Warhawk Reviews

[h1]Actually decent shmup. Not an arcade quarter muncher.[/h1] This may have been my first time playing a [b]Warhawk[/b] game (I played so many DOS games it's a bit of a blur..). I had always assumed the original 1987 [b]Warhawk[/b] to be a cult classic, but with just 2 reviews on this 2017 release after 8 years made me seriously doubt its cult status and think of it more as a forgotten piece of history. I even somehow had a couple of renditions of the theme of [b]Warhawk[/b] already in my music playlist (not the particular version this game uses). The music is okay. Much of it is variations of the same theme (it's a good, classic theme though!). The levels are VERY short, but there are 20 of them. You can start at whichever level you last died at, so you can beat the game in an hour or so on your first playthrough. [b]This game makes you spam the fire button, you can't just press and hold it[/b] which is a very antiquated control scheme for a shmup. Normally I leave it there after beating a shmup, but then I noticed there were 2 Steam achievements for [b]Warhawk[/b] that nobody has obtained. It didn't seem too absurd of a challenge to attempt to acquire these, but it required a full game run without dying. A full game run is less daunting when the levels are very short. ..so I set out to master the game and beat it with a single life, arcade style. Over a couple of days I put in sessions, sometimes just practicing on some of the later levels so that when I got there in a full game run, I would be more likely to succeed. Well just now I finally managed a full game run! ..to not receive these 0% achievements. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, I imagine I'm not the first to find out that these are broken. While this left a sour taste in my mouth, I have to say I really enjoyed the classic retro nature of this game a lot more than I thought I would. If you do like doing full game runs of Shmups and enjoy trying to beat your scores, well this one has a requirement of destroying the bases on every level to attain bonus points (which I found fun). ===================== [b]My SHMUP Tier List[/b] ===================== [i]-Simply personal taste. I’m excluding roguelikes, boss rushes and genre mashups-[/i] [b]Loved:[/b] Jamestown | ZeroRanger | Super Hydorah | Tyrian 2000 | [b]Great:[/b] Drainus | Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo# | [b]Warhawk (2017)[/b] | [b]Decent enough:[/b] Steel Empire | G-Darius | Kaikan# | Zakesta-Z# | Varyznex# | Ganablade | Dogfight | Angel at Dusk* | Space Elite Force# | Space Elite Force 2 | [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 | [b]Awful:[/b] Ginga Force^ | Nebula Fighter^ | ===================== [i]-Probably played another 100+ Shmups, but I only started this list recently and am sticking mostly to modern releases[/i] [i]-Not including any 'flying anime girl shmups' as they don't appeal to me. Believe me, I've tried.[/i] * = Felt like I was on the same screen the entire time, which I dislike. ^ = Encountered some jank. # = Too short, even for a SHMUP.