Schildmaid MX

Love the pixel graphics and the soundtrack is awesome.

Disclaimer: I won this in a contest run by a fan of the game, but would have happily bought it otherwise (I'd already bought it on itch.io). Although this may look like a typical side scrolling shoot-em-up, it's not intended to be played that way. Instead, the game is built around a unique three-states system - Neutral, Shield, Danger. You start in Neutral mode - colliding with an enemy or anything red will kill you, but hit an enemy bullet? You won't just shug it off - this will nudge you into Shield mode, where the real fun starts. From now until a timer ticks down, you'll be charging all over the screen hoovering up bullets, and powering up your ship into the deal. Take out an enemy craft, and the timer will extend...but when it's depleted, you're dropped into Danger mode. While a cooldown timer ticks down, all enemy bullets turn red meaning, yup, they're now deadly - and once the timer's done, you're back in Neutral mode and ready to rock. The game thus boils down to a tremendously addictive rhythmic flow, from aggression to evasion, and back again, with the geography of the screen flipping in an instant as you switch modes. Coming into it as someone always interested in, but never much good at, the shmup genre I've been very impressed by how well the difficulty curve has been set. There's a hell of a high skill ceiling here, but it's surprisingly welcoming to those of us curious about, but intimidated by, the genre. I can easily see this being something I come back to year after year, and will be keeping a close eye on the exciting dev team behind it.

Schildmaid's bullet absorbing mechanic takes a lot of the intimidation of modern bullet-hell style games and turns it into a whole new kind of fun. Instead of dodging, you get to gobble up enemy fire and use it to your advantage. I can't recommend this one enough for anyone who like space action shooters. A really original spin on shmups.

I've been following the progress of this game to steam for a while, and I wasn't disappointed with the final product. An excellent game with a unique absorption mechanic, great presentation and rocking soundtrack.

Legit Shoot 'em up. Don't let the colorful graphics and "busy" presentation mislead you, as this game can be quite hardcore.

very addictive

This is such a surprising gem, easy to learn and hard to master, constantly pulling me in to this just one more better playthrough, getting that top 10 spot on the leaderboards. I rage quit quite some times on the higher tiers but it’s a blast with all its graphics glory going on while still being manageable to dodge and not be left to chance. I usually play much different games but this really pulled me in for quite some fun hours. I also like the soundtrack quite a lot. If you just a little bit like the genre, this is a great addition to your collection.

The scoring mechanics are immensely satisfying here. The soundtrack is also phenomenal (good soundtrack seems to be a recurring pattern with many of the games that I review). Although the gameplay here is quite enjoyable, it can get a bit repetitive after a while. If you like shmups, then you will almost certainly like this. Get this on sale.