This game blows me away. It is so much fun! A seemingly simple one touch control scheme for a SHMUP blossoms into amazing, harrowing epic space battles that will keep you entertained until the End of the Universe!
At first, I too had difficulty with the control scheme, dragging my finger around my ship and blocking my own screen. That was until I realized you can just use any position on the screen as a virtual joystick and keep your fingers out of the way. The controls are actually more responsive than they appear on first use. You just have to spend some time with them.
Spoilers below if you are having trouble advancing in the game.
The game is wicked fun. If roguelike SHMUP space battles are in your blood, this is the game you need to buy!
Update: Weeks later, and I still can’t put this game down!
-Steve Z
***SPOILER ALERT***
The more time you spend with the game, the better you will become. This first tip isn’t a spoiler per se, but I encourage you: do not give up hope after just a few runs.
The one touch control is genius, and allows anyone to have a virtual joystick ambidextrously, anywhere on the screen. You don’t even have to play the game in portrait mode, if you’d rather turn it landscape. But the game text will still be rotated 90 degrees though.
The invisible, virtual joystick is magnitude-sensitive. Meaning, the farther out you drag your thumb from where you began touching, the faster the ship will go. So if you need to keep things slow and steady, use a light touch and control how far you move your thumb. Practice drawing tiny circles on your screen. Then draw bigger ones, and you’ll feel the difference. You can almost slow the ship to a crawl with practice, then rush forward to avoid a near miss laser blast!
Boost is your friend. At first you’ll crash around a bit. Then you will come to realize, that you don’t just boost in the direction you were going. You can swipe to boost in any direction - your ship can make sudden course changes this way! Now suddenly, you’re making commando hit-and-runs on star destroyers, and dancing among the asteroids!
The story choices are not arbitrary. The pain you feel will be your teacher.
In the beginning, focus on getting XP power ups to advance your permanent ship options. It doesn’t matter if you die and only got one XP that run, you just made progress. That’s roguelike in a nutshell.
That’s all for now. Go play!
As you progress, the game opens up beyond the small contained sector levels. Keep pushing yourself to go farther, and you will discover a more sandbox-like experience!