim the best. The music loop gets very repetitive fast! Most enemies are green and their missiles red, except there are at least 3 different sprites for missiles and sometimes you get an "elite" enemy who is red and harder to see. Dodging missiles and shooting them down is the only fun I had in this game. Having the camera be centered between the player sprite and the crosshair gives some advantage in shooting, however it makes dodging harder and the game is first and foremost a bullet hell. There are 3 ships to be flown: standard, glass cannon, heavy, out of which the heavy has the weakest primary weapon (dps wise) which is also the hardest to aim and the glass cannon doing the most dps with the weapon that is the easiest to aim. That's ass backwards game design. Oh at the end of the act you get to fly a big ship which doesn't zoom the camera out, is slow, has tons of HP and makes for more boring gameplay than the regular fithers you fly. The UI for your secondary and special weapon is at the bottom of the screen, so you don't see them mid fight. This would be better shown on or near the player sprite, which should be centered on screen. There are many little issues in this game where an experienced player will have seen better implementations and there isn't anything unique and interesting gameplay wise.

YES! It is exactly what I was hoping for -- a furious twin-stick shoot 'em up with big colorful explosions set in the dark depths of outer space. The controls are responsive and re-bindable, which I've found myself doing more than once trying to decide which of the four main buttons go where (for now I've settled on RT for main shot, LT for secondary shot, LB for special weapon, and L3 for turbo). The shooting action is quality as the enemy variety is wide ranging from little pip squeak attack ships to massive, snake-like monsters towing a whole bunch of enemies behind him like some mechanized space snake. You need different strategies for different enemies, no sloppy one-size-fits-all combat here. The boss sections are downright bullet hell. There's a fairly robust upgrade system but thankfully not *too* robust as I hate when good action games get bogged down by convoluted upgrade systems. The only downside here is the music is generic. It works when the soundtrack is minimal space synths, but generally it's fake-sounding guitar rock and a bit annoying after a while. It seems like everyone is liking the music except me. Oh well. A winner! 8.5/10

Came in expecting Bubble Tanks, got Bosconian. Great game, awesome and clean controllers, fun attack patterns, simple but clean progression system.

