ASTROLANCER

not always sold on "the guardian legend (1988) by way of more formalistic game design", but the top-down levels nonetheless absolutely shred anything its spiritual predecessor was doing in that regard and the scrollers, while pretty humdrum, end with bosses that heavily invoke modern bullet-hell while still feeling somewhat distinct from the CAVEs and touhous of the world. the more direct inspirations, as well as some niche incidental interactions, really sell it as the successor to a strange, oddball NES adventure stg. really sweet little thing

I was definitely most interested in the bosses, just 'cause of my proclivities, but the other parts of the game's stages were honestly really nice. I quite liked looking around for all of the secrets hidden everywhere—that was actually like a third of the game for me—and the little intro screens at the start of each stage did a lot more than i would've expected them too. It's honestly just a really good game.

A more than competent game that follows the formula of The Guardian Legend. It combines top-down, screen-by-screen action-adventure with vertical SHMUP sections, with the latter being the highlight of the game for me. The enemy pool is a little small, even for its short runtime, but the game does occasionally throw a new enemy type at you to keep you from getting too comfortable. The levels are also a little formulaic, but again, at only a couple of hours long it didn't get tiresome. Fans of The Guardian Legend or bullet hell games in general will probably enjoy it.

It's nice. I had a great big smile on my face the entire time I was playing it.

Pretty fun little game!

Absolute blast of an action game (with no Guardian Legend nostalgia required), lengthy for the genre but beautifully paced. I'd especially recommend it to players curious about dipping their toes into shooting games, since it pairs its real-ass bullet-dodging shootouts with friendly checkpoints and unlimited lives.