Heli-Cats

Criminally unknown horizontal shmup that combines a couple familiar mechanics with its own elevation system to create something special for shooter fans. There are two elevations in the game, one closer to the ground and one further in the air, and the enemies and their bullets also operate on these two planes. So there's a constant switching back and forth via a button press between the two elevations both to eliminate the enemies and also to dodge their bullets. Ground enemies shoot red color, so when you're at ground level you can hit them but can also get hit by them, but air enemies' yellow bullets are harmless and will just pass over you. The opposite of course occurs when you're in the air, red bullets are then harmless. It's a bit like Ikaruga in that you frequently have to have the safe color in your head in terms of which color bullets are harmless and which ones aren't. There are two different shots, tap the fire button and hit enemies to build your focus meter, and hold the fire button to use that rapid fire focus, which will drop power up orbs for defeated enemies that raises your bullet strength. Somewhat similar to Ketsui, the orbs lose power the longer they sit uncollected, so there's a risk/reward system on how close you want to get to enemies and their eventual orbs. You can also avoid this system entirely and just use a different rapid fire button for everything, which will give you weaker bullets most of the time but a better score. I love that there's multiple strategies to play this game. Combine this deep gameplay with a sharp looking 16-bit style, tight control, a good soundtrack, and a ton of Steam features including multiple co-op methods, cloud saves, leaderboards, and achievements, and this is a real hidden gem!

Cannot recommend at present. Unfortunately, the central mechanic goes like this: - Rapid shot kills raise a gauge that allows focussed fire - Focussed fire drains the gauge to produce items on kill - Items increase your shot power level to a max of Level 3 - Rapid shot then gradually decreases your power level, so start again... In other words you 'do' the mechanic repeatedly just to power up. Boss fights do not contain any way to produce items, so you drain all your power during the fight. I don't think there is any scoring element/advantage to this loop, but would be delighted to be wrong about that. Game runs smoothly and the 'height' mechanic is interesting, so I hope more scoring fun gets injected in future. Shot power level could give a score multiplier at the very least...

高度差の概念があるヘリコプターの横STG。 なんかもう作者の趣味がよくわかるゲームで雰囲気としては良し。やっぱしケツイですか。BGMも実にそれっぽい。 ただ万人にお勧めするかどうかといえばちょっと厳しくて、高度の違いという特殊な概念を持ちこんでるくせに[b]初っ端から難しすぎ[/b]、という海外Shmups恒例のあるあるがこのタイトルでも発揮されておりまして…… ・全体的に最初から敵弾が速い ・弾幕の流儀で敵弾が飛んでくるが、当たり判定はほぼ見た目通り ・自機のワイドショットが弱すぎ（広がりすぎて複数本当てられない） ・時間で消えるパワーアップアイテムを回収するのに、能動的に前に動く必要がある（そして敵と接近戦になる） ・そのうえ時間経過でのパワーダウンあり ・もちろん敵は固い、高度の切り分けまで考えてると道中で押し負ける とまあ、見事に優しさがありません。 ともかく[b]高度の違う敵弾と敵機には当たらない[/b]という概念を理解して動けるようになるまでが大変です。1面から相当頭使わされます。斑鳩がうまい人はいいところまでいける……かも。

Ketsui: Euro arrange

My impressions video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7iR4WuTAiE I'm a big shmup fan, but I don't think it's unfair to say that the genre can often feel fairly samey from a mechanics standpoint. I like shmups that do something different, and Heli-Cats (which as I write this has only 1 review, which is nothing short of criminal) does that in a really cool way. From the screenshots, you might this this is just your run of the mill 16-bit style shmup, but it's got a lot more going on. Rather than use a different weapon or a lock-on system to deal with ground enemies, one of your buttons actually changes the vertical plane your helicopter is on and you have to use this to juggle between air and ground targets. On top of that, there's almost an Ikaruga-like bullet system, where you can only be hit by bullets fired from enemies on the same plane as you. To both maximize your score and deal with bosses that can fire on both planes, changing your height is as important as picking your targets. It's a totally different way to think about shmup gameplay and actually took me a while to get used to, but I love it. Upgrades are also handled in a new way. Rather than picking up powerups from certain enemies or having to purchase them at certain points, killing enemies charges up a powered up version of your shot, which you activate by holding down the fire button. Enemies killed with these shots drop orbs that you pick up to raise the power of your base weapons, up to level 3. This slowly ticks down over time, so you have to use the powered shots smartly to not run out of them, but also keep your base shots as strong as possible. You have bombs as well, and these are treated more like standard shmup bombs, being limited in quantity and only occasionally being dropped in levels. Speaking of levels, these also mix things up. Some are just your standard kind where you have to kill as many enemies as possible, but others require you to do things like stay near certain targets without destroying them so they can be scanned, while still dealing with regular enemies. Of course, there is also a scoring system that has online leaderboards so you also have that to consider. All of this adds up to a shmup that looks familiar, but is very different and doing something I've never seen before. It's a breath of fresh air to a genre that I love, but isn't often known for giant innovations. Seriously, don't sleep on this if you like the genre because it should be much more successful than it's been so far.

Honestly I'm impressed with this game. It's like Touhou, Twin Eagle II, and Strikers 1999 had a threesome and this is their love child. The visuals and the music is great. The gameplay is simple and easy to learn and the altitude mechanic works well and actually adds strategy to the overall gameplay experience. I only have 4 issues to bring up but these are not deal breakers at all, just merely observations for areas of improvement. [u][b] No Sub-Weapons [/b][/u] Many top down shooters have sub weapons for your unit. The Strikers series is a perfect example. Whether it's guided missiles or free flight rockets or lasers, having some sort of sub-weapon is a GOOD thing to have especially when you're dealing with with hordes of enemies coming at you. There's no sub-weapons here, all you have is your normal shot and even though you have a focus shot, the normal and focus shot is honestly not enough and isn't gonna cut it. The player is immediately and permanently handicapped. [u][b] Character Art [/b][/u] The character art is bland, flat and honestly quite boring. The visuals for all the other ingame assets are great, so the character art should not suffer. Also why is the landing gears on the Apache and the landing skids for the Cobra missing? [u][b] Sound Effects [/b][/u] The SFX for shots, explosions, and even the helicopter sounds are uninspiring and quite stock. Better SFX is needed. [u][b] Earning Continue Credits? [/b][/u] I don't like this system of having to play multiple times just to earn continue credits. When the Strikers games were ported to home consoles and even Steam, they have an option to adjust how many continue credits are available in the options page. Simple as that. None of this avant garde BS for continuing. Get rid of it. But other than those 4 issues, this game, though with its flaws, is honestly quite well done and is legit fun. I give this a definite recommend for anyone that is a fan of danmaku shooters and helicopter gunships.