Teslapunk

[table][th] Review by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34633003-Gaming-Masterpieces/lists/] Gaming Masterpieces [/url] - The greatest games of all time on Steam. [/th][/table] The Martians are attacking Earth (again), and only you can stop them in this very playable bullet hell shmups. The main gameplay consists of evading bullets and collecting voltage cubes to fill your three voltage tanks. A full tank allows you to use your mega attack - a bullet canceling energy beam, that also automatically activates should you get hit. This saves your life, but only if at least two voltage tanks are full. Your spaceship is equipped with a spreading shot or a powerful straight laser beam with more power that also activates focus (slowing your ship down). The campaign leads you through six levels with mini bosses and a boss at the end, until you meet, greet and kill the Emperor of Mars. An additional survival mode gives you a completely different challenge - just survive as long as possible and collect coins to upgrade your ship. Three difficulty levels, a rather unique visual presentation, online highscores, collectibles, controller support, and the ability to replay already finished levels for training purposes add to make this a nice shmups I enjoyed playing.

I had no idea about this game until I scrolled by it on Keymailer. Turns out it came out on the Wii U back in 2016. Been playing a couple of Shmups recently (RefRain, Graze Counter, Danmaku Unlimited, etc.) so gotten a taste for the genre so requested a key. I was honestly expecting jank (which is enjoyable in itself) due to the obscurity but it's actually a solid title. It shines in level theming which gives each zone a strong identity. Not just the "Nikolai Tesla battles the Raving Martians" framing, but each stage is given a title, movie-like poster card and with few exceptions doesn't reuse enemies between levels. The backgrounds avoid the usual cliches of clouds, cityscape, desert, etc. and go for odd abstract choices instead like Under Hypnosis' which has you scrolling over mechanical drawings of rockets and the level's antagonists having the barren chassis of prototype flying machines. The game has a great eclectic soundtrack that the game synchronises with to stellar effect, kicking in when the first barrage of bullets is fired, speeding up when the background accelerates adding to the sense of speed or contorting for everyone phase switch of a boss. The Voltage Burst mechanic adds a decent tactical wrinkle. 3 potential stocks of meter, 1 for brief increased damage, 2 for the ability to eat a hit (as well as eating any meter you had above that). I will say that I think Shmup veterans will handle Expert difficulty with ease. I'm only new-ish to the genre and I got to level 5 (out of 6) without taking a death by Day 3.

Fantastic shooter with stunning graphics and very cool muzak! My favourite mode is the 'survival mode'. A little tip for that mode: Get the magnet ship ASAP and level it up to increase your distance and get into the top 10 of the leaderboards! Great game, 10 out of 10 stars!

Been really enjoying this game. Found myself getting lost in the survival mode quite a bit. The arcade mode is fun and challenging. Trying to top my own score as I play. Graphics are nice but I do warn you, the flashing can really mess with you! You can turn down the intensity of it though. Its quite a good game in the shoot em' up genre. Unique enemies, challenging bosses! The different difficulties certainly change the pace of the game up. Highly recommend the game if you're into the genre. Won't regret it :)

Don't be fooled by the effusive positive reviews. Let's be real, this game is about as "complicated" as a Flash game circa 2000. Graphics are absolutely hideous and the scrolling backgrounds are offensive. The entire game is basically grey and there's no creativity in the enemy sprites or their behavior... they just slowly float off the top of the screen... sit there... emit some bullets... and be blown up. Mechanics are incredibly weak and there's no satisfaction found (for me anyways) with the bullet canceling. I've played a couple hundred shoot-em-up games in my life... can confidently say there is absolutely no reason to spend money here.

Really Good

A simple three button shmup (Standard Fire, Focus Fire, Hyper) that does a great job of presenting some of the STG basics in an easily palatable format (even if the story takes itself with exactly zero seriousness). The scoring in this game is equally basic (hyper bullet cancels multiply your score for each bullet cleared, a multiplier that diminishes with time). As your multiplier increases, the game gets harder. Bosses are interesting a varied, utilizing some classic STG tropes. All in all, this shmup will probably not be among any true shmuppers top picks (certainly not mine), but it is solid, and enjoyable for it's zaniness; a great way for beginners to get their feet wet. Would recommend.

Literally one of the greatest games of all time.

Had lots of fun playing Teslapunk! Its a very challenging game, as you have to constantly dodge screenfuls of bullets and shoot down armies of martian invaders. I spent much of my time in arcade mode, which took me a bunch of tries to finish on novice mode lol. I really enjoyed the variety of enemies and bosses, as well as the trippy looking projectiles and obstacles you have to dodge. This game is very visually intense and stylish, plus it has a killer soundtrack. I loved that the bossfights syncs with the music as well. All in all, a super unique and enjoyable bullet hell experience!