Gad, I feel like so much good stuff has passed across my proverbial desk recently. It’s hard to believe there was a time when I had to play a bunch of, well, “terrible” games to fill the site’s front page. You can, of course, relive my pain through Ye Olde TIGSource, an archive of older posts painstakingly compiled by ithamore features page.
But anyhoo, Varia is the game of the moment: a shoot ‘em up created for the SHMUP–DEV 2007 competition (you may recall Prototype 2 from a few days ago). At its core, Varia is a straightforward vertical shooter that mixes mechanics from classic games of the genre. However, it does so with great aplomb, in this author’s opinion, and consequently, it’s a fun ride.
From Gradius V, Varia has taken options, which can be “frozen” in place. A unique addition to this is the ability to absorb enemy shot types into your options. You can have a maximum of four trailing.
From the classic indie shooter Cho Ren Sha 68k, developer Kairos lifted the spinning power-up wheel, which lets you pick between firepower, options, or shield. Just like in Cho Ren Sha, savvy players can snag all three by sitting in the middle of the wheel!
The most underdeveloped aspect of the game is perhaps the chain combo system, taken from Ikaruga, although from looking at Tim W.‘s massive “”http://www.freeware.remakes.org/users/kairos/varia_normal.php">high score" (testicles), there might be more to it than I’m giving credit for… in any case, it just adds a little more to this great little shooter.
(Thanks, Melly!)