PROCYON

Procyon is a 2013 horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by DeadlyRedCube. In Procyon the player maneuvers a spacecraft known as the Procyon that must defend itself from the various alien enemies. The game also supports screen rotation where player have the ability to change the game screen to portrait which changes the view to more of an arcade view.

While most arcade shooter utilize distinct power up items that each correspond to a specific effect on the player ship, Procyon has no upgrade or ammo pickup mechanic and the ship has the same abilities at all times. The ship is equipped with two weapons;  a basic shot that fire in a spread pattern, and a continuous beam capable of locking enemies. The ship also has a special super shot that needs to be earned first. The Procyon is relatively weak and it only takes one hit to be destroyed. But player have a rechargeable shield. The shield could only protect the ship from bullets and not collisions, so player still have to dodge through enemies when it is activated. Holding down the button for the shield whilst shooting will create a far more powerful shot for a limited time.

Procyon is very short game, consisting of five levels only, each with gigantic boss. Fortunately, it does have interesting score multiplier system. Player is encouraged to take out enemies and keep the combos high. Three game modes are available; Normal mode is the main story in which player get five lives for each level and can continue from the start of any level whenever lose all lives. Attrition mode is similar to normal mode where player get five lives and earn one extra live per completed level, but no continues. Survival mode offers the biggest challenge as player must complete the whole stages with only a single live without continuing. Another nice feature is local co-op mode that allows player to destroy aliens along with a friend.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Procyon official game website

- Procyon download links at Pasted

IKARUGA

Ikaruga is a vertically manic shooter that was developed by Treasure. Initially published for Japanese arcades in 2001, and then Sega Dreamcast in Japan and worldwide on Nintendo Gamecube. The enhanced version was released on the Xbox Live Arcade in 2008 and later ported to Microsoft Windows in 2014. The PC version is based on the Xbox 360, but removes the online co-op which never really worked well. However, the game adds the ability to play as both player 1 and 2 on one controller as well as numerous screen rotation options. As the spiritual succesor of Radiant Silvergun, the concept of two attributes in Ikaruga was inspired by Treasure’s earlier shooter called Silhoulette Mirage. Even today, Ikaruga still considered as the most successful arcade shooter in any platforms.

Several years ago, on the island of Horai, the nations leader named Tenro Horai discovered a powerful objects the Ubusunagami Okinokai, or “The Power of the Gods”. The energy from this artifact gave her unimaginable power. Along with her followers known as “The Divine Ones”, she began conquering other nations one after another in the name of “peace”, but a group of freedom fighters called the Tenkaku arose to oppose them. They fought back against the Horai but were defeated, except for one man named Shinra who survived the attack and landed in a remote village known as Ikaruga. After recovered, the villagers entrusted him with their very own fighter plane also named Ikaruga. This fighter is capable of using both types of polarity energies. With Ikaruga in his possession, Shinra launched from the transportation device called the "Sword of Acala", and this is where the game begins.

Ikaruga can technically be completed in a half-hour run, but only if player lucky enough survive in this cruel bullet hell perfection. The gameplay in Ikaruga revolves polarity mechanics, where players are able to freely change the polarity of their ship between dark and light. All enemies are either black or white. Hitting enemies with same color only does 50% damages, therefore the best option is hitting them with their opposite color and does additional damage. In other terms: black bullets damage white enemies better that white bullets do, and vice versa. The player ship also able to absorb same-colored enemy fire to charges secondary attack; a powerful of polarized missiles. Take a hit from a fire of opposite polarity will destroy the player, however.

Whilst dodging all the incoming fire, Ikaruga also provides surprising amount of tactics known as chain combo system. A chain combo occurs when player destroys three ships of a certain color in a row. For example if player destroys three white ships, then another three white ships, and then three black ships, that is three chains (so 3, 3, 3, 3, etc). If player shoot a black ship then a white on the chain is broken. Chain combos can be a major challenge for maximum scores and encourages memorization of the enemies' patterns. Anyway, if players have zero experience with shooter games, focusing on survival is the best choice.

