TWIN TIGER SHARK

Twin Tiger Shark is one of the earliest game developed by Wide Pixel Games, a biplane shooter inspired by the era of the 80’s and 90’s classic. Twin Tiger Shark clearly influenced by Taito and Toaplan’s classic such as Twin Cobra, Twin Hawk and Friking Shark. As a well made title, Twin Tiger Shark formerly released on Ouya and Xbox 360, and it can be purchased at very affordable price. The PC version basically available for free, though players are encouraged to make a donation to the developer.

Twin Tiger Shark contains all the core ingredients that make a shooter genre so addictive. Playing as a colourful red biplane, player’s mission is simply to battle against hordes of enemies from one runway to the next. There’s no back story. The ship has two weapon types; a standard shot and limited smart bombs with a modest blast radius. While the bomb doesn’t clear the screen entirely enemies, anything caught in its wake is generally destroyed. Power-ups dropped by certain enemies come in red or blue, representing player’s main shot; a straight ahead shot or spread gun. The best power-up comes in the form of ally planes, who create a formation around player, adding temporary shield and more firepower. Points are collected in the form of stars from destroyed enemies, vehicles or buildings.

Player fly across forest, beach, port, open sea and will encounter enemies from all direction – ground, sea and air. Naturally, there is a large boss waiting at the end of each stage. The bosses reveal futuristic technology with hefty life bar and multiple projectiles to fire. Finishing the first level feels like an achievement, but the difficulty soon ramps up. Similar to Raiden, when players dies they restarting a little way back from the last point rather than respawning. There are six stages, and with no continues once all lives have been expended, the game requires much practice. With all those features, Twin Tiger Shark is highly recommended not only for seasoned player but also novice.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Twin Tiger Shark at the official website of Wide Pixel Games (download available)

JIGOKU KISETSUKAN: SENSE OF THE SEASON

In a world similar to ours, Tenshi, a natural deity, is searching for the source of evil that is disrupting the natural balance of the planet. Will Tenshi and weird bunch of girls she is going to encounter on her journey find the origin of the menace and end the threat?

Jigoku Kisetsukan: Sense of the Season is a vertically scrolling shooter focused on bullet hell, made by indie developer Emad and was released on May 2015 as a freeware. Jigoku Kisetsukan is heavily inspired by Touhou Project which emphasizing in bullet memorisation and dodging skill. With it’s focus on shoujo characters, Jigoku Kisetsukan provides six playable characters with different style. The main character is Tenshi, the minor deity whose role is almost identical to Reimu Hakurei. Tenshi is an immortal spirit akin to nature who lives to protect the natural balance from anything that endangers it. The only thing that distinguishes Jigoku Kisetsukan from Touhou is pixel art graphics, chip tune musics and 18 game achievements.

Player starts the game with Tenshi, and another character can be unlocked once beating their stage. Each character has different reason and explained from character biography and few dialogues. The game features five stages and four difficultiy levels – easy, normal, hard and hell – with each one being harder than the previous one. However, the difficulty is quite high even in the easy mode, but still reasonable. The game gives player some time to build up lives before challenging the higher stage. Certain stage has some fog effect that reduces visibilty. While this could be a nice gimmick, it could distract player’s visibility and  hitbox.

Similar to Touhou, the player’s bullet power increases on a linear scale as player collect power-ups dropped by enemies, and eventually maxes out. Player can also collect green scroll to earn extra lives, purple scroll to earn extra bomb, and blue scroll to earn extra points. By pressing shift button the player can use “focus”, which slows down the player's movement, makes the collision box visible and create more powerful attack. By moving character to the top of the screen, will allows player to collect all visible scrolls on screen. Aura attack or bomb will destroy most enemies, cancel their bullets, grants invincibility for a few seconds and automatically collect scrolls dropped. If player manages defeat a boss without getting hit, extra drops and points based on how time was left will be obtained.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Jigoku Kisetsukan at the official website of Emad (download available)

BROKEN PEARL

Long ago we settled down on this planet, the three of us. We each formed our own country, as we always do, and we always named them after ourselves. The minerals of this particular planet had a different structure than what we were used to. It was more powerful and had an extra shine to them, we called them Pearls. Our offspring all had this shimmering with a slightly different hue resembling the natural form of each of us. We'd never been so complete or happy before. But then, one day one of us attacked the others.

Broken Pearl is a vertically scrolling shooter developed by Wide Pixel Games. It was originally released for Xbox 360 and Ouya, and ported later to Microsoft Windows as freeware though the player can make a donation to the developer. The game is notable for using the ability to rotate the game’s display and in essence changing the game from a vertical scrolling shooter to a horizontal one.

