Project Starship X Reviews

[h1] Underrated Classic SHMUP [/h1] I'm absolutely [b] shocked [/b] this doesn't have more attention, probably one of the best SHMUPS I have played since ZeroRanger. Gave it a buy after Studio Mudprints performed their best of 2020 list (It gained my interest in it's very distinct graphical style for the game and the HUD in particular). Excellent soundtrack, tight gameplay controls and roguelike elements keep things really fresh... the excellent sense of humour and really interesting level mechanics (like gravitational pulling or literal "space bowling") really make this a memorable experience. I'm not even sure I've seen quite everything yet but it should take an experienced player about 4-5 hours to get to the end credits, but there is much more. Absolute recommend, buy the game, skip the readme, just hit "play" and worry about everything afterward.

This an absolute gem' - I don't know why I never heard about it before but it's definitely a great game i'm going to quote PC Gamer that has made a great summary of the game: 'Making a good roguelike, shmup, or comedy game is hard enough. Project Starship X somehow pulls off all three at once. Fight against Zombie Space Hitler, chill out with Cthulhu's grandma, visit Space Texas (it has guns), and do some interdimensional bowling in this weird, funny, challenging and replayable arcade shooter. '

This game slaps! Art & Music is worth adding to your collection! Perfectly priced on sale for $4.49! Add to Wishlist! Only down side is it is visually complex which might be off putting to some gamers. *People who have flash sensitivities should avoid this game.*

Pros: - The characters and art style are lovely. Lots of personality here. - Great soundtrack & SFX; I like the track variants for low health in particular. - Many secret areas and bosses - Fun powerups - Bowling. - Swagthulu Cons - This player happens to be a noob - The stage transitions and time it takes to get into another run can get slightly tedious. An option to restart from the menu would also be nice. I don't mean that you should be able to restart at the very beginning of stage 1, but sometimes I feel like I've screwed up to the point I just want to kill myself (that damned harpoon powerup!), which also takes some time. Maybe the option to restart from menu could appear half way through the first level? I'm really happy with this game, and wish it had enough sales for steam cards or other things you could acquire with steam points. Not having these things is a real shame for a game so stylish. Buy this game so that I can eventually get steam cards for it. Dreams can come true right?

Disclaimer: My scores/reviews are almost always based on having bought the game at close to the "lowest historical price" on steam at time of purchase. Quick score: 4/5 Notes: Great for about 4-5 hours. But after that, the "rogue" elements of it really don't offer very much replay value IMO Another major annoyance is that the "boss rush" mode is kind of programmed in a really lazy way. There is a ton of downtime in between bosses waiting for level transitions and dialogue with 1 specific boss. This could have been much more streamlined. Literally almost 30% of a boss rush run will be just waiting.

Oh boy, Project Starship X. Now what do we have here? There's a lot to be said about this one, so I'll try to structure it at least half-competently. First off: If there's any risk at all that you could have problems with photosensitivity, this isn't the game for you. The game's a giant seizure hazard, your health is important. Second: gameplay. While I don't have much experience with what defines a "CAVE Shooter", I have it on good authority that it involves good music, upgradable shots, looping, multi-stage boss battles, and insanely fast bullets. Most of these can be found here, except perhaps that last one -- enemy bullet patterns are usually pretty easy to recognize, and most of the difficulty comes from the quantity of bullets instead. While the roguelike elements seem reasonably well-implemented, it's not quite bug-free, and only one or two of the most game-changing items seem to appear every run. Some items can also be quite heavy on the processing power... These don't hold the gameplay back from being satisfying almost every time though. I've yet to find an upper limit on how many times I'm willing to smash a spaceship into an eldritch abomination's rough approximation of a face. Third, presentation. In short: All the yes. Here we have colorful main characters who show off their personalities despite never saying a word, wonderful and ridiculous enemy design, levels with themes like Space Bowling and Space Texas (they're not all Space locations, I swear), and [i]The Music[/i]. Seriously, I could go on for a surprisingly long amount of time on Sinoryu's work, but I feel like if I try to understand it it would break the magic. Basically, PSX is dripping with style and personality and charm, and it's tough to stay mad at it as a result. Which is probably for the better. Fourth, I should give a special mention that this game is... kinda really under the radar to Steam, as of this review. Seriously, the number of people who've completed the 3 million score achievement can be (and are!) counted on a single global top 10 leaderboard. For how high-quality this game is, and how (almost) unanimously well it's been reviewed, it seems strange that the fanbase is so small. Of course, the way that that changes is by having people join up and play. So if you think PSX sounds fun, or you know someone who would -- feel welcome to spread the word a little! (We could use the leaderboard competition.)

