RefleX

I played the original title this game is based on (Reflection) back in the early 2000s and this remake has a lot of massive improvements, although the player aircraft in the original game had access to rocket launchers (which has been removed in this version) that can keep firing while the shield is deployed and can penetrate enemy shields. Dodging missiles in stage 7 and the final stage (where your plane loses the side cannons and can be easily picked off one-shot by enemy missiles coming sideways) could have been more fun with this original feature where you can shoot down some enemy missiles with rockets while the shield is on (while also chipping off the robot's HP through its shield).

6/10 I didn't like it at first, but after a few plays through it has grown on me a bit. The first half of the game is very good, and there the scoring system is pretty inventive. You reflect blue lasers back to the enemy, and each one that kills starts multiplying your score, first 2, then 4, 8, 16, 32 and finally 64 times the score. Once you get the multiplier up, any enemies you kill with your normal shot still gives you that score multiplier, but if you don't kill something for half a second, your multiplier resets. While it's pretty fun, there are a few issues with it. That half a second timer is really strict, you have to memorize the game down 100% to make the most of it. Some enemy sprites can shoot any type of laser, which means there is no indication what you will be shot with by a given enemy, did I mention you have to memorize the game 100%? You may be waiting for a blue laser, then they just shoot red ones at you. Since you want to kill the bosses by reflecting a blue laser at them, they can fight for long periods without firing any, so you just have to survive until they restart their move set, making some boss fights really drawn out. There is no leader board for score. Fighting the space fleet early on is definitely the highlight of the game, But once you get to the 6th(maybe 7th) boss, Entropy, that is where the bosses start getting really drawn out; as your standard laser won't do any damage to them, you have to rely 95% on your shield to reflect blue lasers to do damage. The last boss is especially drawn out, it feels like 15 minutes, but is probably 10. your shield becomes unlimited, so the boss will do things like shoot a full screen laser, just hold the shield button for 10 seconds and your good, you can't die, and you don't have to do anything to dodge. This is what really makes it feel drawn out, as stuff like that happens throughout the entire boss fight. So the shield is limited until the final boss, so you don't want to over use it, as it takes time to recharge, your main weapon becomes weaker the lower the shield gauge is, and if you are firing your main weapon, the shield charges very slowly. This kind of sucks when you use the shield to deflect a lot of shots, and you want to use your main gun to wrack up the points, but you can't sometimes, because you want to recharge the shield. To top it all off, as the shield gauge starts getting low, there is no audio queue to indicate this, your shield turns red but that isn't a good enough indicator. Controls aren't great, to move diagonally you have to be very specific with your control stick. Ever since Gunvein I always complain when a game doesn't have full analog controls, but this is an older game apparently so I wouldn't expect as much. In spite of all that, it's still pretty enjoyable, definitely worth the price. The reflector is a nice idea, the tone of the game is cool, and the scoring system is decent fun. Overall, it's good