Operation STEEL Reviews

I highly recommend Operation STEEL to anyone who likes side scrolling shooters. Not only does this game have an awesome hand drawn art style, it has tight controls, varied power ups, unique themed stages / bosses and a great soundtrack.

[i]---see where this game landed on my SHMUP tier list beneath this review!---[/i] This roguelike shmup plays A LOT like [b]Steredenn[/b]. It's not quite on the same level, but it does enough to make for a pretty fun experience. While the game boasts 20 or so levels, it feels more like the game has 5 levels and the other levels are copies of these with minor variations. This game lets you choose between 2 stages each time, branching path style, much like in something like [b]G-Darius[/b]. Actually that game springs to mind for more reasons, like how there's a fair number of fish-inspired ships in this game. In some levels it can get a bit tricky to track your ship. Some enemy bullets can be the same colour as coins (this colour of bullet is kind of rare though). I found it manageable for the most part, but this did irk me at times. Once you beat all of the levels and the main game, there are achievements for boss rush mode, time attack and beating hard modes 1 through 10. I don't think I'm quite hooked enough to go that far. So while this game has its shortcomings, I actually had a lot of fun with it. What's there is good, just not quite as good as [b]Steredenn[/b]. ===================== [b]My SHMUP Tier List[/b] ===================== [i]~Simply personal taste. [i]~Sticking mostly to modern releases that aren’t arcade quarter munchers.[/i] [i]~Not including any 'flying anime girl shmups' as they don't appeal to me. Believe me, I've tried.[/i] [b]Loved it:[/b] Jamestown | ZeroRanger | Tyrian 2000 | Gunlocked+ | Steredenn$ | [b]Great:[/b] Super Hydorah | Drainus | Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo# | Warhawk (2017) | Star of Providence$ | Minishoot’ Adventures% | [b]Good:[/b] G-Darius | Steel Empire | MF-01 Aerostrike% | Kaikan# | Zakesta-Z# | Varyznex# | [b]Operation Steel[/b]$ | [b]Fun:[/b] Ganablade | Dogfight | Angel at Dusk* | Space Elite Force# | Space Elite Force 2 | Jets‘n’Guns | Void Scrappers+ | Gunfield+ | [b]Meh:[/b] Nanoforce | Steel Rain | Eigengrau* | Zenzizenzic* | Steel Vampire | Natsuki Chronicles | Wolflame | Satazius | Zangeki Warp | Cycle Chaser H-5# | Armed Seven | Counterattack: Uprising | Burst Fighter | Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser^ | Valfaris: Mecha Therion | Chicken Invaders 5 | Crimson Clover World Ignition | Fingun^ | Pheonix Force | Raiden V | Time Wasters+ | Ruzh Delta Z | Space War: Infinity | Heliocide^ | Stellar Interface$ | Syder Arcade | Absence of Light% | [b]Awful:[/b] Escape Space | Ginga Force^ | Nebula Fighter^ | Asteroid Arcade | The Battle of Aurinoxia^ | ===================== * = Felt like I was on the same screen the entire time, which I dislike. ^ = Encountered some jank. # = Too short, even for a SHMUP. $ = Rogue-like + = Rogue-lite or has some Vampire Survivors DNA. % = Metroidvania