Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 1.5

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 11/4/2023

The default mode is level based, I suppose, with levels based on your songs. This makes it time based, in vibe, more than the average level based shooter. We'll call that a partial positive score.

Collecting the score bubbles feels enough like collecting XP or gold, so we'll call it that. We're mostly concerned with the collecting mechanic in gameplay on that metric. It has unlockables like an arcade game has unlockables, and it's procedurally generated. So is it a rogue-lite? It's an interesting question, and we'll give it a partial score there for sharing some features, but ultimately it doesn't feel like a roguelike because there's no making a build within the game, just arcade style power ups.

It does have waves within the levels, for sure, and they're fairly organic. But it's not a horde nor attempts to be. There are a ton of different ships and weapon stuff and unique customization options, I'm going to call all those menus a bestiary as well.

"Generating a galaxy" looks really pretty and felt cool, but I wasn't really sure if it was more than just a very visually hi fi menu.

This was actually a special experience to review because I directed it to a folder of old MP3s I'd ripped from weird bands my friends were in during college, lofi electronic and experimental stuff that I think worked pretty well. Hearing all my old friends haunted voices over beats was honestly something.

That being said I wish it really synced up the action more and slow songs had little action - perhaps that would feel like you weren't playing the game but with long intros it would have been cool to pick things knowing how they'd amp up. As it is, the very metallic ships that show up can feel pretty off topic with certain twangy folksy vibes. That's honestly a skill issue, though, and we can assume you're going to put on a "beat" for Beat Hazard.

Unfortunately, with the strobing down, which I eventually had to set lower for my eyes, it didn't feel like much really had to do with my music. And due to how much was going on always, I couldn't really tell what upgrading my ships did too easily either.

Honestly I found myself kind of confused in the menus. There are so many game modes, so many options, I didn't really know what to do at any given time. Something I normally like about this genre is how simple it is to get in and out. But I understand the reason for some of the complexity given the music focus. Just don't know if the ship/ability upgrade stuff needs to be too.

The biggest thing that holds me back from playing more is how complicated all the menus and modes are - it seems silly, but I suffer easily from decision fatigue. And the font is too close together and hard to read. It's Early Access so maybe I can hope there's a UI overhaul and much of this is tidied up and hidden away. It's honestly overwhelming.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 4 (xoxomonstergirl) 4500ish (peA_sh0ter)

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 ?

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

PeA_sh0ter: "Imagine you are peacefully farming... and throw all that garbage out the window. No dew or stars can be found here, only blood, bullets, and blooms! This top down shooter will allow you to rain botanical hell (and hoes!) on all sorts of foes, all while keeping track of time to get back to the farm before those pesky snails show up at night! Keep the cashews flowing, or else your blood will be. Grow crops in the extreme radioactive environment via super genetic engineering. Listen to them hoot and holler, and then harvest to prepare the land for the next wave of seeds. Fight wacky, mutated foes, and mash em into fertilizer before you get flown back to town!"

"This game is very much multitasking+planning oriented. You must manage your time while out beating camps to get items, while also planning out your build, and then heading back in time to fight off waves of foes coming in to eat your crops or take you down, all while frantically farming! Crops are of the utmost importance, giving you money to buy weapons, seeds, tools, etc."

"Your farm is in the middle of four biomes: desert, tundra, plains, and jungle. Each of these has some special enemies that inhabit them, with desert and plains being easier. Each biome will have a extra hard tier that is best visited later, once you have some good firepower. Camps in these biomes can hold seeds, farm animals that help with farming, gameplay altering items, and all sorts of special goodies."

"I don't want to spoil it like a rotting tomato, but the exploration part of the game is just as fun as the farming! Speaking of farming, did the sun just go down?!?? Seeing as the day was only two and a half minutes, it makes logical sense, but no time for sense or logic! Better book it to the farm, as waves of monsters will start invading, each wave about 30 seconds long."

"During night, this is the best time to harvest crops and plant new ones, all while dodging bombs and bullets. Keep the snails off your plants! Once dawn comes, all foes will vanish, including any bosses you failed to beat, along with their rewards."

"Then comes the town. Here you can buy guns to get stats and customize your build, flirt with townsfolk for items and eventually marry them, and host festivals! In order to flirt, you need roses. Roses are a special crop found in any biome, and are basically a direct currency to items. They are contrasts to heart beets, the way you heal in this game."

"Harvesting a heart beat will heal you, and partly increase your health. If you fertilize four heart beets, they will make one big one that is far better at healing and expanding you health. Fertilizing crops is actually where a big part of strategy comes in this game, as a fertilized crop is worth far more than an unfertilized one, and merged crops are worth much more, and can even by max fertilized too! All fertilizer is gained from killing foes, which is part of why exploring during the day is important."

"Each third night, a boss will appear, and they can have all sorts of patterns! Killing them will reward you, but should dawn come they will escape. Will you survive to winter to fight the final boss? You can always throw a festival after you beat a boss! These are special times when all sorts of deals, bets, and trades can be made, and the more food you made, the more rewards."

"Atomicrops is a real work of gritty, gross, and hilarious art that is sure to have you clenching your teeth, chewing your veggies, and blasting your foes to the moon! My only gripe with the game is this: there is not enough! The developers have dropped the game, and while the main dev wishes to keep on working on the game, he does not have the funding to make any more."

"The game can be played in one sitting, or in three minutes at a time. The art is special and I have only seen such a style in this game. Gameplay is far different from your generic shoot shoot shoot roguelike, as it makes you think and plan all while farming and adrenaline pumping!

"GO PLAY THE GAMMMMMMME! It gives old school difficulty with a very interesting twist a life of its own. Whether you are looking for fun, difficulty, or grinding, you will love this game from the get go, and it will grow on you, like a radioactive brain tumor in the best possible way!"

Help us rank this game! [Submit Feature Survey]