SATAZIUS

OVERVIEW: In comparison to vertical shmups I have far less experience with horizontal ones, but Satazius triggered fond memories from the Darius 2 and Aeroblasters sessions on the Sega Megadrive, and I know.... maybe Gradius too Pros -» Gameplay: upgrade different types of weapons and pick ship speed bonus if you wish -» Soundtrack and sound effects: techno beat that suits the space environment -» Graphics: decent -» Bosses: make you use the whole screen area to survive which doesn't happen often on this titles -» Replayability: if you wish to compete to improve your own highscores it will be nice to comeback to -» Difficulty: considerable but manageable if you put some effort into it Cons -» Wish there is a Satazius 2 with co-op or steam remote-play SUMMARY: 7.5/10 gaming scale Disclosure: After clearing the main campaign and, as I comeback for new sessions or new updates arise by developers, I intend to keep revising this review

Replayed this today after having only played it back in 2019 and not remembering much of it. The game is overall very good for an old-school shoot 'em' up. The choice of power-ups is cool, the gameplay is fun and how some levels can scroll up and down pretty far with different paths is ingenious. Controls with gamepad are responsive but a bit finicky as I kept crashing against walls, especially on ceilings and floors, by moving just a tad too much. I died more like this than from enemy bullets. The bosses are uninspired but good enough. They're fair if I managed to beat them at easy difficulty, but I doubt I could do so at normal. I hated the music, with a few exceptions, but the graphics are clear and nice, even at lower resolution. One full playthrough is short at around 50 minutes, but I doubt very much most players could do it the first time around.

A shmup for masochists, it's like Gradius except with thousand times more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Play on easy mode, it's still a very difficult game and requires you to memorize and avoid all the "gotcha moments". The soundtrack sounds like Sega Genesis music, but it wasn't great either.

ちょっと触っただけだけど、最初のステージでいきなりびっくり。母艦がすぐ壊されて、巨大ボスに洞窟で追いかけ回される。EASYでも全然手加減なしで、一撃でやられることも。2ステージ目まで行くのに何回かやり直したけど、それでも最初の印象はかなり面白い。個人的には 8点！ I only dipped my feet into SATAZIUS, and the first level already blew my mind. Your home ship gets destroyed right away, and before you know it you are being chased through caves by a massive boss. Even on EASY, this game does not hold back. You explode in one hit (unless you have the shield), so it took me a few tries just to reach the second level. My first impression of this game is a solid 8/10!

Satazius é bom, e é um dos casos onde existe ZERO novidade, tudo que o jogo te entrega você provavelmente já viu em jogos horizontais do gênero como R-Type ou Gradius. O jogo começa e você escolha a arma principal, duas secundárias e a sua bomba e só. Dito isso existe uma pequena progressão em cima disso pegando power-ups e deixando tudo cada vez mais forte, são poucas fases porém longas e com obstáculos em alguns momentos, deixando a tensão bem alta em determinados momentos. Satazius aposta na simplicidade e te entrega exatamente o que você já viu em alguns shumps horizontais, porém com uma dose levemente menor de dificuldade devido ao fato de ter mais checkpoints e dificuldades pra se escolher. Mas são 9 continues e 3 vidas pra cada e mesmo assim a sua primeira jornada provavelmente será sofrida. Não tenha vergonha de terminar o jogo no Easy primeiro. Acredite, vai te ajudar muito a memorizar a ideia do jogo antes do Normal e dificuldades acima. Nota 7/10. PS: ridículo o botão de pausa estar SOMENTE no teclado, e na letra Q. No controle não tem como pausar.

