Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 6.2

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/21/2023

You might not realize these are all fan representations of HoloLive vtubers as characters, except for the game kind of tells you. Many players including myself have no idea who they are and still enjoy the game a lot. It has a lighter humorous tone that doesn't bog it down into meme game territory and nails the basic VS formula with some subtle twists and upgrades with weapon evolutions.

Adds aiming and a special move button, but some builds you can make work for 1 handed play. Also has a home decoration side game, fishing, and more! On the downside, feels a little 'light' and less immersive for some reason to me, but hey, it's free! I'll be playing more of it!

Did I say it's totally free? It's Free! I'll come back and make real notes later.

Full level/progression notes from Genki: "Leveling up is done like Vampire Survivors. Enemies drop XP, on level up you choose a weapon (or item). Eventually there's an option to reroll or banish a weapon or item. Occasionally, anvils drop on the ground. Anvils allow you to level up a weapon/item without the need for xp, enchant a weapon (apply a random buff) or enhance a weapon beyond it's max level (each enhancement costs coins and every time per weapon the probability of success decreases).

Stamps also drop from time to time. Stamps are buffs that are only applied to the main character-unique weapon. You can equip a max of 3 stamps and level them up to level 3 by sacrificing other stamps. Stamps can also be sold for coins. There's a also a super rare chance for super-items to drop from boxes. Super items are buffed version of normal items without any downside."

"Players can combine certain weapons to make a collab, an evolved version of those two weapon that also frees a slot. When certain requirements are met and the player collects a golden hammer, they have the chance to combine a collab with an item to make a super collab."

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 2.4

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/23/2023

Gunlocked puts a spin on the survivors-like formula by switching format to a vertically scrolling shooter. It's an auto shooter with only movement control but the primary mechanic (expressed with many pilots and weapons) is 'locking' or positioning your shot by moving the aiming reticule into place along with your ship - so it gets a partial score in 'aiming.' We're going to call "upgrade data", where I have to go in a certain point to get an upgrade, a "treasure chest" on the scale.

Ships are cosmetic unfortunately, but pilots have a interesting variety of skills. Soundtrack is great, though maybe could be more procedural or have more tracks. Overall the game is very satisfying, from the challenge to upgrade loop, though it doesn't have quite the same 'mowing down hordes of enemies' vibe and surprisingly few bullets for the shmup stylings.

I think it's great and will play more, but not for the same reason I play overpowered screenwiping games like PoE or VS.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 4.4

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/16/2023

Previously called "Soul Survivors"

A so-far solid single stick shooter in Early Access. VERY close in aesthetic style and design and actually keeps 1 handed movement focused play. Edit: Seems they are adding a dodge, so this will need to be re-examined.

Also very Dark Souls inspired visually with some fun subtle jokes for fans. Bumpin' music. Graphics an upgrade - especially on elite/boss animations - while still feeling pretty lofi.

Necro earns this a summoning game tag from me.

Classic inspired classes have their own unique weapon and move set, with some interesting twists like fighting style movement combo to activate a move for the monk. They also have their own money pile and upgrade tiers. Not a ton of maps, but a decent range of characters considering their depth - unfortunately no crazy crossover evolutions it seems.

It's still early access so I intend to check back in later for a real review. First impressions are pretty positive.

Includes a necromancer summoning class In Early Access so we'll see how much of a summoning game it is - very responsive developer!

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 2.0

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/27/2023

A spaceship survivors-like that relies heavily on aiming and mixes it up a bit with a giant gunship you call for your upgrades.

Dev reported -1 in level on xp run gain event, which makes sense because you have to call a ship and dock to upgrade, which has its own timer. You can also buy support moves, we'll call it a vendor also I suppose. Partial score in bestiary/lore for having some ship info but not really an enemy guide. There's a dash move, but you might not have it on your build hence the partial score.

Sometimes it gets a little hard to keep track of what's going on and I perhaps wanted it zoomed in a little more, which is a hard trade off with the high speed of the gameplay. At the same time, the clouds of tiny drones to avoid feel fairly unique, partially because not every enemy swarms your ship and some act more like tiny deadly asteroids. Big swarms coming in are very stressful early on and a nice source of XP later, as they should be.

Some of the most tense 'meteor shower' vibes among the space games here, really seems to be so many enemies though they never seem to crowd out the entire screen.

Gameplay is zippy and fun for the most part and while it's obviously not high budget it does thoughtful stuff visually like showing damage structurally to enemy elite ships. I appreciate some builds are silly, like one that just constantly spins your ship in a way that looks nauseating for anyone inside it.

Menus feel very complex in a way that's a bit cumbersome. I wish it was streamlined in some way so I would move through them on the way to starting a mission perhaps? Overall it's a lot of information to keep track of and some stuff is abbreviated where it maybe doesn't need to be. I guess I do appreciate deep stats, but perhaps it doesn't need to be shown all the time.

For example, when upgrading by it shows me all five levels of the upgrade path of what I'm taking. I don't need to see that right away, and it also kind of takes away me having to remember that stuff to make a build. It also shows metadata on there about what kind of attack it is, the cooldown, etc. I think I get why it shows everything, but really just the one sentence could be big in the middle and a button to see more info there and I would have less decision fatigue on upgrade.

Others might prefer being able to see all that info entirely, though, so I hope the dev takes it with a grain of salt if they see this.

Survival mode is technically endless, but enemies don't get stronger after a point. Fleet Assault is 20 rounds.

I don't think adding auto aim for accessibility would make things easier, perhaps it's just a dev challenge since there are so many enemies on screen at once and many player attacks are directional. Overall so much of the gameplay is still about avoiding enemies that it seems auto aim wouldn't remove too much challenge and perhaps could just be overridden by pressing the right stick when needed. In general it feels hard to hit drones in early play and maybe a tiny bit of magic helping the player would feel satisfying.

This one is still in Early Access and under active development so I look forward to seeing where it goes. I think it could carve out a niche as a less goofy space shooter, but I want to see more impactful upgrades, streamlined UI and some other tweaks for it to really compete with the best around in terms of both space twin stick shooters and survivors-likes.

Scaling and Review Notes

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/22/2023

Scale scoring from scorecard submitted by Developer. Once evaluated after a couple hours play and some research, will be adjusted and moved up into the ranking proper.

Dev Notes: "These scores we're based on what we will be releasing on early access and not representative of the small portion we put on the free demo."

"I would say the game is a lot harder than Vampire Survivor. The core mechanics are the same like being able to upgrade as you level up during your runs."

"But there are also many things that make the game different and way harder, examples are:

- Maps have hazardous zones
- Enemies are more tankier than typical survivors-like games and they all have different mechanics.
- Your able to use points gained from your hundreds of kills to unlock new paths and buy consumable items
- Consumable items: Your able to buy things like turrets or slow fields and set them up on any spot you want. Can totally set up the room your in full of traps to give yourself an advantage."

Help us rank this game! [Submit Review]

Scaling and Review Notes

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/22/2023

Scale scoring from scorecard submitted by Developer. Once evaluated after a couple hours play and some research, will be adjusted and moved up into the ranking proper.

Dev Note: "Not very similar, but can appeal to some of the same players"

Help us rank this game! [Submit Review]