Behind the scene, Ikaruga has some interesting facts. First off, many of the ships are named after bird species. The name Ikaruga itself literally translated as Japanese Grosbeak as well as 2nd ship Ginkei, refers to Lady Amherst's pheasant. Interesting to note that both birds have some shade of black and white on them. Ikaruga also has some ties to Buddhism. The titles of each chapter; “Ideal” “Trial” “Faith” “Reality” and “Metempsychosis” are representation of the struggle human faces on the path of enlightenment.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Ikaruga at the official Japanese website of Treasures

- Ikaruga download links at Tinypaste

HANGEKI

Hangeki is a fixed shooter game developed and published for Windows by Pentavera in 2014. On the surface Hangeki is very similar to Galaxian or Galaga, but it plays quite differently once player get past initial appearances. The combat takes much more modern bullet-hell approach with flashy effects as players attempt to survive and advance each wave. The main theme of the game is a battle between a lone combat spacecraft and a technologically advanced race of mechanical aliens.

The objective of Hangeki is to destroy enough enemies, collect energy and finally unleash “Hangeki” to clear the screen before moving onto the next set of enemy patterns. Hangeki is a super weapon which acts as a finishing bomb that gets charged by destroying enemies. In each wave player is given a pattern of enemies of varied types. Enemies fly in impossibly tight formation on the top half of the screen. Unlike Galaga, enemies will not come down at the player’s ship. Some will just shoot back, some will take extra damages or just put out their own patterns. As for the difficulty, the first stage is very easy and so did the second. At advanced level, things ramp up quickly as enemies expand from simple bullets to hazardous bombs and lasers.

During the entire stage, the player fly around on the bottom and may fire upon the enemies until one side is obliterated. Hangeki introduces several new features over it’s predecessor. Among these are the ability to create chain that occurs if player destroys enemies without interruption. The ship shoots automatically, however, if player not hitting anything the chain will break and power meter will drop. In Hangeki planning and positioning is very important. As the game rewards speed and accuracy, simply firing wildly won’t give player high score.

Another gameplay feature is the game boasts an impressive of unique weapony counting in 51 pieces of unlockable equipment. These special weapons range from long shielding for invincibility in the roughest moments; to huge rolling waves of flame that’s capable to destroy large lines of enemies. As player progress the game, more formidable and insane weaponry will push player to revisit past levels. These specials can be equipped before a mission and player can have up to four special weapons that consume power meter.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Hangeki at the official website of Pentavera

- Hangeki dowmload links at Tinypaste

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)

GUN WINGS

Gun Wings (Original title: 铳翼, pronounced: Chòng yì) is a 2014 Chinese vertical scrolling shooter developed by Mercury Stone and Angels Blue Digital Entertainment. The game is notable for using Sengeki Stryker and Giga Wing’s visual as well as gameplay mechanics. Gun Wings takes place hundred years after doomsday in the 22nd century. As one of cybernetically enhanced girls, the player must save humanity from the invasion of alien race.

As far as vertical scrolling shooters go, Gun Wings is very standard. There are three different characters in the game; Ukuisu, Hakuchou and Kou, and they must destroy enemy air ships through six stages. Each level ends with a boss fight and each game begins with three lives. The player's firepower consists of a main shot, secondary shot and a limited supply of bombs. There are two types of main shot; a forward-firing machine gun and a spread-firing vulcan. The main shot can be strengthened and multiplied by upgrades that come in the shape of blue gems taken from destroyed enemies.

The secondary weapon is a charge shot and can be used when the power meter has reached maximum strength. A unique feature to secondary shot is whenever used it will increase score multiplier. Power meter will automatically be filled slowly, but it can be accelerated by destroying the enemies. The bombs can deploy near-instantly, negate most enemy fire, and do moderate damage in a large radius around the player's character.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Gun Wings at the official Chinese website of Angels Blue Digital Entertainment.

- Gun Wings download links at Tinypaste

SUPER GALAXY SQUADRON

In the year 2335, first contact was made with an alien race from the star of Tau Ceti. While relations with them began peacefully, anti-ceti sentiment spread throughout the Federation, and in 2360, the human supremacist group Terra Nova rebelled against a joint security force in the Centauri system, killing many of both species. The Ceti war began, and after twelve years of fighting and eventual suppression of Tera Nova, a reluctant truce was made.

Years later, tension between human and Ceti citizens remain high. Both governments subtly build their defenses, and neutral systems before nearly deserted as civilians seek refuge in safer territory. Fourteen of the best pilots in the Federation have been recruited into unstoppable military force. Another war is inevitable. The Super Galaxy Squadron exists to win that war.

