One of the challenges when you’re releasing a title into a genre space that’s already oversaturated, is figuring out what your hook will be. With some titles it’s all about cool visuals, with others it’s about tight bullet hell madness, and so on with many potential angles to come at people from. In most spaces there’s a lane set aside for budget-priced offerings, but unfortunately in the case of arcade-style shooters there are enough rock-solid options already out there that start at under $10, that even that doesn’t buy you much good will unless you have the goods to back it up.

To its credit, it does at least do some things a bit differently. Outside of the anime gals and old-school general style, one differentiator is your ship’s melee attack which also has a short burst dash that can come in handy. It does take a little time to get the hang of how best to use it, but once you’re dialed in it offers up a feel that’s somewhat unique. I’m not sure that the ships of all 3 gals are exactly balanced (I found the third with the shotgun-style attack to be far easier to work with, despite the need for closer proximity), but given the budget price perhaps some weaknesses like that are a little more tolerable.

One issue that I couldn’t shake though, and that began to grate on me pretty quickly, was the way you’d need to repeat between-level dialogue and transitions when you die. It isn’t just that the game would load them up, you’d also need to pretty well sit through them, even if pressing the button to skip would at least make it go a little faster. The fact that this would easily burn roughly 30 seconds every time I hit one early on was just mind boggling, and so easily preventable, that it felt almost inexcusable. I want to get right back into the action, not sit through the same pointless dialogue and then watch a weak 5 second animation of my ship flying away every time I die. Despite it having a feel that’s distinctive, and a relatively low price, in the end I’m not sure the package as a whole is as deserving of attention as countless others in the same price range that simply have more refined and well-thought-out play.