If your game interest includes the old Galaga family of vertical, wave-clearing, screen-based arcade shoot-em-ups, you may want to check out the recent indie entry Nova Swarm on Steam. Gallery shooters are a small and little serviced niche, so it's especially exciting for an old arcade player like me to see a tiny powerhouse like this really claim some space for itself. One of the game's features is a dedicated developer who seriously soaks up feedback, and has been relentlessly upgrading the game, despite the $5 pricing, since release in early June (not early access, but be warned things can change from day to day). It's definitely feeling due for some wider attention.
Another key aspect is a rather outlandishly off-kilter arcade-oriented personality, which I've found surprisingly charming. That kind of thing doesn't normally play well for me, so maybe give it a chance before you turn voices off :)
Action-wise, you've got your basic moving around the screen and shooting upward, plus a slow-movement button and a "phase" button, which offers brief invulnerability on a short cooldown (and which you will need). There are bonuses for grazing close to bullets (which you can do while phasing), and three chained phases gets you a single special anti-shot bullet that wipes shots and damages enemies in a modest area if it connects. There are a lot of ships to unlock, which vary on a fairly small range of attributes, but still add some variety or at least options to explore for your favorite.
There's two core modes, each with its own leaderboard. One for the more pure arcade experience, and the other with a simple pick-from-three upgrades after each boss. Bosses come every few randomized waves and are smaller, simpler affairs here. Upgrades are mainly modest stat cards (so far), which helps offset the enemy scaling difference as the run goes on, so the upgrade mode feels much more like a reduced arcade difficulty than like a wild combo build type of roguelite deal. There are also a variety of short-term powerups that drop, in both modes.
Runs start pretty soft, so aggressive players probably need to wait a bit for things to pick up and challenge them, but you'll surely have a good enough idea what it offers within Steam's two hour refund window. The bosses are weird and feel janky, but once you get the hang of their spazzy movement and odd fake-outs, they can seem less bizarre. Watch for the countdowns on the top-center of the boss. Those are generally not to be ignored, and a number of attacks do need you to use your phasing in advance. These are obviously entirely different from bullet hell style bosses. You actually see more bullets during the waves than the bosses, though occasionally a reinforcement wave spawns alongside a boss, to make your life exciting.
Personally, arcade shooting is my wheelhouse, and I've been feeling this charming little gem deserves some more eyes on their project, and some more names on their leaderboard, so I hope some of y'all will help out. I've made sure you'll have to put a little work in if you want that top spot for yourself :)
