KAIKAN

[i]---see where this game landed on my SHMUP tier list beneath this review!---[/i] I picked up the first 3 Steam games by this dev; [b]Kaikan[/b], [b]Zakesta-Z[/b] and [b]Varyznex[/b] in a bundle on sale for about $12 and played through them all. Compared to your typical unknown indie shmup, these are very well made. Audio is good, bullet hell gets chaotic and fun. The dev has put effort into making all sorts of fun occurances happen on each stage. I wish your ships hitbox stood out more though. My main complaint with these games is one I have with a lot of indie shmups, where you're expected to play a full run whenever you load the game. In this one you have unlimited continues, so it's easy to play through the whole thing in 20 minutes and call it a day. I wish more indie shmups would learn from some of the popular games in the genre like [b]Tyrian[/b] or [b]ZeroRanger[/b] and save your progress between the levels while also making them a little harder, so there's some actual challenge inserted into the game. No more of this dated arcade style "would you like to continue?" BS. You can always add a 'full game run' as an additional mode for retro purists. If you can save between stages though, this of course comes with the caveat that you need more than 5 levels to play as well. [b]Jamestown[/b]s method of progress is the best one I've encountered in shmups; You have a level select screen and it shows which difficulties you've beaten each stage on, as well as giving you things to unlock. This makes me much more motivated and interested to keep replaying levels on the harder difficulties. When I begin a stage in Jamestown, i'm just trying to master one tricky level as opposed to having to play a full game run where I go through the first 10 minutes of fluff I've already solved until I get to the bit I actually need to practice on. That said, if you are a retro purist, then depending on how irritated you are by the ships hitbox visibility, you may well end up considering these games as hidden gems. ===================== [b]My SHMUP Tier List[/b] ===================== [i]-Simply personal taste. I’m excluding roguelikes, boss rushes and genre mashups-[/i] [b]Loved:[/b] Jamestown | ZeroRanger | Super Hydorah | Tyrian 2000 | [b]Great:[/b] Drainus | Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo# | [b]Decent enough:[/b] Steel Empire | G-Darius | [b]Kaikan#[/b] | [b]Zakesta-Z#[/b] | [b]Varyznex#[/b] | Ganablade | Dogfight | Angel at Dusk* | Space Elite Force# | Space Elite Force 2 | [b]Meh:[/b] 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 | [b]Awful:[/b] Ginga Force^ | Nebula Fighter^ | ===================== [i]-Probably played another 100+ Shmups, but I only started this list recently and am sticking mostly to modern releases[/i] [i]-Not including any 'flying anime girl shmups' as they don't appeal to me. Believe me, I've tried.[/i] * = Felt like I was on the same screen the entire time, which I dislike. ^ = Encountered some jank. # = Too short, even for a SHMUP.

Really fun schmup with royalty free music that goes hard (guessing after not knowing what to do with game's original OST creator just decided to flex his playlist to us), 6 fairly balanced ships, and enemies with bullets flying everywhere, which is enough to make any person yell "HELL YEAH" because of how good this game is. Oh, and it fixes the main issue homing shots have in shmups by allowing you to lock your shots in one position. The only real complains about this game i have are TLB being requirement for 1cc (skill issue on my side this time, even though i wish requirements to encounter it were more strict, like no-missing the game, destroying all boss ship parts or collecting all hidden medals through at least 2 stages), and wide shot feeling a bit weaker than others (especially on bosses).

Explosions everywhere, soundtrack goes hard and numbers go up. What else do you want? The medalling here is great and the bosses present an excellent risk-reward system when going for cancels to maximize scoring. More people should play this.

Great! Immensely playable shoot'em up. Glad to be able to support the developer financially a bit. Check out their other games on itch io as well. The game works perfectly fine on SteamDeck btw.

Gosta de shmup e heavy metal? Compra sem medo. Sinceramente, Kaikan é uma grata surpresa do mundo dos shmups indies, que basicamente pega um sistema criativo onde a bomba é seu "escudo reserva" e a pontuação que ao acumular gera uma bomba (mas nunca carregando mais de uma) te levam a uma jornada de 5 fases com muito tiro na tela e guitarras sujas tocando ao som de tudo. É simples, básico, eficiente, você liga o jogo e joga. E é gratificante ao extremo. Principalmente quando pega o ritmo do jogo e chega ao chefe secreto. Mas apesar de ser um shmup incrível, ele tem alguns pontos que poderiam ser melhores pra experiência do jogador. Como explicar o sistema de pontos e do item rank, que eu sinceramente ainda estou jogando e sem entender como de fato funciona, são duas coisas que o jogo tem e simplesmente NADA explica e fica até meio difícil de avaliar se é bom ou ruim. Mas espero que futuras atualizações tragam isso. Nota 9.5/10.

昔からじゃらじゃらポイント稼げるシューティングが好きで結構好きな仕様でした。 ※細かい話はほかの方が書かれている通りです（丸投げ TYPE－Eをメインで使用し、１CCできました。 敵を破壊したときの勲章を取りこぼさないようにしてスコアを稼ぎができたしりて 全然個人としては検証もできてませんが結構奥が深いなと思いました。 ボムの演出なんかも好きです。 私自身はシューティング初心者ですが、それでも普通にクリアできるぐらいのものなので シューティング初心者の方でもぜひチャレンジしてみてください

適当にやってもジャラジャラできて気持ちがいいし、 ちゃんと敵も弾うってきて緊張感もあるし、 エフェクトとか演出で気持ちよくなれる良いゲーム。 音楽も気持ちがいい。