Maku

Maku is a compact survival action game that takes the familiar bullet-hell concept and reverses the pressure by turning the player into the source of an increasingly overwhelming barrage of attacks. Developed and published by whelp, it focuses on surviving crowded arenas, building powerful combinations of weapons and upgrades, defeating bosses, and carrying meaningful progression into later attempts. The basic controls are deliberately approachable, but surviving tougher encounters requires more than simply wandering around the battlefield and hoping automatic attacks handle everything. Much of the gameplay revolves around movement and positioning. Weapons operate with their own attack patterns, so the player needs to understand where to stand and how to move in order to make those attacks effective. Avoiding enemies remains essential, but good positioning also determines how efficiently a build can clear incoming groups. As enemy numbers increase, this becomes a constant balancing act between finding safe openings and remaining close enough to threats for weapons to perform their intended roles. This relatively simple foundation allows the action to become hectic without burdenin…

Got it today for 68 cents, it should've rightfully been 69 cents, but oh well missed opportunities. However, if I had paid the asking price of $2.99 I found it to be highly worth it. Easy to get into with a few minor bugs here and there nothing a restart doesn't fix. Remember it's only 68 cents, even at 2.99 you can forgive the shortfalls, I know I would. I will be playing this more. It has lots of potential, lots of mobs, but you feel you're accomplishing things on the first run.

I picked up this game for 1/7th of my hourly salary because a little birdie told me that the vampire survivors dev went back in time just to copy Maku, so it's a inaccurate to call Maku a "clone" of vampire survivors. This game is kind of like that game, but with bad asf pixelated anime girls, a dope soundtrack, and artstyle, so clearly this comes out on top. Pros: -> Very fun gameplay loop -> Amazing artstyle -> Hubba bubba -> Maku -> Runs on literally anything -> Good character selection & levels -> Great music Cons: -> No Linux build ;( but works fine over proton/steamplay -> Not a huge weapons selection -> Frankly not enough Maku Pick it up if you can, this is fire and I plan on beating it when I get the chance.

I WOULD GIVE IT A MAYBE IF I COULD! Eehhhhhhh it's okay. I love the genre so I enjoyed the game but it's buggy and this is supposed to be a 1.0 release? Yeah idk about that. It needs more time in the oven. It's decent, I'd say 5/10 but the $0.68 prices kicks it up to a 6/10.

FANTASTIC twin stick survivor bullet-hell game. Fuses bullet-hell and reverse bullet-hell for a unique challenge. Played well on Steam Deck. Bosses and enemies progress well per level. The game has multiple challenge modes and super cute retro themed pixel art too.

Super fun and lots of characters to unlock!