SATAZIUS

Replayed this today after having only played it back in 2019 and not remembering much of it. The game is overall very good for an old-school shoot 'em' up. The choice of power-ups is cool, the gameplay is fun and how some levels can scroll up and down pretty far with different paths is ingenious. Controls with gamepad are responsive but a bit finicky as I kept crashing against walls, especially on ceilings and floors, by moving just a tad too much. I died more like this than from enemy bullets. The bosses are uninspired but good enough. They're fair if I managed to beat them at easy difficulty, but I doubt I could do so at normal. I hated the music, with a few exceptions, but the graphics are clear and nice, even at lower resolution. One full playthrough is short at around 50 minutes, but I doubt very much most players could do it the first time around.

The first game from veterans Astro Port (who remembers their [b]Dezaemon 2[/b] games and early freeware releases on PC, back when they were called Dark Hell Company?) to land on Steam and it's good - just like most if not all of their catalogue. Despite the title (which is also, dunno if coincidence or not, the name of a starship seen in Space: 1999), it has only some elements of [b]Gradius[/b]: the loadout between levels or when continuing, bosses with cores to shoot, and also several levels that are more like obstacle courses with bigger danger from crashing into the scenery than being shot down by an enemy bullet. The power-up system is however closer to [b]Darius[/b], there is much less chance to end up woefully underpowered in case of death, and there's even a self-recharging special attack (it goes faster when not shooting) that can turn the tide of a boss battle when unleashed. Was it an arcade game from the 1990s, this would be one of those derivative games from smaller developers, taking inspiration from more popular titles while still being decent if not more. And it's not a bad thing, as [b]Satazius[/b] takes so much inspiration while still managing to be its own thing…

This game reminds me of R-Type, and that's mostly a good thing. Other reviewers are right of course. This game is ridiculously, unreasonably hard. But so was R-Type. R-Type Leo was the only easy one and, consequently, the only one I beat lol Turns out, just like R-Type, part of it is a puzzle game, certain loadouts will be necessary to deal with certain foes including bosses. You're going to have to dedicate yourself to learning bullet patterns and what not. Just like R- yeah there's clearly a pattern here. I usually suck at these kinds of games. But I love them because of the vibes and adrenaline they put out. I'm so happy there is another shump similar to R-Type and, despite my pathetically low playtime and horrendous skill issues, I am compelled to recommend this to everyone with the caveat of "you will continue to die."

This is the jankest still-fun shmup I've ever played. Instant classic. You will learn the patterns. You will die, probably a lot. You will learn which weapons work against what and by damnit you will ENJOY IT.

Makes the mistake of forcing you to hold down the attack button when there is never any reason not to be shooting, but I fixed it with a custom steam controller config.

It's a nice Gradius-type. Worth playing.