Neon Ships: The Type'em Up Shooter Reviews

This is a nice idea, but has way too little of everything. It's not a bad value game, cause it's oh so very cheap, but I'd like way more content. This is just too good of a game to leave with 3 levels / 0.2 hours to complete the content. Also I've seen no issues with Linux which is nice (i3, multiple displays). What I'd like to see: - more levels - more phrases, srsly, I've got the same phrase twice in a row in 12 mins and so many repeats. - more mechanics? Diffferent ships, different modes (like shmups often have slow mode), power-ups (maybe certain ships drop "bombs" and you have to activate bombs by typing a certain phrase, like in typing maniac?). - some less randomness in phrases (ones you can mostly type with the right hand are obviously super powerful, longer is worse, short words are worse. Sometimes you get "bazinga", sometimes you get "save the girl save the world" and a lot can depend on when you get what) What's in the game is solid (and there was a lot of thinking into making it not dull, there's actual bullet patterns, waves, black holes and energy lines blocking your typing, enemy variety etc), but there's just so little content I spent more time typing this comment than playing the game (there's still achievement whoring and leaderboards, but even the max score is very limited, I imagine the top guys just had a perfect game and there's no beating them).

Summary, if it weren't for the typing, I'd think it was a shitty mobile game. Even the graphics look exactly like that form, in a skinny vertical column, just like on a phone. It's a bullet hell (easier than the hardcore ones though) and all the bullets and enemies are bright glowing lights. The phrases you have to type are silly memery and catchphrases etc, and they're not laid out in a clean line to glance at then type, instead you can only see a word and a half above your ship as you fly around and have to do them one at a time. WASD move your ship around, but are also used to type letters, sooooo......there are some issues there, but as with most action typing games, it's hard to fault it for the poor controls, there doesn't seem to be a better way to do it.

Great! I recommend switching the controls from WASD to SDFE though, feels much more natural when you are trying to touch type at the same time, and it's great that the game gives you the option to do that :D The game uses movie quotes as text to type in, which is fine, but there is not a very wide pool of quotes, so I find I am just typing in the same quotes all the time. It would be nice if there was a MUCH larger pool of quotes. Apart from that this is a fantastic little touch-typing game.

You control the ship's location on screen using the AWSD keys, and activate the larger firepower of your ship when you complete word/phrases. Well timed, you can easily defeat most of the enemy while dancing the line of incoming fire from the classic bullet hell style of game play. A great mix from the 'retro synthwave' styled neon glow graphics, typing and shoot 'em up. Really fun, something that I'll be going back to. The words and phrases seem to be quite common taken from catch phrases in movies and the like. If you know where the words are going, you'll have a easier time as a result. While it does allow you to use a few different regional keyboard layouts, It would be nice to be able to set your own word list. The English words are nice, but I largely use the typing games to practice my keyboard skills in languages. Definitely a cool game to practice typing on, maybe not for beginners or younger kids to start off with as you do need to keep and eye on the screen. Having the basics of touch typing is going to be a entry level requirement for the game.

I didn't realize there were keyboard controls at first and thought all i had to do was type the phrases and the ship would position itself. Maybe consider pursuing that angle, it would be interesting. After discovering the keyboard controls that made typing the phrases cumbersome to say the least. I recommend either the arrow keys or the mouse. Not Linux devices have access to eye control. That would be a nice feature too. Maybe interface with a webcam to track eye movements to move the ship while typing the phrases.

Excellent visuals and good soundtrack, but the control scheme needs work. A game that focuses on typing should not use its typing controls as movement controls, especially when that can lead to you steering your ship into enemy fire. Upgrades would also be a nice feature to have.

At first glance, the game seams like any other spaceshoot but when you start playing it you realize that the "type system" add a whole new level of gameplay and this makes for a unique experience! Recommended for anyone who wanna try something different and challenging.

[h1]Shoot 'em up combined with typing[/h1] As a teen, I took a touch typing course, and it remains one of the most practical skills I ever learned in school. As a side-effect, I find typing games, particularly when combined with other genres, oddly endearing and fascinating. This is one of those games. [h1]Dodging and typing at the same time[/h1] With three hit points, you set out to survive through three waves of enemies, each culminating with a boss ship. Your ship is controlled with WASD, with no way to change this. The ship auto-shoots, so no need to worry about that. However, the base weapon is rather weak. The gimmick is that there's always a phrase to type out and when finished, the ship shoots out a deadly gigalaser that deals enormous damage and also destroys enemy bullets. In principle, all English letters and numerals are used in the game. In practice, there's maybe few dozen (im)famous phrases from pop culture and history that repeat at random. To be able to type, your ship has to be above a glowing "typing line" where dodging is understandably more difficult due to being closer to the foes and their bullets. The formula works well and is enjoyable, although with only three waves it's a rather short experience. [h1]Technical stuff and trouble[/h1] [i]Neon Ships[/i] supports dozen different keyboard layouts from QWERTY to DVORAK to some more exotic variants, though you need to switch it manually in the pause menu. In the menu, you can also adjust volume of music and sound effects and switch between windowed and fullscreen modes. While playing in fullscreen, I had an annoying issue that whenever the game would start anew (i.e. when I lost), the game would re-adjust resolution, causing the monitor to flicker between several resolutions and/or aspect ratios, until it finally relaxed to the one it was using to begin with but with the game minimized in the process. I'd then have to click it to re-focus it again. After that, it worked like charm, right up until the next retry. I doubt that the same trouble exists in windowed mode, though; I just prefer playing my shmups in fullscreen. [h1]Half an hour of excitement[/h1] Being a competent typer and a mediocre shmupper let me beat the game with all achievements in less than 30 minutes. With luck and skill, it would be doable in even less, since all it takes is to be fast and dodge all bullets. Afterwards, there's Steam Leaderboards to climb for score attacks if you're into that. It's a good proof of concept. I'd like a bigger game with the same idea expanded. For now, even with the technical trouble, this is worth a shot, particularly on sale (got mine for €0.57 / -64%). [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9997062/]~Twistorian Curator~[/url]

Great little game for the awesome price of less than a dollar, hope to see more of this genre fusion going forward.

If you like shmups _and_ typing very quickly, this is worth a buck. The gist - 3 ~90 second, non-random waves. You type short pop culture phrases to activate a mega laser for a brief time, while dodging bullets (keyboard controls - wasd or esdf; any keys that are part of the phrase will _also_ move your ship). You get 3 shields. Score is based on efficiency/speed. I was able to complete the 3rd wave after less than an hour of play. There are achievements for a perfect run, which seems like only a few people have managed so far - so don't expect to 100% it unless you are _very_ good at both typing and shmups.