Sky Mercenaries Reviews

Nice little shooter with some RPG bits, ship/drone upgrades and character progression, nice dual colour bullet absorption system, nice difficulty progression that didn't get frustrating, nice ships to shoot down that make nice little explosions, and it's not a pain in the ass to get 100% achievements, I think thats nice too!

I really enjoyed this game a lot. I am not an expert in the "bullet-hell/overhead shooter" genre, but I've played my fair share of them and this one stood out to me mainly because of it's uniqueness. It played with some new ideas that some may like and some may not, but it wasn't afraid to try something new and personally, I enjoyed it. The most immediate and noticable feature of this game is that enemies shooting at you fire either red or blue bullets, which litter the screen. You can change your space ship to either red or blue at will, which will absorb one color bullet, leaving you susceptible to the other color bullet depending on the color your ship happens to be at contact. When you have a screen full of multi-colored bullets and you have to change your ship color constantly upon impact of a certain color bullet, it can be quite intense, both in action and cognition. There is also the ability to grind for currency and experience to power up your ship, and there are three different pilots and ships to choose from, each one with different play style. Fortunately, there is a nice balance and I did not have to do too much grinding for my first playthrough; just enough to keep it fun and not be too redundant. One thing that stood out for me was the soundtrack. There are 8 levels with three stages per level, and each level has a unique theme, both in music and aesthetic. My personal favorite level was level 7 because it had a lush, green, forest feel to it complete with floating mountains and waterfalls. Each level has different music, (I liked some more than others). A few of the levels had ambient and subtle music that reminded me of the original 8-bit NES Metroid, others had a more upbeat musical theme, but all of them unique and interesting. One more thing that is a very minor detail but stood out to me was that very often, the ships didn't explode when they got shot down. Almost every shooter that I can think of has a small explosion animation when a ship explodes. This is pretty much canon for all shooters that I can remember since the early '80's, (even 1942 where a ship falls from the sky to the ground when shot down and them explodes when it hits the ground). But in this game, it's not uncomon for a ship to just fall to the ground when shot down and just remain on the ground after crash landing. I know it's an insignificant detail, but it just stood out to me because I've never seen it before in a space shooter. In closing, this game was very fun, addictive, and aesthically pleasing with flawless controls and a lot of options. Thank you for reading my review.

Bought this game as a long time fan of the genre. The RPG elements seemed cool to me and the Ikaruga-like color swapping held some appeal as well. But the game is not good. Technically it runs alright but I encountered bugs with it not displaying an icon on my taskbar. The UI is lifeless, the music is horrible (really poor quality on the menus and ingame) and doesn't feel inspired or interesting in any way, the ship customization+player customization+drone customization is done very badly. You don't get any real description of what anything does, and the little bars that gauge offense and defense don't make sense. On the ship selection screen they work one way and on the drone upgrade screen they work in the opposite way. The levels are typical for a SCHMUP but your ship+drones take up a ton of the screen. It is really hard to avoid getting hit (which makes the Ikaruga-like color swapping mechanic useful) and things just feel really... unpolished. I think it is safe to say that the whole product feels and plays like a mobile port. Hopefully this sees some major patching but as-is it is not really worth a purchase at 9.99. if you get this 90% off you might feel like you got what you paid for but at full price it feels like a rip-off. Especially since some of the best games on Steam are cheaper (Binding of Isaac, for example).

