Nova Swarm

[h1] Космическая стрелялка [/h1] Бодрые битвы. [h1] ГЕЙМПЛЕЙ [/h1] Игровой процесс представляет собой роглайтовую космическую стрелялку. Начинаем на единственном корабле, он летит в бой. Как водится — отстреливаем многочисленных врагов. Встречаются сильненькие элитники, а раз в несколько уровней приходят боссы. Небольшой лайфхак. Элитники обычно сильные. Но. Если на обычном уровне убить простых противников и останется только один элитник, то он самоуничтожится. Боссы не сказать, что сложные. Но они бывают нечестными. Появляется некий конус, из которого не выйти (он следует за кораблём) и бах — минус одна жизнь звездолёта. Как от этого уклоняться не понял. Если так выйдет, что удастся пройти всю игру, то тут же начинается что-то типа игры+ с более сильными врагами и новой каруселью из противников и боссов. Во время забега с врагов иногда выпадают разные улучшения, обычно временные, на короткий срок действия. Но может и жизнь выпасть (1 раз за забегов 7 было). Первый корабль на самом деле достаточно сильный. Но есть и получше. За успехи в забегах и ачивки будут открываться новые звездолёты. В этом и состоит глобальная прогрессия игры. Новые машины, как правило, сильнее предыдущих. Но к каждой придётся приноравливаться, понимать сильные стороны. Всего звездолётов 25 видов и у каждого есть пассивное свойство, улучшающее его в бою. Также надо поглядывать статы кораблей, они отличаются по урону, количеству снарядов и так далее. По итогам забегов происходит набор очков. Можно посоревноваться с другими игроками. Также растёт уровень аккаунта. Не совсем понял, что он даёт, четко про это не рассказано/показано. Возможно новые корабли, тогда ок. Рассмотрим плюсы и минусы игры, подведем итоги. [h1] ПЛЮСЫ: [/h1] 👍 Приятная графика. 👍 Хорошее музыкальное и звуковое сопровождение. 👍 Бодрые забеги, хорошая стрельба. 👍 Интересные враги. В наличии элитники и боссы. 👍 Много видов кораблей, которые можно открыть. 👍 Есть временные улучшения, выбиваемые внутри забега. 👍 Русский язык текста. [h1] МИНУСЫ: [/h1] ❌ Качество русской локализации невысокое. Часть надписей скрыты за знаками ??? ❌ Местами очень мелкий шрифт. ❌ У некоторых боссов есть атаки, от которых не уклониться. Хотелось бы, чтоб такого не было. ❌ Хотелось бы более лучшей глобальной прогрессии, чтобы не только открывались корабли и рос абстрактный уровень аккаунта, но и были какие-то видимые пассивные усиления — больше урон, скорострельность, скорость. Тогда забеги станут куда интереснее. ❌ Не очень удобно сделана ловля улучшений в забегах. Надо прямо точкой в центре корабля их ловить. А было бы удобнее контуром звездолёта. Иной раз не с первого раза выходит. ❌ Сейчас было бы неплохо, чтобы почаще выпадали лечебные жизни. Это бы смягчило эффект от нечестных атак боссов. ❌ Не делаются скриншоты средствами Стим. Хотел выложить, как летал/побеждал, да не вышло. [h1] ВЫВОДЫ [/h1] Игра небольшая, тем не менее — полетать на звездолётах и пройти её было приятно. Огорчает отсутствие какой-то более расширенной прогрессии и некоторые шероховатости. [code] [b][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6851324/]Если понравилось – жмите палец вверх и подписывайтесь на куратора Runner Streams. Здесь масса скрытых бриллиантов игровой индустрии.[/url][/b] [/code] Всем хороших игр!

Neat little fixed screen (non-scrolling) shooter with full screen player motion. Lots of different enemies and bosses and bullets, in fact it gets close to bullet hell at times since generally what the enemies do is launch slow bullets that fill the screen and you have to dodge around them. Achievements and public leaderboards (#1 currently, come at me!), which is a must. No roguelite meta progression (good) but you do have the ability to unlock new ships. Nice sound effects, so-so music. Well worth the 4 bucks if you want some old school pew pew.