The player controls something resembling a space ship and must destroy air and landbased creatures using guns and a limited supply of smart bombs which damage or destroy all enemies on-screen when used. There are three different space ship in the game; Kenshi Azure, Kenshi Carmine and Kenshi Viridis. Unfortunately, each of them has no individual storyline and only distinguished from the shot type. Defeated enemies sometimes drop power ups, score multiplier and bomb. Also, destroying certain cages in the stage, frees the imprisoned creatures known as Aurums. These creatures will aid player until get shot down.

The game is based on the player trying complete a mission in each stage. Before each stage player get to select one of eight different missions with certain awards if completed. At the upper right corner a mission status is shown with three color indicator; red, yellow and green. Red means mission has failed and no bonus at the end of current stage. Yellow means mission has not yet been completed, but there is still a chance. Green means the objective has been fulfilled and the extra bonus will be given at the end of current stage. However, even the player failed, they still able continue to the next stage as long as they still have remaining lives. No continues are given when all lives are lost.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Broken Pearl at the official website of Wide Pixel Games (download available)

RADIO ZONDE

Radio Zonde is a free doujin shooting game made by Inudon Empire, the developer of Hellsinker and a fighting game called Dogma. The game considered almost complete, with unfinished starting menu, but fortunately fully playable. The first contact is brutal shock, marked by rapid pace of the game. Everyone agrees the game is extremely hard and complex. Radio Zonde is aimed for true fans of shooting games who looking for the ultimate challenge.   

Once upon a time, some huge and armed machines appeared at every corner of the world. No one knows where it came from, but the only thing known about them is that they are created by people of the old world. The machines never attack humans, but will kill anyone that enters their territory. Since humans are afraid of it’s existence, they attempted to solve the problem by destroying all machines. It’s actually possible for human army to destroy even the strongest ones among machines called the “Big One.” But after several days they will always mystically reappear in the same location.      

When humans finally managed to capture a defeated Big One, they find out that a young girl is inside the machine. This girl healed and given education as any other kids. People call her “Aoxola”. Aoxola posses some superhuman abilities with faster regenerates and stronger firepower. She is able to destroy every single Big One in the world in two days. Therefore, humans revere her as a hero.    

Sometime later, humans regenerated another girl in Big One, and she was called Denli. While not as successful as the first time, Denli is considered more than capable enough at keeping the Big One from raise again. However, when the regeneration process of the third girl Mahilo is completed, Aoxola and Denli suddenly disappeared….   

Radio Zonde shares gameplay mechanics to Hellsinker but with slightly less complex scoring system. It does have a similar scoring attributes, in this case Stella, Luna and Sol. They correspond to offense, defense and item collection, though it’s unclear which corresponds to which. All of these attributes are added to give together to give player overall score. Radio Zonde has six game modes:

• Touring, A regular game. Play (Stage 1 or Breakin), Path 1 (Stage 2 or Stage 3 or Stage 4), Path 2 (Stage 5 or Stage 6 o Overhaul), Stage 7, Stage 8
• X_Psy, Boss fight practice with unlimited lives.
• U_T_N, Survive for a fixed time with unlimited lives.
• Breakn/Overhaul, Simple practice stages, but player will not enter stages 7 and 8.
• Path 1/2, A short stages. The screen will be divided into colored vertical bars with a number in one. In Touring mode, this indicates the next stage player will play.
• Stage 1-8, See Touring.

The basic formula of scoring are determined by three factors: signal stability, clock and inherited blood or count for funeral. Each of these are responsible for a 10x multiplier with maximum up to 30 and all are added to final multiplier.

Clock is a meter at the top right of the screen. It starts at 100% and increases with kills, item collection, and grazing up to a coded maximums of %9999. The smallest type of green gems also give a very small clock bonus, therefore the best option is let them change into large green gems before collecting them. Clock meter decreases slowly with time, by about 200% upon pains (auto-bombed shot), and by 1/2 its value upon deaths. 

Signal Stability is a green gauge located on top lef of the screen. It is determined by your move tendencies. It gradually increases whenever player collect medium or large green gems and it is filled completely by popsickles. It is decreased by moving by holding any shot buttons. The best advice to keep this meter high is player must learn shoot without moving. Stability is also affected by powerups, collisions, and successful hits

Inherited Blood or Count for Funeral is a proportion of the value of every enemy on the stage.

