Armored Lab Force VULVEHICLES

One of the more experimental games from this developer—and… a bit weak? Still, considering how entertaining their titles usually are, it manages to land on the positive side where others might not. That said, I’d recommend exploring their other games before diving into this one. It has anime-style story girls in cut-scenes, strange mechanics where you float around and must manage your air-time in a crumbling enviro, and as usual a clear expectation that the player should crank up the difficulty to get the real experience. This time, though, I wasn’t motivated enough to do so. Yes, the fights can get hectic when the enemies actually fight back. On easy mode, they mostly stand around like targets, with only a boss or the occasional mid-tier enemy making an effort to harm you. Each character has two vehicles with different stats for mass and weapons. As the difficulty ramps up, you really need to memorize what each vehicle does, because swapping between them while stationary on the ground is a core mechanic—and once things get tough, there’s no time to stop and think about your choice. All in all, when these mechanics and anime-style cut-scenes come together, the result feels lacki…

Pretty much this game is like Blaster Master, except at the cost of no dismounting your Metal Attacker, you can have 3 tag-switching MAs at once. Also at the cost of switching weapons for your MA, tag-team switching to different pilots counts for each her own set of arsenal weapons as well as having a Omega Weapon, and there's lots of bosses. Like BM2 on Sega Genesis with a hint of BM-Zero series' upgrades, it's pretty straightforward except with a slight difference unlike in Blaster Master series: you go in after choosing 3 Pilots between one out of two of their Metal Attackers, go in, kill enemies and (unlike in BM) clear the environment out of your way (or play smart with it and use it against the enemies), get to the Area Boss, junk him, move on to the next stage. Get through Act 3 and be ready to face a nasty Mega-Mutant/Maverick boss at the 4th parts then get a Permanent Upgrade (Defense, Flight Time + Charge, Full HP bonus, Omega Ammo Max-up), for your run as you move to the next bionme. BM soundtrack is better but this is no slouch and quite fun to go through. Also you may have to take a hint of Deathsmiles by rotating attacking directions on a button press to about-fac…

Pretty short game but with many difficulty levels, so there's good replayability.

Always open to experimentation, Astro Port references [b]Blaster Master[/b] this time round, with the vehicles having even the same cute wheels when on ground, although the core is always that of a shooter, no pilots leaving the crafts or other perspectives while playing. This is the most story-intensive AP game to date, using cutscenes with talking characters, akin to a visual novel, between every stage; events from most of the previous games are referenced more or less heavily, with even possible hints to the two AP titles never released on Steam, [b]Steam Action Adventum[/b] (the irony) and [b]Super Tank Warfare Adventia[/b]. There are many interesting themes, starting from the constantly unstable state of Earth and the larger galaxy ever since the original Gogoh Army invasion, the gray morality and shifting allegiances - the Terran Defense Force is an enemy here - and the relations between earthlings and other alien species, torn between frequent wars and genuine hopes for collaboration. But it chooses to be the most light-hearted since [b]Witch-bot Meglilo[/b], involving a cast of [i]moe[/i] girls whose designs are bound to raise some eyebrows (fabric doesn't work like that a…

This tactical run-based shmup platformer with destructible terrain is currently one of my favorite games in the shmup genre! :) First of all: No, this is not hentai. The game has visual novel-esque briefings with sexy anime girls, but that's about it. Also, I shortly tried Blaster Master Zero, because I saw people compare the series to ALFV. Well, both are retro 2D platformers with tank-like vehicles that can hover under certain circumstances. But the controls and game concept are completely different, so except for the theme, I feel the comparison is a little misleading. [h1]About the game[/h1] A single run consists of 6 areas. Each area is subdivided into 3 (linear) stages, and has a boss fight at the end. At the start of each area, you pick 3 out of the 12 vehicles, with their different weapon systems, and their various strengths and weaknesses. For example, one vehicle is equipped with a sonic weapon that can shoot through terrain without destroying it. Another vehicle can fire a horizontal laser beam that nearly instantly bursts through the terrain and deals a lot of damage, but has some cooldown. Two vehicles have a different type of homing weapon, there's a flamethrower t…

I liked it. It feels like a good arcade game, like from old good times. Story is simple and light, jokes are silly and funny. The only bad things I can tell you about this game are it's balance and resolution. You have a good amount of vehicles, but why would you use them, if you can wipe the whole screen with just 2? (Resolution is fixable with Magpie or Lossless scaling.)