Iron Skys

⠀

Adorable roguelite shmup! I wish there were more upgrades but the game is great so far, lovely little game and absolutely worth playing since it's free

Iron Skys is a really fun little shoot em up that immediately gave me that classic arcade feeling. I play as a lone pilot trying to defend the empire from an overwhelming fleet, and the game wastes almost no time getting me into the action. I liked how focused it is because there is nothing distracting me from dodging enemy fire and trying to survive the next wave. The vertically scrolling combat is simple to understand but still gives me plenty to think about. Enemy ships fill the screen with bullets, so I have to stay mobile while looking for safe gaps and opportunities to attack. I enjoyed that balance because the game constantly makes me pay attention without requiring a huge number of complicated controls. The weapon system gives the runs some variety. I can choose different alternate firing modes and special attacks, while passive upgrades gradually make my ship stronger. I liked experimenting with different combinations because an upgrade that feels useful in one situation does not always feel ideal in another. The boss and mini boss encounters also provide good milestones and force me to change how I approach the fight. The pixel art has a nice old school look that fits …

A really nice old-school shoot'em up. Actually, even a bit Bullet Hell. With good music, a coherent pixel art style, small hit boxes, tight controls and rogue-like mechanics. You start with one type of shot and after each defeated boss you get one of two random upgrades to choose from. Mostly these are additional shot types that can be used as options. You only have one life, but you have hit points, which you replenish by shooting down enemies. I think it's a good game. You can definitely find worse free shoot'em up games on Steam. But you should also know three things: 1. the key mapping is designed for the keyboard. So if you want to play it with a controller, you should briefly familiarize yourself with the key mapping setting via the Steam client. 2. do not look at the high score list before you have an entry! It will hardlock the game. 3. the difficulty level of this game is: Suck it up, noob!

I had to hit enter in the console after launching in steam to get the game to launch, it is a pretty good bullet hell shooting game. After beating the first boss you earn the ability to shoot behind you. I think the key early is just making sure you don't get hit and fire shots where you can. This was covered as part of this week's episode of Free2Play Weekly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVITE6CbT1Q&t=1643s

I'll be honest, the controls are kinda horrible and the firing upgrades are separate which is just a difficulty mechanic. It has no saves or checkpoints. I'm not gonna rate it hard unless the problems are fixed.