First finished shmup StarFire: Retaliation, please comment

[Dennuz666]

I finished my first shmup. I'm planning on doing a second one and am very happy with comments and stuff from you 'the experts'. So the next one will be bigger and better.

You can play the game at:
http://www.thenewarcade.com/games/switc ... etaliation

Or check my website for info:
http://www.switchingbrains.com/games/st ... etaliation

[Ebbo]

I'm not "the expert" but here are my two cents about the game:

- Enemies/bosses have too much health => weapons feel like peashooters
- Inertia while moving? Never good idea in a shmup where precise controls are a must
- Weapon and enemy designs feel very bland and uninspired

Overall, it's not downright bad but on the other hand, nothing really stands out either and the result is a very average shooter.

[genecyst]

totally agree with ebbo.

[TMR]

Generally speaking i quite liked it, the graphics and sound are pretty decent. The inertia on the controls wasn't to my taste but s'okay... but that blue laser is a feckin' pain it's so underpowered!

(Finished it with 173,035 on the score, by the way...)

[Udderdude]

WUEEEEEEEE WUEEEEEEE

EUROSHMUP DETECTED

PREPARE FOR DESTRUCTION

Decent graphics/sound and every poor euroshmup convention in the book (interia, huge hitbox, enemies take zillions of hits to kill and run into you, boring as crap boss fights, boring as crap "blow up some random asteroids while doing nothing else" ..)

It is utterly depressing that you developed this from start to finish and never saw any of these issues.

[cools]

My ears hurt, the music sounds like an alarm going off continually.

Game itself is alright, inertia didn't bother me.

Is the fact that you can't fire missiles while hammering the fire button for faster shot a bug or by design?

[system11]

I like the music, graphics do their job, nice in places. Not a fan of inertia though, and you should up the basic enemy count while reducing the number of hits required to kill them.

[TodayIsForgotten]

I played it on the flash site and I am the new number 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In all seriousness. I thought for the flash site, the game suited it perfectly. A flash game. Not bad overall. Nothing id recommend to anyone unless they were at work and bored.

Oh, the site doesnt save score. Had 174,350

[EddyMRA]

I don't mind the inertia much. As others said, the insanely high health of every enemy makes blowing stuff up a huge chore, especially with the underpowered weapons.

[monkeyman]

Didn't really hold my attention for reasons which have all been listed above.

I think in terms of graphics, some animation in the enemies would have made things more interesting.
Gameplay wise, everything seems to have been said already.

[Dennuz666]

I thought the inertia was a great idea to add some feel to the games controls. But i think i'll leave that next time

Thanks all for your comments. I'll use this in my next shmup project.

[BPzeBanshee]

Hello, thought to put in my two cents.

I really had no issues with inertia or the music, and I did feel somewhat underpowered when playing against larger ships BUT point-blanking with the flamethrower seemed to do the trick most of the time for me and would have made a great game out of it if it weren't for my inability to dodge bullets and get. I suspect it was a combination of large shipsize and the fact that I just plain suck. If I were you, I'd make the ship a little bit smaller in your next shmup project, make things a little stronger against bosses etc and have more variety in enemies (or make stage shorter). Then I'm sure it'd be quite the decent flash game.
Looking forward to your next project.

[Pulsewidth]

1cced it on my second try. Only deaths were when I was unexpectedly instakilled by enemies ramming me. This game mostly involves holding down the fire button and waiting for the enemies to die. Terrible controls and extremely boring. This kind of game is the reason "euroshmup" is an insult.