I rate the game Sky Mercenaries 2.5/5. Not very good, not even okay. A good idea done poorly though it's not total trash either. This is a Schmup action game wherein you choose a character (each with a different specialization) and over time earn in-game money to upgrade your character's skills and, more importantly, upgrade your little fighter craft's equipment as you play through several missions through to the end of the game. In theory this game seems like it could be a lot like the good game Raptor: Call of the Shadows or the pretty good game Revolution Ace or even the mediocre game Star Saviors (or merely "Saviors") combined the gameplay color-switching elements of Ikaruga. In practice however, Sky Mercenaries is a bit of a confusing mess despite the fact that it's fairly cheap, runs well and has no bugs. The main problems with Sky Mercenaries are its confusing interface, obtuse, confusing menus, repetitious/poor sound effects, mediocre graphics and fairly uninteresting/unexciting levels. This game has no real story and characters have nearly no background information. The menus are the worst aspect of this game, particularly when you are trying to upgrade your ship. It's hard to know how much in-game money you have and pretty much impossible to know what items you are even using to upgrade your ship nor can you see any demonstration of what any upgrades will do. The game mostly just fails to explain what's happening and what things are and how anything works. This game did do a few things right though. There are no bugs/errors. The music is at least adequate. The controls, though odd (it's probably best to control your ship's movement with the mouse while holding down the left mouse button to fire), are fairly responsive. The game can be challenging but is not usually very frustrating (particularly if you play for short periods of time). There are two difficulties and 3 characters/ships to choose from. But none of this has been implemented well enough to make the game very fun. It's hard to explain but overall I feel like Sky Mercenaries is boring and nonsensical. I play it once in a while but I don't particularly look forward to doing so. After playing through all the levels once with one of the characters it just doesn't seem that fun to try to go through it again. This game feels oddly derivative and tired and the bland levels certainly don't help. I'll give it a thumbs down but I sort of wish I could officially give this game a question mark. Regardless, there are better games out there so play those instead.

I don't know if this game is supposed to be an homage to old school shmups because it sure as heck doesn't tell you so.. or anything else which possibly could be of use to the player for that matter. It almost seems like this game tries to bite off more than it can chew, resulting in what feels like a watered down shooter that doesn't excel at anything. I don't write negative reviews lightly (this being my second). I generally just don't bother with 'mediocre' or lower game but in some cases I do care. So from an almost 3 hour play session (which is more than lenient for this type of game) this is what I got from it. - Damage Numbers: By default, this setting is enabled which may be 'fun' in the beginning but later on just serves as more crap and distraction on the screen and doesn't really add anything useful whatsoever. - RPG Element: I usually enjoy RPG elements in games when it's done right.. but it does absolutely nothing for me here. It feels like a boring linear treadmill which almost seems required to progress which is pretty absurd for a shmup. - Color/Absorb/Polarity: A nice mechanic popularized by Ikaruga but falls a bit short here. Players unfamiliar with Ikaruga will either have to stumble upon it, get it from the subtle one-time 'hint' in the game or read it from the achievement you get for switching colors. To cut things short, I'll speed it up a bit.. The UI is unpleasant to navigate; in-game HUD is very bland; Hitpoints for the player's ship are localized to separate ship parts/drones which is useless because it's not like you have any real control of it; enemies often seems to have too much HP regardless if you 'specialized' for damage; and the bonus level seems to be bugged unless you're not supposed to move and tank sporadic rockets that sway towards your ship until you die because I can't imagine shooting all of them down whilst also trying to wittle down the 'boss' of it's seemingly infinite HP. There's probably more minor grievances that I have with this game but despite of everything I just wrote, I would be okay with this game if it wasn't for the dreadful sound effects. I have never played a shmup that felt less satisfying than this one does. The sound effects are very bland to the point that there's no sense of impact when you shoot or kill an enemy ship.. not only is it unsatisfying to shoot and kill, it makes it somewhat difficult to tell where and when you actually kill an enemy. For a game that revolves around wrecking swarms of enemy ships and crafts, this makes for a very dull and boring experience. But that's not all unfortunately because the horribleness of sound effects stretches even further.. Now I am not a rookie at these types of games but in certain levels it throws so much crap at you that I'd be surprised if you can come out of it unscathed. Calling it bullet hell feels degrading towards other actual bullet hell games so I usually like to call it 'bs hell' as that's what it is. In other words, you will sometimes get hit quite a bit. ..and when you're in the middle of taking all of those hits in a bullet infestation, it really.. really doesn't help that taking damage sounds like you're being smacked on the the side by a muppet.. or stung by a swarm of muppets for that matter. Because that's not a sound that makes you think you're in trouble or may be about to die. If it wasn't clear.. by muppet I mean a little puppet that makes a squeeky sound when you squeeze it. ..it's horrible. But on the flipside, after an hour playing listening to it your ears become immune and you'll start thinking that colliding with enemy spaceships only tickles you and you're immortal.. ..well, until you see your ship crashing down that is. And with that, I think I have said enough. Honestly, I do think this game has/had potential but it just seems that it tries too much whilst the most essential parts of the game fall behind unfortunately. One thing I did enjoy was the music.. but for some reason it's random as heck which doesn't distinguish the stages/tilesets from each other and makes each level as forgettable as the last.. which sadly is also true for the game as a whole. As a fan of this genre in general, I can not by the life of me recommend this game at it's full asking price. Perhaps the multiplayer/co-op could be fun, but alas like most of these games it's local only. And even then, I would advice just getting it on a sale because there's far better out there for your money's worth.

