Horizon Shift '81

Horizon Shift '81 is a little retro themed shmup surprisingly well made despite a few little bugs. [b]Ship[/b] Your basic ship can shoot, move horizontally, flip vertically, jump, dash and release a bomb when your power meter is full. With a dash you move quickly left or right and knock out any small enemies, bullets and hit bigger enemies standing on or moving through your horizon line. If you fall through a hole in your horizon line a flip will let you fall in the opposite direction allowing you to save your ship. [b]Levels[/b] The levels, 36 in total, are very well balanced with increasing difficulty, they start out easy and short and before any wave can become too repetitive a new wave sets in. Every 6th level is a boss level. Even though most enemy waves are scripted there are random elements like weapon upgrades and where the aliens drop you need to save. This keeps the game fun while playing levels over and over trying to progress or improve your scores. [b]Bonus level[/b] When you've saved 5 aliens you get a bonus level at the end of your current level. You need to clear a field of blocks arkanoid style which unlocks an enemy you then need to hit a couple times. It's pre…

Horizon Shift '81 is a fun, if uneven, neo-arcade game with a compelling core loop. It's slightly inferior to the first one, but hits most of the right nostalgia points. The reason I can't recommend it is simple - there's a Unity "trial version" overlay in the bottom right corner, which has existed since 2019 and will likely never be fixed. Leaderboard support is also disappointing, you can only see the first 10 results and there's no real-time ticker to show progress as you play. I enjoy Flump's work, and it's not terribly expensive - especially on sale, but the missing polish pushes this to a no for me. If you find the premise intriguing, just play the original Horizon Shift.

It's like all of your favorite retro arcade games, blended into one. Still feeling fresh, you protect your line in the middle, jumping, dashing and switching sides. Difficult like most arcades. https://youtu.be/r8D89Xx-dvk

Fun arcade shmup inspired by Atari games/ 80s arcade games. If you're wanting to pick up a high-score grindy game, this one's for you. Online leaderboards and everything. But not much else. Wait till it's on sale

Disclaimer: My scores/reviews are almost always based on having bought the game at close to the "lowest historical price" on steam at time of purchase. Quick score: 3/5 Things I disliked: Forced to hold fire button, even though there is seemingly no reason to ever not fire due to a lack of ammo conservation or accuracy mechanics. Would like to see an auto fire.

Cool game with an interesting game mechanic. I really enjoyed my first few runs. The game has a nice array of power-ups and a few surprises that I didn't expect. For fans of retro arcade shooters! Check it out!