GunDeck[100]

This is a very fun arcade-style twin-stick bullet hell which was very easy to pick up yet challenging enough to keep me coming back to try and beat it again and again. It provides a great soundtrack and a nice variety of different ships that lets me decide how you want to try and tackle the 100 level gauntlet each time I start a run, meanwhile the card system makes each run unique while providing many paths to success. Since launch there have already been multiple updates for quality of life as well as new cards to try out, I'm looking forward to putting many more hours into the game as it evolves. I received a copy of this game in exchange for testing.

Fun game! Reminiscent of classics like Asteroid and Crystal Quest. Graphics and sound are top notch!

If Noita and Geometry wars had a forbidden love child

very fun!

Addicting and difficult! Love how each play-through is different because of the randomized power-ups. Wish I had more time to sucked further in!

Gundeck[100] is one of the best arcade-style roguelites to be released in recent memory. The core conceit of the game -- the Gundeck -- is really cool. Each weapon you pick up is arranged radially around your ship. While shooting, your current weapon will fire, and then your entire array will rotate to your next available weapon, which is then ready to fire. This repeats and, after cycling through every weapon, you'll reload, resetting the gundeck with all your weapons refreshed. It's a really cool system that ensures your "ammo clip" is unique every run, since there are a TON of different weapons. In a stroke of absolute genius, each weapon is represented by a symbol comprised of a color, a "head" of sorts, and a "tail", which together allow you to understand the behavior of the gun without needing to read the description. It makes decision-making feel fast and intuitive when you're choosing a new weapon. In Vampire Survivors fashion, the game is also extremely generous with passive upgrades and synergies -- you get one upgrade per round and, given that there are 100 rounds, you're going to be getting a lot of upgrades! Your simple weapons at the beginning of the game will become an explosion of deadly colors by the end. The power fantasy is extremely satisfying and fun, and, beyond type-specific synergistic upgrades, there are a lot of really cool universal upgrades (especially boss upgrades, which typically give you an effect based on the mechanics of the boss you just defeared). However, unlike the sea of VS clones, Gundeck[100]'s twin-stick/shmup core ensures that actual moment-to-moment gameplay is challenging and engaging. This game is definitely a bullet hell, and you'll need to weave deftly between enemy projectiles to survive, as well as actually aim to hit enemies with your own attacks. This is a huge plus in my book, as Gundeck[100] offers the dopamine of bullet heaven while preserving the challenge of bull hell. Enemy variety is a high point of the game, too -- there is a HUGE array of interesting enemies with different attacks and effects. All of the quality detailed above, as well as a clean visual style and an unbelievably fair price point, mean that Gundeck[100] is an extremely easy recommend. This game is a steal! Twin-stick, action, arcade, shmup, roguelite, and bullet heaven fans will absolutely love this game. Even if it's not the kind of game you normally like, I'd recommend giving it a try -- it's really a blast!

Fun and Challenging, easy to just pick up and play! Good game to find yourself playing for hours, just to get one deck level higher. Highly recommend this game for anyone looking for a new shooter

A VERY fun and engaging game in the same vein as Vampire Survivors, where you keep saying, "Just one more run!" The progression system of the game is addicting: card-based upgrades lead to thoughtful deckbuilding and the different ships change up the way you approach the game, refreshing the experience. I hope they can add more waves with multiple types of enemies to really add more depth to the bullet hell, and expand upon the upgrade system to allow for new unique build options, i.e. new attack that recovers health based on damage dealt, upgrades that require both poison and homing attacks to improve dps, etc. Overall, this game is an ABSOLUTE steal! The foundation of this game is very solid so I hope they can make a few improvements and additions, but the current state of the game is well worth the price.

First impression review in progress, but this is a crowded genre so I want to encourage people to check this one out, since I might be held back by my own abilities for a proper review. Disclaimer: I got the code as part of our project to track all the "survivors-likes" and wave shooter games for the r/survivorslikes subreddit, but not in exchange for anything. I played some of this last night and it was going to be my wind down game (I like to end the night with a run based grindy game, they tend to put me right to sleep after my meds lol) but I ended up having to switch after an hour because I was jamming into the next run but NOT relaxing. I'm pretty bad at these more hands on action games comparatively, so I only managed to get past the first 10 rounds and unlock the second ship in about an hour, but it was addicting. I love the simple but varied enemies, the way you move 'through' the card selection and it keeps you in game, and I have a love hate relationship with the unique gun cycle reload mechanic. I did end up quitting out of a lot of runs after I started consciously trying to advance though, which may be a symptom of something. Maybe just me not being patient, but I guess I might like if it was weighted a bit further towards the items you've already selected as I often felt none of the items applied and none of them was a general upgrade. Sometimes I'd take multiple of the 'more of these show up' things and still not get any before I died. I found myself hoping, what I think is selfishly, for some particular features. One, just my disabilities always make it harder to play games that require manual trigger and aim and I think this game wouldn't be hurt too much by an "auto-aim / auto-fire" mode as you'd still need to position and time very carefully and it might actually be harder to play. Or they could be tucked under an accessibility menu which most gamers seem to avoid like a plague unless they need it. I imagine it could be hard to implement, but a lot of people get hung up on making auto aim good, when really it just needs to kind of exist. It doesn't need to be accurate at all, it just creates a new kind of gameplay and saves a finger pain if someone experiences it. Also just since I've played 100 wave defense games in the past couple months I found myself aching for a little bit of optional currency based meta progression. I don't know if the game /needs/ it but I personally wouldn't have minded at least a way to put some points into seeing more upgrades of the type I've already gotten, an extra heart or two, or just a limited ability to reroll. I like how arcady and straight to the action this is so I'm glad it's not yet another baroque complex unlock menu, but just a little bit of (maybe very expensive) unlocks to make me feel like even if I never really get better, after 10 hours or so of play I'd still be able to see the crazy modes you eventually get to. I don't really want to change the enjoyable gameplay loop in any way, so I'm imagining even if it was something like after every completed run I don't quit out of I get a point towards something that costs 100 or even 1000 points to get a reroll for future runs. Right now after about an hour of play I'm at that point where I'm trying to evaluate a game to see if I'll ever be good enough to get past the second boss. And I sadly admit I drop a lot of games there. But I still respect them! This is remaining on my short list though and it is possible I'll jam my head against it long enough to do well, periodically I manage to put a lot of hours into a very hard game somehow and I'm hoping I click with this one (I think nova drift is pretty hard but I had a similar drive to progress)

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