Hyper Echelon - Play 1 (review in description, pixel art shmup)

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Jason Doucette

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Published on December 26, 2021 2:53:39 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF86HdcSPg4

Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 27:57

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2021-12-26. Hyper Echelon. First play.
I learned of this game from the amazing pixel art by https://www.instagram.com/rayslynyrd

(Nvidia Shadowplay recording system didn't save 50% of the video, presumably because I ran out of disk space. Though I still had 3 GB remaining.)

Pros:
- great coin collection & power-up system.
- bullet speeds are decent, though fire rate could be improved.
- once powered up, the game starts to become nicer. Designers unfortunately live in this area, and forget that people need to get by the initial presentation first.

Cons:
- some enemies cannot be destroyed (shmup where you cannot shoot things?)
- side fighter option is as large as you are, and can be hit
- tons and tons and tons of meaningless text; there is literally a point where I have to press 'A' to skip by someone saying 3 dots ("..."). When developers make a dialogue system they almost always inevitably abuse it. If it can be said in one sentence, don't use two. Don't make conversation just to make it.
- you have to click through annoying text before each boss fight.
- after you've powered up, and are leaving the power-up screen, more annoying text pops up to tell you about how good power-up X will be for your fight.
- you cannot control your fighter during intros and outros.
- you cannot shoot during boss intros.
- bosses start shooting at you before you are allowed to move, and thus cannot warm up
- start screen makes you think the controller is broken, since the 2 other options are disabled, but how could you possibly know?
- too many bosses crush you off-screen.
- health and shield system inevitably allows game designer to design bad levels where you cannot avoid being hit.
- tutorial is relentless with dialog telling you about 10 different powers your fighter can perform, before you have any context, and while you are trying to fight enemies meaning you are not reading. It forces you to use certain buttons to continue.
- power up system takes a single level to get enough cash to buy either 1 or 2 powerups, each giving something like 7% extra power.
- powering up your main shot never increases its speed, or number of bullets, or anything visually aesthetically pleasing whatsoever.
- due to the very low fire rate of your weapons -- even after powered up -- enemies can pass through your firing line, since they all take multiple hits, which is very unintuitive. Further, missing enemies causes you to miss an objective which rejects the unlock of the next difficulty mode.
- enemies that you literally cannot shoot, will continue to pepper bullets your way as they reside in the lower quarter of the screen, and even as they are disappearing off of the bottom of the screen. This breaks a classic shmup axiom that every great shmup implements that almost no developers are aware of -- don't shoot when too low on the screen, and don't shoot when too close to the player fighter (which this game also breaks). These axioms arrive from fixing "annoys the gamer / cheap death" gameplay issues. Having shields will hide these flaws as you find death by 1,000 cuts.
- no benefit to be close in and dangerous to enemies; no limit of bullets on-screen that allow rapid fire when in close
- far too many large enemies arise from the screen bottom at a snail's pace, peppering you with shots that you just have to wait out.
- tons of enemies you cannot kill, yet 100% kill rate (which does not include them, to be achievable) is an award in the game.
- 5th and 6th levels are just mine fields; which are remnants bullets that you have to avoid. Comes from: enemies you cannot shoot that pepper shots while slowly scrolling off, mine enemies that spew bullets regardless if you kill them or not, fire shooting enemies that your main craft cannot travel through and you cannot kill them, enemies that spew bullets you cannot shoot that eventually blow up into more bullets, hot parts that cover half the screen that you cannot touch without overheating and taking damage, etc. etc. This is not a shoot 'em up game. It's a mine avoidance game. There is no satisfaction playing a shooter where you cannot shoot since nothing takes damage. The game is fundamentally flawed at its very core.

My playlists:
--------------------
- Voxel: https://youtu.be/watch?v=XCVWEuhCCDM&list=PLjnbT4UISq0bQF1g85tE9jTrKfEtdRYlY
- Road: https://youtu.be/watch?v=ck5ALX11YU4&list=PLjnbT4UISq0bnfd1RC3M4PgTgkmhlkikV
- Ray Casting 3D: https://youtu.be/watch?v=zjswXUTMP2o&list=PLjnbT4UISq0YcFtRFjFQqK0g6ONNCtrvY
- Side-Scroll Shmup: https://youtu.be/watch?v=fF4X8zN-Raw&list=PLjnbT4UISq0Y_7IAN_zUzxgZnfhXxo_0Q
- MonoGame Tutorial: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WW1dJnfXWb0&list=PLjnbT4UISq0adw__Y9B2eXA0LL35TyORU

My websites:
---------------------
- my GitHub: https://github.com/JDoucette
- my company: http://xona.com
- my Blog: http://thefirstpixel.com

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