Hexapoda

Interesting game. Kinda mixed experience overall but had quite some ideas with the bug ambientation. It's probably more balanced around normal or hard. I played on "manic" the whole time and I felt like sometimes the bosses shot a barrage of undodgeable bullets, between the fast controls and the big ship hitbox. Luckily the game likes to fill you with bombs and lifes if ytou max the bomb stock so it wasn't too bad.

Disclaimer: I received my Hexapoda review key free of charge from dev/publisher TOMAGameStudio through the Steam Curator program; I'm not affiliated with TOMAGameStudio nor did I receive any kind of compensation for my review. Hexapoda is a cool, 3-colors, extremely sharp looking vertical shoot'em up. The story revolves around the player trying to explore an hostile world filled with giant, bug-like creatures, on a mission to collect alien samples to analyze. In a well known DARIUS-like fashion, Hexapoda offers several different routes that branch from the main path, each one of them sporting different enemies and different bossfight(s). Controls are fairly simple: one button to shoot your main gun, the other for a screen-clearing bomb. The powerups are also straightforward and quite traditional: there are a number of different gun types such as the laser beam, the spread fire or the homing bullets and each one can be upgraded along the way, allowing for more fire-power (or greater spread). The power-ups aren't permanent so you'll often find yourself switching from one to the other as soon as the enemy drops them in order not revert to the vanilla shot. On Normal difficulty leve…

A very nicely done game.At first I thought it maybe a Mushihimasama type game but it's an old school shooter with alien insects instead. Great graphical style, atmosphere and soundtrack and very fun to play. Has proper Tate Mode too.

All in all, I'm having a pretty good time with this game. A few nitpicks: I appreciate that the bullets are all a bright pink color, making them very visible against the dark background. But the same can't be said of the enemies, who often blend in, and it's easier than it should be to crash into them in the chaos. In a game like this, it feels unfair when you lose a life because of enemy visibility. Your ship moves VERY slowly. And that's necessary for the kind of micrododging you have to do through dense patterns, but most bullet hell games give you a focus button you can hold down to slow your movement, with a faster base speed for bigger dodges. In this game, you move at focused speed the entire time, which makes you rely on bombs for a lot of situations. The game is very generous with bombs thankfully, but I still think it would feel a lot better to play with two speeds. Other than that though, I really enjoy the look and feel of this game. The shot types are great, the patterns are beautiful and challenging, and the backgrounds and enemies feel very unsettling and alien in the best possible way. Despite having a few issues, I still definitely recommend this for people who …

This is another instance of bugs and shmups being a good combination. There are multiple branching paths to take that will put you up against different enemies and bosses to keep you on your toes. This adds a fair bit of replay value. If you like shmups (especially of the bullet hell variety) and this is on sale, this is an easy recommendation.

YES