The Adventures of Ten and Till

I'll probably never beat it, because it's a long game and gets pretty difficult around the midway point, but it is fairly generous in that it lets you continue (from a checkpoint, I believe) so it's possible that with enough time I'll grind it out. That's besides the point though; I'm just mentioning it because I hate reviewing games I haven't finished or at least gotten close to 1CC'ing. This is one of my favorite indie shmups regardless of that. This is the only STG I've played that really captures the mood and atmosphere and whimsy of SNES-era RPG's somehow. The shooting is great; variant #83038 of Cave-style, you can switch between the two characters for focused or spread shots on the fly; If you hold the switch characters button down it slows your movement. The scoring gameplay is fantastic and is based around building a multiplier by killing enemies that are shining. Most enemies shine when you get near them while bosses and a few other enemies require a certain amount of time to pass first. There is a button to toggle between short range and long range shots, which is useful for keeping yourself close to zako enemies. From the 1CC's I've watched the game is quite lon…

I want to like this game, but could not get it to work properly with a controller! Returned. Please add proper controller support and I will gladly re-purchase!

This game definitely blew my expectations! A lot of passion went into just about every aspect of the game, but I particularly love the game's soundtrack and minimalist yet expressive story. Despite having no difficulty setting, this game's mechanics allow it to have a highly flexible difficulty ramp. While the most casual of shmup players may appreciate the game's autosave, the more experienced players will find a decent challenge in scoring and completing the special 10th stage. The UX of the game is very similar to the style of arcade game that it emulates, so it can be somewhat confusing to drop in and play the game. There are a number of aspects of the game (controls, scoring, the names of the two girls), that I only learned from reading the game's manual. The collision takes time to get used to for players not particularly familiar with the CAVE-style hitbox. So... while I do love this game, I also recommend that the game be approached with an open mind, especially for people not particularly accustomed to shmup conventions.

I can't beat the final boss for the life of me, but this is a great little Shmup. Cool music, great sprites, relatively forgiving hitbox, although it does get pretty tough past stage 3, luckily there's a save feature so you don't have to start over from scratch after every game over. Strange lack of options, and as a result I couldn't get it to work with my controller, so just played with arrow keys and Z, X, C and V. Oh, also, hit enter for fullscreen!

catgirls

Ten & Till is an incredible achievement in accessible shmup design while also providing a fantastic story progression & ramp up in difficulty. There's so many great ways to help new players navigate its bullet patterns without giving into feeling discouraged. The soundtrack is also fantastic!!