Zyrcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x59P6opWZs Things certainly start off on the right foot with lively '90s synth-styled game music even if it's not actual chiptunes, and a bouncing, multi-colored scroll of words along the bottom like you used to see for cracked games on the Amiga, C64, and Atari ST, among others. And that long scroll of words is praising Amiga shoot 'em ups and their developers... Stardust, Apidya, Xenon 2, Battle Squadron, Agony, SWIV, Project-X, and so on. Also in that scroll of words is the mention that this is their first game in 30 years! Digitalica originally did a digitized 2D fighter for DOS called Unlimited Warriors in 1996 and this is their first game since. How cool is that? Some neat history and classic shmup callouts isn't going to make a bad game good, so thankfully, almost miraculously for $1.99, this shooter is pretty damn good. I was skeptical at first as mouse control almost never works in shmups, but it's different here. The mouse is mostly for aiming your target reticle and your ship does follow underneath, but Zyrcon is a gallery shooter, not a scrolling shmup, so really the game is more about aiming than movement. The better your aim the qui…

Super cool! Unique control scheme that just works so well, interesting weapons, super responsive controls.... I can't believe this costs only 2$. There's SHMUPs on Steam I paid like 10x that, and they're far, far worse. Great works, take the same concept and take it further, and you'll have a SHMUP that'll be played as much as Tyrian.

Mouse only shmup, and your ship only moves laterally on the ground. Picked this up on sale because I was unsure that I would like it because of mouse only controls. This mouse is easy to navigate, efficient, and fun to control. First game, I didn't know what was going on, but after the first couple of games, I was like this game is pretty incredible. I think the part that really impressed me the most was killing that little flying octagon thing and collecting all the gold coins left behind. Like a gold rush. The upgrades were also an added bonus because once you kill the upgrade ship, you can select upgrades with your money. Pretty choice retro shoot em' up.

It is a lot of fun, although I definitely recommend using a mouse instead of the steam deck trackpad.