Pretty good for such an obscure indie game, albeit it quite short. This Shmup consists of many stages which have you flying around on a map completing objectives. The order you do the objectives is up to you, with some being optional (but you should do all of them seeing as optional objectives unlock meta upgrades). Controls are straightforward and feel good. Your ship has a primary attack which you just hold down to fire. You have a secondary weapon which, unlike the first weapon needs to reload after a while. You have a dash button. You have a super weapon button. While you can play with a controller twinstick style, this sort of game benefits from mouse-aim, so mouse & keyboard is optimal. You earn currency from beating missions (and also for failing them) which you can spend on various upgrades to your ship. Mostly you're just increasing stats with these (upgrade a weapon to the next tier, upgrade hp 5%, reduce dash cooldown 10% etc). It was still fun to interact with though. I only died a few times during the campaign playing on normal, perhaps this is best played on hard mode. Nonetheless I did feel constantly under threat and quite enjoyed playing through it. Decent game. ===================== [b]My SHMUP Tier List (PC)[/b] ===================== [i]~Simply personal taste.[/i] [i]~Sticking mostly to modern games that don’t use the archaic lives/continues system.[/i] [i]~Not including many 'flying anime girl shmups' as they don't appeal to me very much.[/i] [b]Loved it:[/b] Jamestown | ZeroRanger | Tyrian 2000 | Gunlocked+ | Steredenn$ | [b]Great:[/b] Super Hydorah | Drainus | Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo# | Warhawk (2017) | Star of Providence$ | Minishoot’ Adventures% | [b]Good:[/b] G-Darius | Steel Empire | MF-01 Aerostrike% | Operation Steel$ | Jets’n’Guns 2 | Wings of Seduction+@ | [b]Galaxy Highways[/b] | [b]Decent:[/b] Skyforce Anniversary | Skyforce Reloaded | Squad 51 Vs. The Flying Saucers | Ninpo Blast+ | Platypus Reclayed | Ganablade | Dogfight | Angel at Dusk* | Red Blue Cell | Space Elite Force# | Space Elite Force 2 | Jets‘n’Guns | Void Scrappers+ | Unknown Hero | Gunfield+ | Lilac 0 | Kaikan# | Zakesta-Z# | Varyznex# | [b]Meh or Disliked:[/b] Super XYX | Shmup Boss | Solar Survivors+ | Sine Mora Ex | The Knight Witch% | Ascenxion% | Gamma Zero | Nanoforce | Steel Rain | Eigengrau* | Zenzizenzic* | Steel Vampire | Natsuki Chronicles | Wolflame | Satazius | Zangeki Warp | Cycle Chaser H-5# | Armed Seven | Counterattack: Uprising | Burst Fighter | Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser^ | Valfaris: Mecha Therion | Chicken Invaders 5 | Enemy Mind | Crimson Clover World Ignition | Fingun^ | Phoenix Force | Raiden V | Time Wasters+ | Ruzh Delta Z | Space War: Infinity | Heliocide^ | Stellar Interface$ | Syder Arcade | Absence of Light% | The Battle of Aurinoxia^ | Earth Space Defenders | Cookie Invaders | Cecconoid$ | Nebulock | Super Bit Blaster XL$ | Raiden Nova+ | Cosmic Carnage^+ | [b]Awful or Overly basic:[/b] Escape Space | Ginga Force^ | Nebula Fighter^ | Ernesto’s Asteroid Arcade | Space Mages: Dimension 33 | ===================== [i]* = Felt like I was on the same screen the entire time, which I dislike.[/i] [i]^ = Encountered some jank.[/i] [i]# = Too short, even for a SHMUP.[/i] [i]$ = Rogue-like.[/i] [i]+ = Rogue-lite OR has some Vampire Survivors DNA.[/i] [i]% = Metroidvania or exploration game.[/i] [i]@ = Pornographic/Hentai/lewd.[/i]

Short, fun game with a lot of charm—just a couple rough edges. Overall, I really enjoyed it. The moment-to-moment gameplay is tight and responsive, especially in the main missions. For a game made by just two people, the level of polish in most of the combat and movement is quite impressive. That said, the three missions where you control the larger ship felt like a misstep—at least on controller (I didn’t test mouse and keyboard). The otherwise fluid controls become clunky and super frustrating. The ship takes up a big chunk of the screen, and since your bullets don’t persist offscreen, it turns into a constant struggle just to get enemies in view long enough to deal damage. Still, the rest of the game more than makes up for it—especially the final boss fight, which was a highlight. Swapping out those big-ship missions for more encounters like that would really elevate the whole experience. Even as-is, though, this is a strong little indie title that deserves more attention.

Solid game for the price, is a good choice to pass some time, it's a bit short (got it completed 100% in 8 hours) and has only a linear campaign, however there is a good variety of weapons, upgrades and enemies. It would benefit a lot from more modes, and some ship customization, but had my fun playing it.

I’m genuinely stunned by how good this game is. At first, I thought it would be fairly simple, but after just a few levels I realized how many upgrades and gameplay mechanics it actually offers. As a creator of the horizontal shmup Project X Light Years, I can be pretty picky about this kind of game. But this one really surprised me. The graphics, sound, music, and overall gameplay are all excellent. I honestly can’t find any negative aspects, and for the price, it’s an absolute bargain.

Very enjoyable.

...it brings back childhood memories from a time before high-end computers. Simply pure fun—old-school style. You 'll love it!

Super fun game with a lot of replayability, since you can build your ship in so many ways. Story is ok but it's not the core of the game, which is its combat and that's where the game excels. It's a bit like Minishoot' Adventure but without the metroidvania elements, here you just need to kill everybody stage after stage and customise your ship in between. I played the game on the hardest difficutly and it was challenging at times but never frustrating, you get checkpoints if you get to the boss which is just perfect. At that price tag it's a steal.