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6142328/][b] With 1,500+ reviews, please consider following The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more![/b][/url][/quote] Nova Swarm: ~~~~~~~~~~ A long time ago in a country far, far away, my friends and I used to challenge each other over a few cups of coffee to see who would get the highest score on a little arcade game called Space Invaders. It was a ritual that occurred at least twice a week at our favourite café back in Geneva. I can still see the mouth-dropping expression on the shop owner's face when he saw ten 50cc bikes parked in front of his establishment! He knew his place was going to be alive and making lots of coffee. As time changed, so did the evolution of this genre of game, and there is a new entry in 2026 that will keep you wanting to play another run again and again to beat your latest best score, in Nova Swarm! Nova Swarm is an arcade shoot'em up game developed and self-published by Tiny Foundry on the 9th of June 2026 on the Steam platform. There is nowhere to hide with this type of game, and you must have the fundamental attributes to keep players entertained enough for them to want to play another run. It has to have solid gameplay with a large variety of enemies, different attacks and speed, gradual difficulty progression, a substantial number of boss fights, and several assorted background themes to keep the feel of variety and freshness. I was surprised to see that Nova Swarm does these things pretty well. Each run is divided into stages. Each stage has between five and seven waves, each with a variable number of enemies, including a few elite foes that have special abilities; a boss fight follows. Your goal, of course, is to go as far as you can. Every time you reach and beat ten stages, the difficulty will increase significantly. You'll notice new enemies with different projectile patterns, as well as new wave tactics (coming from several angles of the screen and at different speeds). It will keep you on your toes, especially as you only have three lives per run, and one mistake is one life down the drain! You do have power-ups dropping sporadically throughout the waves to help you out, but all power-ups (except for the extra life) only last from 7 to 15 seconds. The good news is that you can have more than one activated at a time, as long as you catch it as it comes down the screen. If you can catch the orbital strike just before facing a boss fight, you'll thank me for this tip. The fluidity of the gameplay, moving your ship around the screen and activating the ghost mode, which lasts a few seconds at the time to avoid projectiles, is very good. An issue I encountered that frustrated me more than once was fighting one style of boss. Not only do you have 50 bosses to face to beat the game, but they are divided into a few different styles of movements/attacks. The ones that shoot a large beam after mimicking a few blank attacks weren't obvious, and I kept losing one of my lives in each encounter. When you face two or three of them within ten stages, it could quickly be game over. The good news is that the developer noticed this and released has a couple of patches since the game's release to rectify the issue. It's definitely improved the clarity of the attacks and the ghost control input, but it's still not quite there for me; I admit I am being picky. In terms of content to unlock or see, there are more than a few things, let me tell you. 25 ships to unlock, each with its own trait, and they all have different movement speed, projectile pattern/ speed, and damage calibrations. A whooping 1900 enemy units, plus 20 elite foes with 40 attack patterns and 39 waves tactic. And you can check all of that in a comprehensive game codex. It also offers a local (your own runs) and global leaderboard. Not bad at all for $5.75 Australian dollars, if you ask me! The graphics are good, and the upbeat music suits the game very well. If you enjoy playing this genre of game, you'll be glad to have Nova Swarm in your Steam library. Positives: ~~~~~~~ + Nice graphics + The gameplay is good and fluid + Over 1900 enemy units, 40 attack patterns and 39 wave tactics + Good difficulty progression in runs + 25 ships to unlock, each with their own trait and unique configuration (speed, weapons, etc) + 50 different bosses + Several background themes + Great price point + Achievements Negatives: ~~~~~~~~ - One style of boss attack needs to be tweaked a bit - No trading cards as yet Nova Swarm surprised me! It's fun, addictive and has a fluid gameplay. I apologise, but I have to go and get another run under my belt! 8/10 Note: Key provided by the developer/publisher through my Steam Curator groups for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

You did all the advertising and outreach correctly but you forgot to make the game fun to play. This is a masterclass in what not to do as an indie game developer, more curator reviews than regular user reviews and hardly any sales. This game showed up on the front section of a special steam shoot em up sale, you had every opportunity to have an explosive game but you forgot to make the game actually fun.

Nova Swarm is a pretty solid arcade-style gallery/screen shmup (where you shoot upward and clear screens of enemies in-place, like Galaga or Space Invaders), with a bucket load of quirky personality (there's a commentary voice with various quips, but you can turn voices off for a more serious experience). Starts right off with good action for the main run, plus practice side modes for a softer difficulty or jumping to higher level waves based on what you've reached in the main runs. Mechanics are simple: move around (freely, not just along screen bottom), shoot, phase, and slow (yourself, not others). "Phase" is pure iframes as you move normally, and not a movement ability or speed increase, but it can also clear some nearby bullets. That move speed can be limiting using slower ships, but it's still fairly generous on cooldown, and helps you play aggressively, phasing through troublesome bullet waves, or slowing down to weave with more precision. There are various powerups to grab that give you brief boosts (brief as in several seconds), and both kill-chain and graze-chain (phasing works well for grazes, too) systems for bonus scoring (and tempting distractions :). The levels are arranged in sectors, each running a series of small enemy waves followed by a small boss fight. Enemies fire a variety of bullets and rays in some relatively simple patterns, and also do Galaga-style dive runs. Boss fights are smaller affairs than one might expect, and they are unusually mobile, zipping around (horizontally), even just teleporting, and generally making you chase them to get your hits. There are a lot of ships to unlock, which seem mainly differentiated on shot pattern, move speed, and one of a relatively small pool of ship traits, like a boosted shot every few shots, or a scoring bonus for grazing. Ship differences could do with more interesting quirks/traits, and slower ships feel like they don't really fit the game's action, but you'll likely find something that works for you. Has friend and global leaderboards for the main run, plus some side tracking for the jump-start practice (softer practice doesn't leaderboard, to make it more pressure free). Achievements have some questionable choices, so check those if you're that type. The game also starts and exits unusually quickly. You can jump into a run before the game even gets to the main screen. I wish every arcade game thought about that. Humble pricing, despite the dev's clear investment and effort polishing their project and taking feedback and suggestions. There have actually been a lot of really solid and fun improvements since launch, and all in a game area with little happening.

Screen shooters are rare, and this is a rare gem amongst those. Piles of ships, enemies, and bosses, varied formations and shot patterns, shot grazing, phasing through shots (which clears them), fun music, and a bizarre personality to boot. Well worth the tiny asking price.

Made it in top 10! love these games going for a modern X arcade combination. The gameplay is very Galaga with the ship unlock variety of R-type and the cool bosses of Gradius with the chaos and color of geometry wars. These are some of my favorite shmups so seeing a combination of them is stellar. The bosses really stand out. The gravity beams keep you on edge and the wind up telegraphed lasers don't feel cheap when they corner you in the bullet hell. There is a big grab at unlocking new ships to see what they do, I need them all. The beastiary that shows all of the enemies you find is a cool addition that wasn't necessary but I appreciate the effort to put it in the game. The soundtrack is electronic and energetic too which fits the feel good mood I've always had with shhmups. Good stuff.

this is peak

Love it! Sam the Misfit Boss was BADASS! The ship selections and loadouts and traits are sick. Well thought out I only got about less then an hour in but love the old school vibes!

So far, really loving the game! I'm having a blast playing. I keep coming back to beat my high score and just want to keep playing!