ARMED SEVEN

good game

Sadistic normal difficulty kind of brings the whole experience down for my tastes but it IS a very fun shooter with some great music and a decent combination of weapons to choose from. I couldn't get past level 5 myself but if you're really good at bullet hell type of games then by all means, go for it. But for those who aren't die hard shooter fans, this may prove to be just a bit too much of a challenge.

I love it.

Really good mecha shmup, with a nice selection of weapons and difficulty settings. Quite intense.

👍

Set at a point in time between [b]Vulkaiser[/b] and [b]Gigantic Army[/b] but, to make things confusing, released on Steam after the latter and before the former, this game has a thin plot consisting of the classic hidden super bad organization that somehow manages to seize so much military hardware, they can wage war on the whole world, in an alternate 1989 where an alien invasion the previous decade, of course repelled with a big mecha, led to Earth getting very advanced tech early. There would be a more complex lore but it's tucked into the Japanese website of Astro Port. All that ultimately boils down to a flying mecha with the ability to shift the direction of its main weapon up and down when not shooting, coupled with a secondary weapon and a self-recharging special attack. After deciding the loadout, there's little to do beside shooting down everything that moves. It's pure, simple, classic shmup with zero frills, and does the assignment greatly. The special attacks are very balanced in their strengths and weaknesses - don't sleep on the pile bunker, which has short range but stops even bullets. Artist and musician SAK does the usual excellent job with mecha designs, with some of the most interesting being actually in the early levels as haphazard fusions of contemporary military vehicles and futuristic tech can be seen. The second boss revealing itself as a transforming mecha is also worth mentioning. The intro is "simple" but sets the mood, and before the final mission there is a beautiful sequence. Music is possibly even better, a soundtrack that is at the level of the best shmups of the 16 and 32 bit era. It's a very short game: an average full run lasts 15 minutes. However, just as with any good title of the genre, actually managing to reach the end at higher difficulties is another matter entirely. Besides, it's so fun and tightly paced, a perfect game for when you have half an hour free, and is priced accordingly. Just like a few other Astro Port games, there is a Switch version which would be nice to see on PC too, but leaving the original available because, while it has a remixed soundtrack, the graphics have been made more colorful for the sake of it, resulting in some questionable chromatic choices!

元々はデザエモン２用に作られた「鉄機兵序曲」というSTGで、ソレをパワーアップ、ブラッシュアップした作品。非常に硬派で面白く、リアルロボット系の鉄臭い量産機などが大好きなら気に入ると思います。 STGとしても爽快感が高く、音楽も作品を盛り上げていく硬派なものぞろい。最後までよくできている作品です。