After 45 minutes I can maybe clarify what the game's like at first, but I think that for people who are going to enjoy it, it will take longer than that to "click" and get into a flow state, a bit like Space Giraffe.

So on first plays what you're gonna notice, after the oooh backgrounds and aaah firecracker explosions, is that this seems to be a non-randomised score-based shooter with not many enemies, not many power-ups and a surprisingly short single level which then repeats with different lighting, once.

And that's it, pretty much.

Like in Dark Souls, your score and your money are the same thing so you have to trade-off better firepower (a very slow progresion of not-much-better firepower) against "winning" and if the highscore tables aren't tainted by hacking - that would kinda be a total bummer - then yes some people have found a groove and played it thru for hours.

Although the limited types of enemies seem to be the same every time per level, after each loop they change to new placements and movement patterns - and so far, with very few bullets and very few enemies at a time. I have not played far enough to say if that variation per level continues with some randomised algorithm or if that too goes back to the beginning after a surprisingly short period.

Even at a couple bucks in a sale, I was disappointed by the lack of content the devs seem to have put in; the quality is quite nice (main menu interface is not very honed) but there's very little of it. From a gameplay perspective - if this hasn't been patched - the inability to repair your shields with money between levels seems just a wrong choice.

I also had technical problems on first install where the scrolling and music stuttered, until I moved the game files from HD to RAMdisk.

Just because the levels don't change, it's vertical scrolling and quite slow paced, I can see myself playing this again. But if you can cope with sideways scrolling instead of vertical and want what this trailer looks like but moreso, I recommend Platypus for same idea, more content +did it first.

After 45 minutes I can maybe clarify what the game's like at first, but I think that for people who are going to enjoy it, it will take longer than that to "click" and get into a flow state, a bit like Space Giraffe. So on first plays what you're gonna notice, after the oooh backgrounds and aaah firecracker explosions, is that this seems to be a non-randomised score-based shooter with not many enemies, not many power-ups and a surprisingly short single level which then repeats with different lighting, once. And that's it, pretty much. Like in Dark Souls, your score and your money are the same thing so you have to trade-off better firepower (a very slow progresion of not-much-better firepower) against "winning" and if the highscore tables aren't tainted by hacking - that would kinda be a total bummer - then yes some people have found a groove and played it thru for hours. Although the limited types of enemies seem to be the same every time per level, after each loop they change to new placements and movement patterns - and so far, with very few bullets and very few enemies at a time. I have not played far enough to say if that variation per level continues with some randomised algorithm or if that too goes back to the beginning after a surprisingly short period. Even at a couple bucks in a sale, I was disappointed by the lack of content the devs seem to have put in; the quality is quite nice (main menu interface is not very honed) but there's very little of it. From a gameplay perspective - if this hasn't been patched - the inability to repair your shields with money between levels seems just a wrong choice. I also had technical problems on first install where the scrolling and music stuttered, until I moved the game files from HD to RAMdisk. Just because the levels don't change, it's vertical scrolling and quite slow paced, I can see myself playing this again. But if you can cope with sideways scrolling instead of vertical and want what this trailer looks like but moreso, I recommend Platypus for same idea, more content +did it first.