If you know me, you’ll know I’m not a fan of Shmups (Shoot ’em ups), but my husband does enjoy them, and he INSISTED that I give Steredenn a try in two-player mode. I am, frankly, not very good at fast paced and fast moving games, and I have definite difficulties telling which character is mine, which leads to a lot of swearing at my husband’s character for not moving like I tell it to while mine jerks wildly around the screen.
This is a pixel art game, so it’s cute, and it’s different from other Shmups because each time you play it randomizes enemies and locations so every time it’s different. Part of the reason I don’t like Shmups is that they give you the same battles over and over, and every time you lose you have to start over and play the same sections again.
Not so in Steredenn.
And it’s hard. It’s ridiculously hard.
My husband kept reminding me to watch my player, not what was going on around me, so I could dodge things. If you try to watch what’s going on around you, the bullets are overwhelming, and you just die.
Even with my husband, who is quite good at these, we died all the time. I finally got frustrated and said I was done after a particularly rough run through, and I went to back out – and hit the wrong button because I’m not good at controllers.
So it started again.
And I went ‘OK, fine, whatever’. Went back to playing, and by playing I mean jerking my character wildly around the screen as per usual.
And then there was this:
And this:
And finally… THIS:
WE WON. We beat the final boss and went into the repeating loop, and it was AWESOME.
When we did die, we were third in two-player mode! The game had only be out a day or so, so that’s totally not true anymore, but I was really happy with it.
See?
So, that’s my gloat for the week.
Total score:
Do you like Shmups? Are you any good at them? What type of video games do you play if you play any? Inquiring minds want to know! *smile*
