ASTRO AQUA KITTY

This game is a hidden gem for sure. It's a shmup with a campaign, some good difficulty, and some great gameplay options. Basic gameplay is piloting a ship through caverns, destroying alien life forms, pirates, turrets, large bosses, etc. All the while, you're leveling up, collecting gear, outfitting your ship for different styles, picking/using both offensive and defensive skills, etc. It has cute graphics, a great soundtrack, controls quite well (it takes a bit of time to get used to RB turning your ship), and the different playstyles are fun. I picked the heal support class and focused mainly on a large AOE wave weapon with torpedoes as a secondary, but there are plasma bolts, lasers, seeking burst-fire weapons, bombs, and a lot more. It's not a bullet-hell game (at least on normal), but it does have some pretty decent difficulty towards the end of the campaign. There are various difficulty levels you can pick at start, but normal is a good starting point, and I imagine only the pros will pick the higher ranks. Overall, if you like shmup games but also like the approachability of a campaign with save points and leveling up, this is a great option. Right up there with…

Cats sail cosmic seas Lasers chase drifting stardust foes Milk meets starfire waves

Astro Aqua Kitty is a shump that thinks outside the box. It does this through character selection and its free-roam level design. There are missions, rescues, and puzzles—small and easy, but still puzzles nonetheless. I’ll list the pros and cons so you can decide for yourself whether to buy it or not. For me, it was worth every penny. Pros: Exploration is a strong point and adds depth beyond standard shump gameplay. Ship upgrades are satisfying and help shape your progress. Different builds allow for varied playstyles, letting you tailor your approach. A diverse range of enemies keeps encounters interesting. Strong art style and presentation, and the game runs smoothly with no noticeable bugs or issues. Last but not least—cats, and space pirate bunnies! Cons: Ship upgrades feel somewhat limited, which can make progression feel less rewarding over time. There isn’t a large diversity of weapons, which may reduce experimentation and variety in gameplay. No sequel, leaving the experience feeling like it could have expanded further. Final Thoughts: Astro Aqua Kitty is well worth the money. It starts off fun and accessible, but as you progress the difficulty ramps …

It's not at all bad, the art style and intersting levels are amazing but doesn't make me want to play it again on expert difficulty. (Hint: play on "laid back"/easiest so enemies don't take forever to destroy in level 3 or later) [h2] What is the character of the game? [/h2] I would describe it as a "tactical" shmup, like descent (the game from 1995), it takes consideration and patience to play, you can't just go in and light everything up, that doesn't work. An that's because of the "bad" weapons and the sheer volume of enemies you encounter. Each of the weapons you can have is "bad" in it's own unique way and there is no upgrade system or "build" to patch the shortcomings of the weapons. BUT, you can also counter or straight out ignore enemy strengths with certain weapons. So you better carry a variety of guns around, for different targets. Weapons can be bad in various ways: [list] [*] first off: enemies can be all 360° in front of you but you can only shoot forwards and backwards. So all straight-forward shooting weapons are inherently bad. [*] For example there is a laser which does huge damage, BUT it can fire only 2 seconds an then you need 2 minutes to rechage the energ…

The game starts off great but the last third the difficulty creep is too much, it's not that it's impossible only unenjoyable and grindy. The inventory level system is meh, I finished the game without ever seeing the weapons I wanted at max level. If I had to play it again I would try easy mode.

I feel really split about my thumb down here because, on one hand, it’s a well-executed game without a bug that has great visuals, good soundtracks, and some fun gamplay elements. However, while the gameplay is fun at the beginning, it gets old relatively quickly. And the main reason for this is because the substantial upgrade to your abilities kinda stoped after 1-2 (stage) levels. Also, at first, I was under the impression that you can swap out the pilot and engineer through the game, but that appears not to be the case, which limits the variety of gameplay you can experience through a gameplay quite significantly. As you progress through the different levels, the enemies keep getting stronger and more difficult, but you don’t acquire any new abilities to cope with them. You can buy or collect higher level weapons, but they only help you keep up with enemies that also have higher stats. The puzzle-solving part of the game also wasn’t set up progressively. There wasn’t any puzzle at all at the beginning, but suddenly at some later levels, they spring random puzzles at us. They just feel out of place and end up just being annoying and not that fun. It's crazy for me that the ga…