Sine Mora EX Reviews

What a shame. The core gameplay in this game is pretty fun. They did a great job with the graphics and the in-game presentation... but it's all ruined by some horrible game design decisions. First, they decided to make it so that if you get hit once you lose ALL of your firepower powerups and have to frantically chase them around the screen to regain them. You will get hit... it's borderline inevitable. Absolutely ridiculous. I could see maybe losing 1 powerup when you get hit once, but ALL firepower powerups leaving your ship after being hit once? Terrible! Then, they made the strange decision to design the game around time - you have to kill enemies to add more time to the clock to keep your run going. In theory this is an interesting idea, in practice it makes for a frustrating experience. I've lost to bosses because I ran out of time even though I was about to beat them. The levels are too short... sometimes you only battle enemies for like 20 or 30 seconds before encountering a mid boss... then maybe another 1 or 2 minutes of battles before encountering the level boss. The narration between chapters/some levels is weird with poor voice acting and actually detracts from the overall experience - in my opinion this game would have been better without any voice acting at all or even story, just an arcade style shmup would have been better here. It's really a shame because they have something solid here with the core gameplay, graphics and detailed in-game worlds. If they release a huge patch that removes the time mechanic, makes it so you only lose 1 firepower powerup upon getting hit and triples the length of the levels and game... my review will definitely change to positive. Unfortunately that's not going to happen. If you're a huge shmup fan and want to keep building your library with shmup games, maybe buy this game if you can get it for less than 2 dollars like I did. It's probably worth 2 bucks just for the impressive in-game worlds they designed and nice graphics and some fun moments here and there. Alas, what could have been...

Unbalanced design and punishing gameplay

Disclaimer: I'm not a shmup expert. I didn’t enjoy Sine Mora EX. The only things I liked were the choice of planes and weapons in Arcade Mode, one creative boss, and the original damage system based on remaining time instead of lives. That’s about it. Everything else fell flat. The 3D graphics are outdated—even in the EX version—and haven’t aged well. A clean 2D art style would have been a much better choice. The soundtrack is forgettable, and the sound effects lack any impact. The story mode is a mess: painfully slow, filled with pointless cutscenes and dialogue, and the plot goes absolutely nowhere. The gameplay is chaotic in the wrong way. Sometimes enemies and bullets crawl at a snail’s pace, other times they suddenly flood the screen at full speed from random directions with no warning. It feels random and poorly tuned. And while I get that memorization is part of the genre, Sine Mora EX made me realize how critical it is for shmups to give you clear visual or audio cues before throwing something deadly at you. Here, many attacks feel impossible to avoid on a first playthrough, not because they’re challenging—but because you’re blindsided. Aside from one boss, there’s no originality in the enemies, environments, or weapons. It quickly becomes repetitive and dull. There are far better shmups out there—whether you’re new to the genre or looking for a serious challenge. I can’t recommend this one.