A often bundled indie shooter and equally often overlooked or even ridiculed as garbage. It is however worth taking a look at. I find this pretty decent despite the fact that i find the color changing and absorption mechanic sub-par to other more well known games. It will not beat the classics no but it tries hard and partially gets it right.

The graphics and sound effects don't have the "kick" I crave in a shmup, very little is explained about the controls, and the menus are annoying to navigate through (there's a certain fluidity that's missing, hard to explain). That's all I can knock Sky Mercenaries for. The rest of the game is a blast. You level up pilots and ships flying missions through Ikaruga-style gameplay. The soundtrack is mostly very solid. And there's a level editor, something I haven't seen in many shmups but is a welcome additional feature. Worth a shot. Add this to your collection next sale.

Nice RPG elements mixed with a cool soundtrack and nice old school arcade gameplay. Some of the levels and the bosses that I managed to kill where very challenging. Nice game with cool new features to the genre, a game with a heart for shoot ’em up fans.

Sky Mercenaries is a sh-mup that has an interesting play mechanism: polarity / color. Otherwise, it's a fast-paced sh-mup like Raptor where enemies comes from left, right, but mostly up/front. Your fighter can swap between 'red mode' and 'blue mode'. In red mode, you absorb red bullets and gets damage by blue bullets, and vice versa. Obviously you have to switch based on your tactical situation: sky too crowded? Switch colors to absorb the shot. Remember though, enemy will adapt with you. You can be accompanied by up to 4 drones and depending on which powerup you nabbed you can be joined by wingmen and more. As you fly through debris of enemies you pick up dropped "coins" and whatnot which you can spend on upgrades. One thing that sets this game apart somewhat is location-based damage, as the ship can take damage in 4 different locations, and the drones have their own individual life meter. There are three different fighters, with different default strengths (heavy defense, heavy offence, average). There are over a dozen upgrade options, and three pilots each with different skill tree (there are only 5 skills each though). One pilot is mostly offense, one's mostly defense, and one's a drone expert. Game itself is simple. Fight your way through various planets and moons against baddies, enough said. If you finish a particular world (3 levels), you get to play "escape stage" where you are running away from a boss and you use your rear guns against it and the missiles it shoots at you, and if you get away you get a lot of bonus bucks you can use for upgrades. The sh-mup is an very old genre, and the "polarity" system had been done before, but the skill tree, pilot, fighter, and upgradeable parts makes the game seem rather fresh. other than the game looks a "little" low-res on a 1680x1050 screen, I see no downside to this game. Sound is average with a proper adrenaline sound-track. Worth a try if you like the genre. But read the manual before you start. There is no help within the game that explains the color system.

A very decent shoot 'em up that is troubled by some bad optimisation and issues with display mode. The game is fast and frantic and definitely satisfying when you can pull of a good run, with levels taking the proper length for a game like this: a few minutes each time. Between levels you can upgrade your stats and enhance the story a little. Sadly the game suffers from strange slowdown when things get hectic, which really shouldn't be the case for a relatively simple game like this. Others in the genre handle a bullet hell scenario much better. There are more issues. Some of the text in the dialogue boxes is cut off or appears outside of the box, and as for the display problems: I run a native 6000x1080 and on that revolution the game suffers from the common problem that it is Vert-, meaning the screen is unuseable. Sadly windowed mode will simply use the same resolution, windowed. There doesn't appear to be an option for it so I have to disable Surround to play. Still, for the current sale price (-75%) I can recommend it for fans of the genre. It falls short of living up to the full €10 though.