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EXTERNAL LINKS
- Radio Zonde direct download at Vector

MIKI WARS PLUS

Miki Wars Plus is a doujin horizontal scrolling shooter with constant fast-paced action, but it features only one level with three difficulty modes. The sole purpose in the game is to survive and scoring as much as possible within three minutes. The game might seem too easy at the beginning, but that's just to warm up for the real challenges that awaits later in the next modes. Player need to be as far as possible from the enemies and bullets, because only with a single touch or hit by enemy bullets, the game will ends immediately. Miki Wars Plus is a freeware and can be downloaded from the link below.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Miki Wars Plus download link at Freem

DIGITALIS

Digitalis is a fine vertically shooters developed by Japanese indie developer Minimal Manufacturer using STG Builder that will take player in borderless digital world. Back to a simpler time where shooters didn't needed a complex story to be fun. In Digitalis the player take control of a triangular red ship, armed with two upgradable shot and a handful of screen-clearing bombs to take on the onslaught of enemies and bullets that come in your way. Digitalis using a single repeating background with clever little touch. The game features four stages, graze system, three continues with epic huge hexagon boss battle. Digitalis is a freeware and can be downloaded from the links below.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Digitalis at the official Japanese blog of Minimal Manufacturer

- Digitalis download links at Freem

AERO CHIMERA

In somewhat distant future, globe has been mostly consumed by two warring super-corporations, VAV and DAEL. Their products range from very usual hygiene products to weapons of mass destruction. Recently however, DAEL made a daring attack at VAV, completely demolishing some of their factories and bases - now VAV has decided to act in retribution and launch a counter-attack with newly developed AERO CHIMERAs, which combine man and machine in twisted ways.

Shoot any enemy you meet! In case of emergency of if you so desire, you can fire a bomb which clears out enemy fire and grants you momentary protection. However, the bombs are limited. You can create bomb by collecting small gray bomb-chips from some fallen enemies. You can fire an incomplete bomb, but such comes with a price - power is lessened and duration is shorter.

Scoring system operates on four fronts; Medal Chaining, Proximity Destruction, Bombing and Short Chaining.

In Medal Chaining when aerial enemy is killed, it has chance of dropping a medal. Each collected medal increases score and increases value of next medal to drop. The maximum points you can get from a single medal is 20 000 pts. However, each medal that falls to bottom of the screen resets the chain, returning the yield of the medal to minimum - however, skilled players can save chains with clever actions.

In Proximity Destruction each time you annihilate an enemy, you will be granted a multiplier depending on your proximity to the enemy during destruction. This ranges from 1 to 10, with 10 being right on top of the enemy. This multiplier is then applied to base score of the enemy. It applies to bosses as well! You should look into opportunities for getting near and destroying the boss at opportunate moment, even if it demands wrecking your ship.

In Bombing there are various targets which can be bombed for increased score-gain. Such might be background objects carefully hidden or enemy units. It is recommended to experiment - on some targets, the carpet bomb doesn't grant the score bonus.

In Short Chaining each time you destroy enemy, you will gain a short chain. Each chained enemy grants increasing amount of points, capping at 2000. While chaining whole stages is not as feasible as in some other shooters, you should look into doing short chains as they can sometimes grant a noticeable score gain.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Aero Chimera official game website (download available)

- Aero Chimera direct download

ZEXIDE HORIZON

In the year 2880 one of Earth Federation aircraft has been shot down by Erna Tian, a destruction forces from another planet. The federation developing a high mobility fighter "Zefis" to encounter the next threat. Zefis equipped with three different weapons and Zex Side Cannon, a powerful explosive cannon that can wipe out enemies in sight. Unfortunately, threat was coming sooner than expected. The Erna Tian Empire flying above earth orbit and ready to launch greater invasion. Not taking any chances, Earth Federation launch uncomplete Zefis fighter to counter attack and save humans from annihilation.

Zexide Horizon is an excellent doujin shooting game developed by Crystal Light Stage fow Windows in 2014. Zexide Horizon utilizes high resolution 3D engine with flashy effects, but the general movement is a 2D horizontal scrolling shooters. Hence, the game could generate a better and realistic outer space battle. The ship is firing three attacks; focus beam, wide laser and back laser. The laser is powered up to a maximum four stages by taking the item labeled “P”. In addition, there are another power ups that give a boost for speed, life bar and shield. The most powerful attack is a bomb that serve as avoidance when the ship was surrounded by enemy bullets and enemy aircraft. After dropping, the fighter is invincible for about two seconds before comes back to the screen.

