I KNOW this is just a "test version".. so you probably already know about some of the stuff I'll say...I am not "complaining", just letting you know what I think about your game.
First, like everyone said, get rid of the blurryness somehow
. The game would look GORGEOUS if it wasn't so blurry.
The game run very smoothly in my Sempron 1.5 ghz with 256mb of ram and a Geforce FX 5200. Now I felt it was running a tad too slow, but maybe the game is just slow in nature indeed. (It wasn't annoying slow, just a little bit slower than common)
I didn't get to the end, though I tried a few times. I keep dying on the same spot
Add a health or shield meter somewhere. I never knew when I was about to die or not. Actually it would be better if the game had 1-hit kills and lives, instead of a shield and only 1 life. (I think that's how everyone prefers it). You can also make the shield work like extra lives, and then I think it will be fine.. but then I need to know HOW MANY HITS I still have in my shield
(You probably is already working on this, as I believe it's an obvious thing... but you never know
)
Oh, and add some way to redefine keys. I can't move diagonally while I keep space pressed.
Don't put situations where I can't do nothing but get shot. I saw a couple of situation where a continuous stream of shots were aimed at me, and I could do not but receive the shots up until I could kill the enemy. I think this annoys EVERY shmup player in the world. We want do dodge bullets, not collect them.
Enemies shooting from OUTSIDE the screen isn't a good idea IMO. (Unless it's a big muthafucka laser or something... and then it should come with some kind of warning I guess)
I dig the idea of enemy shooting at me from a "different plane". Dodging a shot coming from the Z dimension isn't common, and I think it was a nice thing (I could even see patterns with bullets come from above, front and sideways.. it would be hectic and very cool). Also not being able to hit that particular enemy wasn't a bad thing... but at one point he gets on front of me, and then he gets OUT of my front, and this is annoying. As soon as I am able to hit the enemy, don't make it "unhittable" again by moving it to another plane, unless this happens in some kind of pattern.
I liked how the charge beam works, getting smaller at each enemy it destroys.
I also liked how some cannons are "hidden" behind rocks in the celing, so I can't just shoot them without getting real close to them.