A hidden gem. I am not into vertically scrolling shooter arcade games, but when I watch the trailer I immediately know this game can be fun and is unique. There is no bullet-hell dodge challenge, rather, the player does not actually need to shoot many, rather, the core is to dash through the bullets/lasers. Most of the time I find the dash rhythm goes well with the music, which reminds me of Crypt of the NecroDancer, and the map is interesting and well made. I especially love that Mario World map, switching the dash to stomp is really creative and fun to play with, the way to kill the boss by letting it drop from the bridge is a good salute, too. Players have initial 2 guys to choose from, more to unlock with process within a secret character I yet to know how to unlock. The levels are randomly picked, all have a good theme, the sun map is difficult because everything goes towards the sun to the left for gravity reasons, and I have to hold the right key all the time. The game is relatively friendly compared to other games in the genre, devs is generous and during gameplay heart drops every now and then, but it does not mean finishing the "tutorial" is easy - I finished "tutorial" which contains the 5 main levels in 1.5 hours with a couple tries, had great fun, there's still much to explore. I also love the humor, seeing a locked character running towards the screen then hitting an air wall made me laugh out loud, and the "just one setting" in the gamepad setting is good, too. Game is not long, but well made.

I wanted to like Project Starship X. It has a few good things going for it on the presentation side, but some things really turned me off wanting to play more of it. Pros: +Solid music and satisfying sound design. Some catchy tunes in here, the audio work is the best part of the game, honestly. +Visually interesting character and enemy design. +Multiple playable characters with different ship stats and weapons. Cons: -The visuals are obnoxious. The seizure warning at the start is fair and much appreciated, but you cannot turn any of the effects and sh** the game throws at you off. It's everywhere. Overkill in many areas and it permeates every aspect of the game. Some of the "Mad Events" just ruin your ability to see. - The game is not interested in helping you understand some of the things it throws at you. The "tutorial run" is a perfect example of this since it doesn't give you any bombs or the shop. If you wanted to make a tutorial, just make 1 level in 5 minutes and call it that. What this game does was weird and off-putting. It throws you into a multi-level run where some mechanics are missing and THEN lets you play the real game. - I personally don't care for the dash mechanic this SHMUP is designed around. I've seen it done better in horizontal shooters, but in this vertical one, it can get you into trouble more often than not. I will say I like the interesting interactions it has with certain objects, but the actual act of dashing itself is just a little too awkward for me. -The game thinks it is funny, and it's not really. I've seen way worse examples of this, but I'll give them credit for trying. It's not as overdosed in old reference humor as something like Retro City Rampage, but it has a few here and there. There is a good amount to like here, but it's just not for me, and I can't say I was impressed by the mechanics enough to warrant me actually recommending it to people. There's a free demo for people to try out and see if they like it more than I did. But I wanted to support the dev and throw some money their way after being recommended this game by a fellow SHMUP fan. Sadly, it didn't sell me. 5/10.

Project Starship X is one of the most unique shmups you can find out there. It's got about 10 hours of solid, unique content that will leave you laughing and excited for what comes next. The game is super fun and accessible to anyone, even people who've never played a shmup. Also has leaderboards and tons of difficulty/randomization options to make the game more interesting. Highly recommended!

If Project Starship X were just a regular shmup with five stages and maybe a True Final Boss on the second loop, it'd be great and easily worth recommending. But those mad folks at Panda Studio went and made at least three times more shmup than is legally required, so you get one of countless variants to play through each time. It's funny, it's visually noisy, it's remarkably refined and balanced. It's good, is what I'm saying.