WOLFLAME

I've recently played though about a half-dozen games by developer Astro Port. This is the only one I found really enjoyable. There were a couple that were okay to meh (Armed Seven, Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser), but most SUCKED (Satazius, Steel Strider, Gigantic Army). So if you've tried those games and avoid their games (wise), you may want to at least give this shooter a shot. It's like a poor man's Twin Cobra.

Cool

WOLFLAME is a classic vertical scrolling shooter that wears its arcade inspirations proudly. Developed by ASTRO PORT and published by Henteko Doujin, the game delivers a straightforward yet highly polished shoot-'em-up experience centered on fast reflexes, relentless enemy assaults, and old-school gameplay design. Rather than chasing modern trends or filling the screen with elaborate progression systems, WOLFLAME focuses on the fundamentals that made the genre popular in arcades: precise controls, memorable boss encounters, escalating difficulty, and the constant pursuit of mastery. Set during a desperate conflict between humanity and the alien Adorian forces, the game places players behind the controls of the advanced combat vessel Siebold. The mission is simple but urgent: strike back against the invaders and reclaim a colony world that has fallen under enemy control. The narrative remains light throughout the campaign, serving primarily as a backdrop for the action, but it successfully establishes a sense of urgency that drives the player forward from one battlefield to the next. The story never overshadows the gameplay, which is exactly what fans of traditional shooters are li…

great game all ways one more go

After the more "modern" experience of [b]Steel Strider[/b], Astro Port goes back to its roots here: just a shot button you can put a weight on, a bomb button, and that's it. While it gets frantic on harder difficulties, the game is not a bullet hell, and reminds me a lot of Toaplan games and especially [b]Raiden[/b], with those point bonuses revealed when some ground structures are destroyed, and one weapon being a lock-on laser, if not looking as great as the laser whip of [b]Raiden II[/b]. There is even a [i]tate[/i] mode if you can rotate the screen 90 degrees (I mean, I bought a monitor that can do that also to play games that support such a mode). The game is awkwardly inserted into the Astro Saga timeline as something happening to a division of the Terran Defense Force (an army seen in other AP games), in some faraway place, a few years before [b]Gigantic Army[/b]. Totally unnecessary. The power-up system is simple yet mildly original, as the pickup icons have arrows indicating on which side of the ship the weapon drone will be installed. I found the three weapons to be very balanced in their strengths and weaknesses, making a mix-and-match more convenient than just having …

[h3]Play on EASY difficulty! [/h3] and if you die, do RESTART. Always play with max gear level. I like the enemy designs, and some of the music sounds like ARMORED CORE 4 music (turn up the volume). Even on easy difficulty, it's still pretty tough. It's not such a bullet hell, but rather an action game where you've gotta quickly react to enemy attacks by expecting them and being mobile, or dropping a bomb to save you. The smallest most insignificant looking enemies are some of the deadliest by shooting some crazy fast projectiles toward your terribly slow ship. They're worse than the bosses. So many things can show up and immediately kill you like pop up turrets, or aircraft showing up at the edge of the screen. Bombs are for defense. Always stay mobile. STORY TIME! (or extended review or something) This is the first game I've played in the "upgrade ship midgame" genre. I did beat the game on normal difficulty with minimal gear level and that was a massive pain in the butt. I died like 150 times through that. The repetitiveness of dying so often to enemy's quick attacks was tiring. This game is mathematically designed to kill you. -The upgrade system takes your attention away …