1917 - The Alien Invasion DX

C-Tier shmup I really wanted to like this but it's just too janky. I love the pixel art and the aesthetic is gonzo bonkers. However, it's just a bit buggy and unpolished.

1917 - The Alien Invasion DX has excellent looking pixel art style with an interesting WWI fighting demon aliens in spaaace!!! aesthetic. But the game is all style of substance. I like myself a simple, no frills shoot 'em up. I really do. I don't mind at all a weaker, usually more spread out shot that allows faster movement and a powerful narrower shot that slows my airplane down. However, neither of the two planes I have access to at the start of the game feel that good. The basic starter plane has a fine normal shot. Maybe on the weak side, but that forces the player to switch over to the power shot. However, the power shot doesn't feel good at all. The bullets fly in a zigzag pattern that takes a moment to get all the power where the player wants it. And it doesn't feel strong enough for some of the bigger regular stage enemies. So, it is easy to fall behind on the route and get overwhelmed. The only place the power shots feel strong is versus the stage bosses. Which really do feel like they do down faster than some of the bigger regular stage enemies. Though, I would rather quicker bosses, than drawn out ones. I thought maybe the slower, but stronger plane would be to my lik…

Great fun

Despite my long playtime this is a game I only partially liked. As far as SHMUPs go this is certainly one of the games of all time. It isn't bad. There's lots to like. I think I'm just less into the whole bullet hell aspect than I need to be in order to love this.

The date: April 15th, 1917. As the citizens of Verdun-sur-Meuse had believed the fighting along their city had finally waned, the bones of all the fallen soldiers could only look on as a lone Fokker Dr-1 takes flight against a threat too outrageous for words. 1917: The Alien Invasion DX takes place in an alternate WWI where the world is violently besieged by aliens. You play Dr. Brunhild Stahlmüller, performing an solo act of vernichtungsstrategie against the aliens and flying her 'Red Beezlebub' to the heart of the interplanetary menace. The game has a nod to the developer's earlier title Sturmfront: The Mutant War as the assistant to Dr. Stahlmuller, a Dr. Hartmuth Griesgram, is a key character in Sturmfront. The game functions well as a tate shump with plenty of risks and rewards for good flying. One specific factor in the gameplay loop is the use of a score locking pickup, in which the combo you build from downing enemies increases as long as the combo is unlocked, but can quickly drop if you're not careful. Once the combo is locked by a pickup at the end of the level, the combo can be continued into the next stage, and so on. The Red Beezlebub also come equipped with two diffe…

The History Channel when it's three in the morning.