In Short:

This game is for those who like 2D plane slightly angled from top-down shoot em' ups in which one is predominantly dodging and destroying enemies that move and act in response to the tempo and all else of ones' (favorite) audio over a minute and thirty seconds long (that is on the computer you are playing on), then this game is for you.

Note: The enemies rarely fire at you, but unlike bullet-hells, you're entire ship is the hitbox, so enemies can be smashed into, but it will damage your ship. Luckily you can repair it via collecting "Music Notes" (dropped points) from enemies one has shot to death after your ship lost part of itself (took damage).

Notice, any audio over 1:30 minutes will do, so for you oddballs out there who feel like playing to audiobooks or whatever else you come up with, have fun.



In Depth:

Warning... there are probably spoilers (if you think there can be spoilers for a shoot 'em up that is not a bullet-hell)... they are more of descriptions of how the game works... which is why I think it is good...

Any audio over a minute thirty long can be used to play the game.

One have 4 guns that are individually rotatable, all of which they can individually be bound to left click to fire, right click to fire, or always (infinite) fire... the game can be really easy on the fingers due to the infinite fire mode.

One can move ones' ship around the screen with your mouse much like you would a cursor.

Each of those 4 guns and the parts of ones' ship they mount to can be destroyed, as well as the entire ship itself if the center of it gets hit. The ship comes with 4 stock guns. All weapons can be upgraded to level 5 (the higher the level the deadlier of course) based off of points/point goals on songs that you finish playing through.

Ones' ship usually loses parts/gets destroyed when you crash into enemies or on the occasions' they shoot you (or you get to close to certain units and they blow up). Luckily you can repair it via collecting "Music Notes" (dropped points) from enemies one has shot to death after your ship lost part of itself (took damage).

When one dies one respawns seconds later (may feel like forever if your invested in the level) and as one defeat bosses that randomly get attributed to songs one plays. Each boss unlocks part of a sheet of the Symphony of Souls. Each page represents a higher difficulty level to unlock... so yes... one starts off weak, but sit back and enjoy the audio whilst it is easy if you are a Hardcore player, otherwise keep it easy or do as you wish.

The game comes with pre-stocked music from a handful of genres... but I shall not review it, for everyone has their preferences and it is limited compared the amount of music one loves that one will probably add to it to play.



The long opinion filled babble-esque review follows that might have as many "spoilers," if not more, as above:

You may actually listen to rather than just hear your songs for once since your focusing on playing your song rather than having audio in the background as you focus on something else.

Playing a game whilst having an excuse to listen to your (favorite) music without having to listen to the games audio... always grand... but there is nothing like playing a shooter that integrates and interacts with your music/audio files that are a minute in a half or longer. The proof the game interacts is the pace of the enemies, color of the background, and the subwoofer weapon...

This game is unique in that it has 4 weapon slots and one can customize which way the weapons face on the ship, the ships weapons (and ship itself) can be destroyed... but as long as the ship remains intact, one can collect music (drops) from deceased enemies to repair ones' ship. One can also configure any of the weapons to independently of one another fire with the left/right mouse buttons and infintie fire (2 guns on left click, the 3rd on infinite fire, the 4th on right click, sure, all on any of them, all the power to you, etc.)

One can upgrade weapons, but if one is not very good at the game, one simply has to play more songs on the lower difficulty levels to get the points required to upgrade weapons. 2 point systems, one is based off the score you received upon finishing a level, and the other is based off reaching set scores for that difficulty for that song... both of which are required to upgrade weapons... the former of the two is only required to unlock weapons... and there is only 1 weapon unlock per song.

Every song is processed by the game the first time you play the song, in order to generate that level (difficulty is irrelevant). The processing process also decides if a boss will be attributed to that song (thus there will never be a boss on a level you have not played). There is a timer to defeat the boss, if one fails to defeat the boss may move to a different difficulty level in the same song, but will still be attributed to that song.

One unlocks (parts of) sheet music... the Symphony of Souls... as one does so one unlocks higher difficulties. The bosses get progressively harder to defeat. When one defeats a boss that song is freed (no fighting a boss on that song again).

Is that enough babbling? Now go play the game to Portal's "Still Alive" song(s)... they are free after all... Steam Music... and yes there is a way to download them without having the game installed... it is just a pain for it requires console commands... you might catch that the game is out of Beta on time... I never heard that before playing the song in Symphony.