The Think: Space X is unjustly short and repetitive. There are no add-ons, no in-game purchases, no save points, no trading cards, no multiplayer/online play options, no differences between spaceship options (besides appearance), no pausing/saving options and no recognition for beating the game (besides maybe personal bragging rights among your friends). There are overly simplistic achievements that artificially boost your game play stats. By modern standards, yes, it is a cheap game. And to be honest, I bought it almost exclusively for the achievements. However, after beating the game a few times, I have some additional thoughts...
First of all, the soundtrack is FIRE!!! Pump up the volume and raise the roof!
Next, IMHO this game was more so designed to mimic 1980's space invader games than it was designed to be an achievement clicker. It is a throwback to the arcade era that dominated the late 70s, 80s and early 90s. I think the developers just didn't spend any time or effort integrating quality achievements into the game play before adapting it for Steam. I can understand how it comes across as an achievement clicker. The achievements are unrelated to game play and are earned by simply pressing various buttons. The easy achievements and bargain bin price point are likely used to attract as many buyers as possible with as little effort as possible. There's clearly no love for the game amongst it's own developers. That being said, the game itself is EXACTLY the kind of game you would beg your mom for a few quarters to try and beat to impress your friends back in the day.
The difficulty is based on physical ability and basic hand eye coordination. I.e. how fast can you press the spacebar (or MLB or MRB) and for how long can you keep it up while simultaneously evading enemy projectiles? While faser, laser and machine gun attacks are linear, missiles don't have to be. Once released, your missiles are collectively controlled by the movement of your space craft. You can use this to your advantage to help alleviate some of the stress on your wrist (and your spacebar). By coordinating where you launch your missiles and how you move after they are launched, you can break through enemy armadas faster and with fewer missiles. You can also speed up and slow down your progression through space by moving to the right (faster) or left (slower). Because you can anticipate when enemy ships will arrive (using the progress bar at the bottom), you can slow your progression if you need more time to rest your wrist or speed it up to capitalize on your own momentum. It's cool there are different weapons, but the control layout is really weird and unchangeable (spacebar= missile, RMB= laser beam, LMB= machine gun, F key= faser, use WASD or direction keys for movement).
The final boss is very disappointing, so the game does end on a bit of a flat note. And at $0.99, it is arguably overpriced given the extremely short game play (I've played for less than 40 minutes and have beaten the game 3 times) and lack of replay incentive. Fortunately, I got it for $0.49 on sale. At that price, it's worth the money.
Despite it's flaws, I had fun beating this game.