Super Galaxy Squadron is a retro-styled shooter, developed by Nick Clinksales, the one-man behind Psyche Studios. Taking inspiration from classic shooter like Raiden and Dodonpachi, Super Galaxy Squadron attempts to be “a shmups for everyone”, from the casual player to the most hardcore veteran. While it does not introduce innovations or special marks, the game offers fans a nostalgic, light entertainment and genuinely inspired. Even better, Clinkscales donating all of the game’s proceeds to charity that helps provides books, toys and video games for hospitalized kids. Knowing all proceeds are going to a good cause, buying it actually is a right choice. 

Like any classic vertical shooter, enemies typically appear in steady descent with unique attack and movement patterns. Sometimes, defeated enemies leave behind power-ups, which make weapons more powerful or increase the ship’s rate-of-fire. The health meter is what sets Super Galaxy Squadron is infinitely forgiving. On normal mode, the ships have a health meter which is measured numerically and goes from 0 to 100. The better the ship’s armor rating, the less damage it’ll take. Pick-ups dropped healthboosts by enemies can keep player refilled and going strong for entire stages if grabbed at the right time. 

Over the course of six levels in Arcade Mode players guide one of fourteen starships, each with their own little differences in rate of fire and special weapon. Each ship is given a brief story as well and give a deeper level of understanding of the story. Ship upgrades provide customization for primary and secondary weapons which is widen your shots and add some power. The upgrade system introduces some interesting feature. When the player’s ship is hit, it loses one of it’s upgrades, which goes floating around the screen. The upgrade can be retrieved, but this leaves player the choice to either conserve shields and sacrifice arsenal; or to chase the bugger down risk taking even more hits.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Super Galaxy Squadron at the official website of Psyche Studios

- Super Galaxy Squadron download links at Tinypaste

JAMESTOWN: LEGEND OF THE LOST COLONY

In the year 1619, Sir Walter Raleigh, a criminal sentenced to death by the King of England at the Tower of London. Naturally, as a criminal who is wrongly charged, you wish to clear your name by performing heroic feat of travelling to Mars and trying to solve the mystery of the lost Roanoke Colony. There, he finds a world ravaged by war between the Red Coats and tentacled aliens controlled by an insidious Spanish Conquistador. The story takes place very quickly as Raleigh discovers the planet secrets and what the Spanish up to on Mars.

Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony is a neo-classical vertically scrolling shooter developed and released by Final Form Games in 2011 for Windows, Linux, Mac and Playstation 4. The game features a steampunk-like style and art design which is heavily inspired by Progear, a 2001 arcade shooter developed by CAVE. As a fictional shooter, Jamestown’s alternate history reference to Roanoke Colony and includes associated figures like Walter Raleigh, Virginia Dare, John Smith, and Joachim Gans as characters. The game was updated on November 10, 2011 with additional DLC, called the "Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot" DLC, which provided three additional ship types, and made the soundtrack available for download on the Steam service.

In Jamestown player guide their tiny ship through different chapters while shooting and trying to avoid enemy gunfire. Player using two different types of weapon; standard and alternative fire. Each of these types of attacks varies between the four ships player can choose. Each chapter features five different difficulty levels, and some of the later chapters can only be unlocked after defeating earlier chapters on higher settings. The goal of the game is to get as many points as possible. When enemies are destroyed, they drop gold called Ducats that can be collected for unlock new spaceships, challenge levels, difficulty settings, Gauntlet mode and a comical version of the story called Farce. While the game is lacking online multiplayer, up to four player can jump in at once for local co-op.

The vaunt system is the key to getting a good high score in the game. It also provides some tactical options and a chance of survival in a spray of bullets. As player defeat enemies, player collect gold trinkets from their exploded wreckage which fill up a vaunt meter. Once it’s filled up, further gold gains do not increase the meter beyond the max. When vaunt mode is activated, player gain a temporary large shield that turns player momentarily invicible. Vault mode also raises the power of weaponry and also doubles score for each defeated enemy. Vault Mode can be prolonged and increased by collecting more gold. However, player can prematurely end vaunt mode by pressing the vaunt button again, which creates a very small shield, and greatly reduces the chain bonus.

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EXTERNAL LINKS

- Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony official game website

- Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony download links at Tinypaste

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

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

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

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)

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)

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