Before we begin, I have to clarify that I know about this game's technical issues such as the forced resolution or lack of controller support. I have played so much kusoge and doujin games to be accustomed to such shortcomings from old Japanese PC games. So while others find these issues dealbreakers, I can easily ignore them. Satazius is a shmup that I can describe in brief by calling it "flawed". The core gameplay elements are fine and the game feels fun at times; the only things that make this game not fun, are the design decisions. Basically, playing this game on any other difficulty than easy is bound to bring you headaches, as the game really ramps up in difficulty between each mode. For example, there are some fodder enemies that only get destroyed on easy difficulty, while they throw a wave of projectiles at you after death if you play on normal difficulty. Not only that, Satazius also heavily relies on learning through trial and error by utilizing hazards that give you little time to react to them, or putting you in situations where one simple misstep causes death. Here are some examples of such events: - Moving walls and automatic doors that mostly result in unfair "HA GOTCHA" moments. - Hazards that will instantaneously kill you, even while having a shield. - Enemies that appear out of nowhere and can show up on top of your ship, causing you to lose a life instantly. - Enemies that show up from behind your ship with no warning or foreshadowing. - A specific door in the game that [spoiler]blocks your way if you don't act fast enough and WILL get you on your first playthrough.[/spoiler] - Small corridors and fast auto scroller events that require precise movement, while enemies are shooting at you. Another big fault of Satazius is how it handles progression. By playing through the game and defeating bosses, you can unlock new weapons for your ship. However, not only the weapon unlocks are exclusive to the difficulty you have unlocked them on, but also they are inaccessible after trying to practice earlier levels or playing a new game from beginning. This begs the question: How the player is supposed to mix and match the weapons for an optimal playthrough and enjoy using what they have acquired, when late-game weapons are not really unlocked after unlocking them? This impacts the replayability as well, as it leaves not much to do after beating the game once other than hunting for achievements; and that itself is problematic too because some achievements are bugged and will not unlock. Overall, Satazius is an average shmup. It's not horrible and you can have fun with it, but it's still not as good as it could have been and in my opinion, certainly not as good as the rest of Astro Port's PC catalogue.

This is actually mostly okay, but it has some annoying QoL problems that keep me from wanting to keep pushing with it. Namely; the second boss that just killed me. It left the screen, but then at some point returned to the screen, killing me instantly, leaving me no alert that it was coming from X direction. It's basically a gotcha! trap. An [b]I wanna be the guy[/b] moment. I have already attempted to get into another game from this same dev: [b]Zangeki Warp[/b] and I dropped that one quite early too due to similar situations, where there wasn't enough time to deal with the problem in front of me. In that way it's like some very oldschool SHMUPs where you basically are forced to die multiple times until you learn what is ahead, without being given a reasonable chance to get through on that first try. It's rough edges like that which keep me from wanting to play on, or recommending this one.

There are games you will never want to play again and then there are classics like Satazius that just waits at the corner of your drive from year to year waiting for the moment when you want to play it again. It is just that good. A game like it was made by elder gods in a time when skill, fun and awesomeness in general was on the menu all the time before life became so hectic you didn't have time and focus enough for these adrenaline rush thingies no more. When i play the game i am reminded that I never get tired of this little game punishing as it may be in difficulty and the fact it requires some learning. That's why there is a practice function included. Dev Astro Port has brought a lot of good stuff during years for me and this one is perhaps the best of the lot to me. Highly recommended popping this into your drive any year, just be aware screen options are limited so resolution is nothing to celebrate too much about.

If you have played any of the other Astro Port games, then you will be familiar with most of their short comings as this is a typical one of their games in that it is a fairly basic side scrolling shooter. Items of note for the game: -Like their other games, there are very few in game options, although still more than some. Which is to say, just audio, although they do also add key and button rebinding for a change. As stated though, there are no display options other than full screen or a very small resolution window when you first launch the game. -As per typical Astro Port fashion, if you accidentally press your ESC key, it will still completely close the game out, no questions asked. -Graphics are nice, but really not anything different than what you'll see in the other games as they are mostly just re-used sprites with a barely there background. The player ship is cool though and the bosses are semi-unique. -Music is a bit of a weird techno, which isn't bad per-say, but it isn't great. The rest of the audio effects are the same re-used FX in their other games. -The re-use on graphics and FX are somewhat forgivable though in that the game IS supposed to be related to some of their other games, although no story text or cut scenes are actually provided in game to provide any plot, you just mindlessly jump into a ship and blow stuff up. -They do provide a 'Practice' mode that you can run any stage you've already reached, but only on the difficulty you completed it at. Meaning, if you completed on Easy but haven't tried Normal, you only have Stage 1 available for Normal Practice. -The player ship is nice and you are provided a number of different weapon options to switch between and unlock as well as being able to upgrade them. I personally only found a couple of the weapons to be useful though and what you unlock is only for that game run and need to unlock everything all over again each time you start a new game, which is disappointing. -Actual gameplay, while momentarily fun in a few spots, quickly goes into a WTF moment as level designs will kill you more often than the enemy shooting at you. While the levels are interesting, they quickly become tedious and frustrating with intentionally tedious maneuvering in some spots and 'surprise' hazards in others that you will only know are coming after they have already killed you at least once. In fact, you are even provided a Steam achievement the first time it gets you, which to me feels like a slap in the face and a Simpson's Nelson laugh meme. In closing, if you like side-scrollers, specifically AP's other games and are a bit of a masochist, you might like this, but otherwise, I have to say no.