The game also provides VR-Training which is basically a tutorial for players. The best game feature is multiple endings where the players are required to play the game several times. Zexide Horizon is a freeware and can be downloaded from the link below.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Zexide Horizon direct download at Vector

GALAXY FRONTIER

Far in the future humans have spread to all corners of outer space to find a new planet to live. People who began live in Jupiter discover the ruins of advanced civilization buried deep underground. Mankind gained a rich life and prosperity from this civilization. However, this does not last long. A swarm of mechanical force from the sun suddenly attack human army and destroying anything on surface. Humans then sent a secret ship to investigate this incident and found that the machines wants the civilation restored. Humans then developing “Dione Type8086”, a special small fighter with single mission; destroy the core of civilization and restore peace.

Galaxy Frontier is a freeware doujin shooting game developed by Alpha Secret Base and Hello World Project in 2014. Unlike another shooting games in general, Galaxy Frontier has five phases, however, the bosses do not always appear at the end of each level. There is no power-ups and the game has unlimited continues which makes the player can surely complete entire game. The fun is lies on how player  creating chains by destroying enemies to achieve high scores.

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EXTERNAL LINKS
- Galaxy Frontier at the official Japanese website of Alpha Secret Base
- Galaxy Frontier direct download links

KIRISAME BLADE

Kirisame Blade is the third project developed by Bikkuri Software using Shooting Game Builder, a horizontal shooting game with the aim achieving the highest score possible in a fixed period time. The player controls a futuristic ship equipped with unusual weapon; dual energy blades similar to a high-tech scissors capable of cutting and destroying the enemy. Pressing the fire button repeatedly will make the blades destroy enemy at different heights. Holding down the same button will put the blades straight ahead, stronger but ship will move slower.

The most interesting part is the blades can be double for a limited time. With bigger size player can hit easily and more effectively. The ship can move at super speed for a few seconds and player may rely on temporary shield. There are four game modes but the goal remains the same; collect coins from fallen enemies to unlock new features from shop. Kirisame Blade is a freeware and can be downloaded from the available sites below.

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EXTERNAL LINKS
- Kirisame Blade at the official Japanese website of Bikkuri Software
- Kirisame Blade download page at Freem

INTERCEPT

Intercept is the 2nd game developed by Perfect Run and it’s a score attack shooting game. You’ll play as small ship with three weapons: rapid (focuses all firepower straight ahead of you), spread (spreads its shots across the battlefield. Has a large range, great for hitting enemies coming in from the sides) and charge (fires a single, large and very powerful shot. It will clear all bullets in its path, making it useful as a defensive measure.)

Player against a single huge boss. Each time the boss is defeated, they’ll drop five power ups: speed, health, and one of your three weapons respectively. The evolving boss will come back with upgraded weapons in each round. In other words, Intercept basically is a survival game where the goal is to gain the highest score you can before you're sent to that spaceship scrapyard in the sky. Player can choose between static and dynamic camera. Static will keep player focused, while dynamic will steer the camera towards the center of the playing field. Intercept is a freeware and can be downloaded at the developer’s official site.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Intercepts at the official website of Perfect Run (download available)

REINCARNATION

Reincarnation is a decent vertical shooter developed by Y-NRG that has simple enemy designs and an uncomplicated gameplay system. The player can choose each of one of two weapon configurations before starting a game; primary, secondary and bomb system. Press the Z key to shot, and hold the same button to activate your special beam attack. The screen is wider than your average shooter, though that does mean more space to navigate in and dodge enemy projectiles. Weapons and shields charge up automatically, so players do not need to worry about collectibles or bonuses. Reincarnation is a good entry point for beginners.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Reincarnation at the official Japanese website of Y-NRG (download available)

- Reincarnation direct download

NAGINATA DESTRUCTION

Naginata Destruction is an excellent sample of Japanese freeware shooting game with in the same vein of classic Taito’s Ray series. As a score attack shooter only one stage is playable, but the game has numerous deadly enemies and a powerfull boss that ensures the players will back for more. The game does not allow continue and requires several tries to beat. The ship is equipped with a laser cannon that can lock onto a single enemy, and when fired all enemy ships in the path of the laser will be hit and damaged as well. The laser cannon can be upgraded by destroying enemies as much as possible.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Naginata Destruction Official Game Website (download available)

EVERY EXTEND

Every Extend is a Japanese freeware shooter game for Windows , developed by Kanta Matsuhisa under “Omega” pseudonym. While not technically a shooter, Every Extend gives the same feeling; bosses, powerups and enemies. The game is not very long and like many shooters the fun is derivated from repeating to achieve high score. Rendered in a flat cel-shaded style, the graphics have a purity along the lines of other abstract shooters. The light and heavy modes each have different background music. All in this all, gameplay is Every Extend’s focus which surprisingly depth and addictiveness.

