Yellow Trouble

[後半に日本語レビューあり] [h1]NEO-GEO Spirit in an 8-Way Water Gun Arcade STG[/h1] A horizontal scrolling STG where you repel "duck-like" invaders with water guns, shooting freely in 8 directions. The world has a lighthearted feel, but the substance within is a thoroughly well-crafted arcade experience. The highlight is the Pulse system. Stocks build up through attacking enemies and collecting orbs, with a short press unleashing a Pulse Wave (bullet slowdown + fire seal) and a long press firing a Pulse Shot (bullet cancel + high damage). When stocks are full, scoring mode activates and orbs convert into score bonuses—meaning the more you rely on pulse for safety, the less your score grows. This trade-off between risk and scoring creates considerable strategic depth. Two modes are available: Arcade (8 stages total, branching paths & multiple endings) and Quest (run & gun + RPG leveling). Three characters with distinct performance stats and multiplayer via 3-player local co-op / Remote Play Together are supported. Between the retro arcade-style pixel art and everything else, this is arguably a gem where the developer's NEO-GEO generation arcade love can be felt throughout. HHF-chan's comment: "A water gun STG packed with arcade soul—blasting those cute ducks just feels sooo good!" [h1]NEO-GEO魂が宿る、8方向水鉄砲アーケードSTG[/h1] 水鉄砲で「アヒルのような」侵略者を撃退する、8方向射撃の横スクロールSTGだ。軽やかな世界観だが、その中身はしっかりと作り込まれたアーケード体験になっている。 本作の見どころは、パルスシステムにある。敵への攻撃やオーブ回収でストックが溜まり、短押しでパルスウェーブ（敵弾減速＋弾封印）、長押しでパルスショット（弾消し＋高威力）と使い分ける。ストック満タンでスコアモードが発動し、オーブが得点ボーナスに変換される構造で、パルスに頼るほど安全だが得点は伸びない。このリスクと点稼ぎのトレードオフが、なかなかの戦略的奥行きを生んでいる。 アーケード（全8ステージ、分岐＆マルチエンディング）とクエスト（ラン＆ガン＋RPG育成）の2モード構成に、性能の異なる3キャラと3人ローカルCo-op/Remote Play Togetherのマルチプレイが可能。レトロアーケード調のピクセルアートも含め、NEO-GEO世代の開発者のアーケード愛が随所に感じられる佳作だと言えるだろう。 HHFちゃんコメント: 「アーケード魂が詰まった水鉄砲STG。可愛いアヒルを撃退するの、気持ちいいワー！」 [quote][b]Check out our Steam curator ([url=store.steampowered.com/curator/36364102-Horny-Hentai-Festival/]link[/url]) , YouTube channel ([url=www.youtube.com/curatorhhf/]link[/url]), and X(Twitter) ([url=x.com/hhfcurator]link[/url])![/b][/quote]

Shock troopers like game made by DrearyWeary, previously made a shmup called Heli-Cats. Let me start out by saying I was initially not too interested in this type of game and I do have some personal gripes with the game but I also thought it was charming enough to get a 1cc out of it. The game involves choosing between 3 characters. A three way shot type, a straight forward shot and one unstable shot with the benefit of having speed. You’ll have three health bars and three meters that can be used for pulse wave or charging your shot. The game revolves around being able to frequently use your pulse wave in order to either delete bullets or slow them down. When you kill enemies they will drop energy orbs that can be used to fuel the duration of your pulsewave or can be used to fuel your three bars for pulsewave. (tip: if you use a pulse wave on a big wave and then charge your shot, you’ll throw out a bigger shot, once you collect the energy orbs it will negate the cooldown of pulsewave and immediately will allow you to refill your bar for shockwave even faster.) The game definitely punishes you hard in the later levels if you don’t use pulse waves in tandem with your charge shot. (I realized this way too late). Normal will start to feel hard if you don’t. Also while in pulse wave, if you take damage you will take only a small amount of damage to your health bar as opposed to the entire stock. The game has around 8 stages + the two secret stages. I personally thought the music was too tame for my taste and the gameplay early on felt kind of slow but it makes up for it on the later stages. There's also a different mode aside from arcade called quest run which I’ll admit, I didn’t spend my time on there but it’s pretty much an RPG mode of sorts which will increase your stats in levels. The game has multiple endings and multiple paths. I only completed the game with Fido and unlocked the two secrets stages with them. The only things I found annoying were the little ducks that would slow you down (I figured out you gotta charge shot them).If you haven’t figured it out already it’s not a twin stick and more so inspired by old school omnidirectional shooters. It’s a decent game.

Good action game with really catchy music. It's an arcade action title that has a quest mode and what I am currently playing (i died, so decided I would start again anyway with a different character now that I know what I am doing). There are 3 characters to choose from with notably different stats on speed and weapons range, but the reason I really like this is there is quite a good EXP upgrade system to power up. Now, there IS a map with B button but don't think it's like an MV or anything where you will get lost, you can find your away around easily and where you need to go next. There are hidden secrets too and you can get an EXP upgrade to help you locate those. Overall it's fun, and all I really usually do is play 5 minutes of a new game to see if I will keep it, but i was instantly engaged and played till my first death, and I enjoyed every minute. It supports the full 144 fps of my panel, very low input lag, and is a great 16 bit actoin adventure title (more action). It's also really cute and the story is told as you go along cause the porotagonist is "like what are these things suddenly on our streets" and so on, but very simplistic in keeping with the aciton oriented theme. I will definitely play this one till the end, max out the stats and probably play arcade mode afterwards too. Recommended for those who like 16 bit overhead action games.

A super solid shmup/run & gun (most comparable to Shock Troopers) with a ton of appreciation and understanding for the genre. The Pulse mechanic allows for a ton of flexibility and skill expression between holding it for score, popping it for bullet weaving & point blanking, or charging up for big bursts. This is all before the quest mode that has a totally different feel to it, injecting a skill tree and a connected map in ways that kind of remind me of classic Resident Evil (or perhaps Dino Crisis 2 is more applicable). Plus there's co-op, an above-average OST, and super charming and interesting visuals. One of the most engaging indie shmups in quite a while IMO.