[h1]Nadie puede contra la piratería, ni siquiera en el ya medianamente cercano 2051...[/h1] excepto una nave con forma de pito, que tiene 16 armas intercambiables y mejorables; la forma de pito es necesaria e indiscutible. [h2]>A Grandes Rasgos:[/h2] Pues... este titulito, es un grato y bien hecho SHMUP contemporáneo, o bien título de navecitas de movimiento lateral que tiene mecánicas de la vieja escuela, pero la accesibilidad de un título contemporáneo (hay dificultades y modo práctica, para pasarlo conforme al gusto del jugador), ya que si hay un común denominador en los SHMUPS de la vieja escuela, es que son "difíciles"; te obligan aprenderte la stage y que hace tu navecita. Si eres amante de los Shoot em up, como io(por lo que es evidente que está muy sesgada mi reseña; para mí, si un juego es de navesitas es un 7 automático y algo que quiero y debo jugar), es una plena compra, aunque tiene cosas amargas que debes arreglar con la gráfica y el monitor; la pantalla full se corta, y mi manera de arreglarlo fue con el programa de mi grafica. [h2]>De que va la historia:[/h2] Es un SHMUP... eres una nave que va a salvar el mundo de un mal tangible e inefable algunas veces, con banda sonora épica, buenos bosses y power ups que te harán sentir todo un héroe heroico... en este caso el mal mayor son piratas espaciales, y vas a destruir su base. [h3]>Lo Bueno:[/h3] +El gameplay está bien logrado; tienes 4 armas disponibles para usar en el juego: disparo principal y 2 secundarios que son cambiables, además de tu "definitiva" que es de carga; todo ello se mejora con pick ups que salen en el escenario. +En relación a lo anterior, el arsenal el vasto, pues puedes seleccionar esas 4 armas de 16 disponibles y que se desbloquean después de cada stage. +Es un SHMUP "amigable"; si no eres asiduo en el género tiene el modo fácil y el modo practica; que te disparan menos y te ayuda a aprenderte una stage así como probar cositas, ya depende del jugador que pretenda con el juego: acabarlo normal o modo "seas mamon" que es dificilísimo. +Tiene buenos cumbiones bélicos electrónicos, aunque un poco exóticos. +Los bosses no se quedan atrás, están bien hechos. +El arte es bueno. +Tiene cromitos que siempre subsanan parte del precio. +El valor de replay es decente, dependiendo del jugador, aunque hay que señalar que como titulo "arcade" es corto: 1 hora de campaña o poco más dependiendo el jugador. [h3]>Lo Malo:[/h3] -Lo principal: la duración; es un título con 6 stages a la vieja usanza, 1 hora o más dependiendo la habilidad del jugador, aunque se subsana un poco con las dificultades desbloqueables. -Tiene problemas con el full screen y pudo mejorarse el juego en general con un NG+, pero bueno, como SHMUP arcade contemporáneo cumple. [h2]Resumiendo[/h2] Pues... es simple, si te gustan los SHMUP's es una buena adquisición 7/10, aunque tiene problemas técnicos y perdidas de potencial (un NG+) que dejan un sabor agridulce, pese a lo dicho, es un buen título de navecitas, que sirve para amenizar una tarde. [code]Si encontraste útil o divertida esta reseña, considera seguir mi mentor de Steam: [url=store.steampowered.com/curator/33788137] [/url] es gratis~♥ y me ayuda mucho a la hora de redactar. Ojo, mi mentor es NSFW solo mayores de edad.[/code]