Every Extend has one core mechanic which sets it apart from other shooters. Rather than destroying enemies by shooting them, the players must repeatedly detonate themself to destroy chains of nearby marshmallow-shaped enemies. The more you destroy at a time, the more points you receive.  Every time this ability is used, one extend is deducted from your total lives. Since the player does not have an infinite supply of lives, they must earn more by collecting points to reach a certain threshold. When player get a life, the threshold increase. A smart player will try to gain a life for each life he loses through self-detonation (hence the game's name) 

The level also includes mini-bosses and a final boss. A boss will appear when the time remaining drops below a certain value (4 * (# of quicken items + 5) seconds). Bosses die in one hit, but the real challenge is destroying them after a long chain for larger point bonus. The hard mode also features an alternative boss which the player can face if fulfills certain requirements.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Every Extend at the official Japanese website of Omega

- Every Extend direct download at Vector

XED

XED is a decent vertical freeware shooter by BomB that will please veteran shooting fans, but drive beginners mad even at it's default difficulty setting. The game sports great pixel graphics and consistent frame rate, though only two continues are allowed for each game. Hold the left shift key for spread shot, and use the Z key for concentrated firepower. Your special weapon can be charged by destroying enemy ships, then activated by pressing the X key. A stage select feature allows players to attempt levels previously completed. The config file can be used to change key configuration settings.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- XED at Vector (direct download)

ECHOES

Echoes is an arena shooter game with glowing neon graphics developed by Binary Zoo Studio, and a massive tribute to the classic Asteroids. While in the zone the player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field, shoot and destroy them, while at the same time avoid collision. The ship is able to move to any direction freely, but as the player shoots asteroids, they break into smaller asteroids that move faster and are more difficult to hit. Like many shooter games, there are different power-ups to collect. One increases firepower, the other restores health while the third is a sort of bomb. Echoes consists of ten levels only, but perfect score must be achieved at the highest difficulty. A dual shock gamepad is recommended, but keyboard and/or mouse can also do the trick.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Echoes at the official website of Binary Zoo

- Echoes direct download

SELF DESTRUCT

Self Destruct is a survival score attack shmup developed by Terry Cavanagh and Annabelle Kennedy for TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition in 2008. With randomly generated enemy patterns, the player must survive all 250 waves of enemies. The game only using 3 buttons for actions; shoot, shield which can be activated by absorbs bullets and bomb to clear the screen of all enemies and bullets. The way it all interacts is extremely fun and compelling, and it encourages player to keep pushing the limit.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Self Destruct at Tigsource

- Self Destruct direct download

GALAX

On the Planet Wigert, the civilised society is dependent upon advance technology. All information and machines are controlled by a mechanical brain called Xenon. Xenon began work on a planetary scale network system called Vector. Xenon learnt all technology history and its reason for being. 3 years following its deployment, Xenon acquired all knowledge. But a fatal error occured at the same moment. Xenon began to attack all weapons were turned against the human race. All bases and plants linked to Xenon were quickly captured. People had no idea what to do. But then they discovered a fighter that had not been captured. They set their hopes for survival on this fighter.

Along with Cho Ren Sha 68K, Galax perhaps is one of the best freeware shooter game. Developed by masaHG in 2003 and then revised in 2010, it has a fairly unique gameplay with three command buttons; shoot, bomb and radar. While the first two are self explanatory, the third is the whole point of the game. When using radar, a rectangular appears, spread to the whole screen and lock the enemies. The player then go into manipulation mode by entering specific commands. Unless abort by re-pressing radar button, it is impossible to move during manipulation, and therefore player must find a safe spot. Locked enemies become harmless and they can not shoot or touch the player.

There are three manipulations, with different commands and effects;

CBA (yellow status), freeze enemies. They unable to do anything and take more damage than usual. The player will get 10 points for hitting them.

CCBA (purple status), let enemies self destruct. During manipulation the timer is running and enemies still shoot to player. Doesn’t work with bigger enemies.

Up, Down, CBA (blue status), control enemies for a brief moment. The player get points for every shot they take and technical 5000 bonuses if they destroy bigger ones.

EXTERNAL LINKS

- Galax at the official Japanese website of masaHG

- Galax at Vector with direct download