Skyforce Reloaded: Best scrolling 2D Shooter for newcomers to the genre?

Games
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I can’t stand that there isn’t a thread for this incredible game on Qt3. Oh my god, you guys. It’s not often that a game makes me fall in love with a whole genre. But this is it.

Wikipedia tells me that this started off as a mobile game. But the version I’m talking about on Xbox One is a game that seems specifically designed to lure newcomers to the genre.

You start off with a ship, fighting enemies on the screen as the scroll into view. And then you die to a boss. And when you start again, your ship is really weak. You have a piddling little laser, and that’s it. But as you kill enemies, you gain stars. Stars let you buy ship upgrades.

As you finish levels, you unlock new levels, as expected. But in addition you have objectives “Kill 70% of enemies”, “Kill 100% of enemies”, “Stay Untouched” and “Rescue all humans”. If you complete all four objectives you unlock harder versions of the same levels.

I can hear you now: But Rock8man, I don’t like Bullet hell shooters, is this one of those? It kind of is. But don’t leave! In Level 5, you experience some bullet hell-level of insane fire coming at you. But you know what? They ease you into that too, because in that level, your weapons are disabled. So the ONLY thing you concentrate on is avoiding fire. They realize that you might not be able to keep track of multiple things, so in Level 5, you ONLY avoid fire, and that’s it. It’s a brilliant way of teaching the player how to handle bullet hell type of situations.

This game is so good! If you have Xbox Games Pass, it got added this month. I used the Game Pass discount to buy the game, it’s only $8. I highly recommend checking it out.

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For us PC players:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/667600/Sky_Force_Reloaded/

Wish-listed on your recommendation, will wait for sale as I usually suck at such games, but do like to try them.

3

I’ve put a lot of time into the mobile version of this over the years, it’s pretty good.

4

Ditto

5

Same.

6

Very fun on iOS, so thanks for the recommendation. The one one finger controls work very well. Free so far, not sure what the paywalls are.

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It’s also available as an AppleTV 4th gen app if you get the iOS version. Better control with the touch sensor on the remote vs covering the screen on your phone.

But the best version is the XBox version. :)

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For those with Game Pass, Anniversary is also available there.

10

Love this game. Love the series. Have played the crap out of then. Favorite shmup since 1942 in the arcades.

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Huh, I just realized that there are two different Sky Force games and they’re both on Game Pass. So they’re both worth playing?

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Don’t tell me that! Already put about 2 hours into the iPad version today. Very addictive.

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From reddit:

From time to time there happens to be some confusion about different Sky Force version available on different platforms. Perhaps it’s caused by somewhat confusing titles, maybe by a long publishing intervals. Regardless of the reason, this post should shed some light on that whole ‘mess’ by outlining the release dates and features of different Sky Force versions.

Sky Force (2004) - mobile shoot ‘em up for S60 and other mobile systems of that era.

Sky Force Reloaded (2006) - a sequel to Sky Force, available on the same platforms

Both of these games were ported to iOS and Android in 2009/2010. Currently unavailable due to incompatibility with new versions of the operating systems. Sky Force was also ported to PSP and PS3 minis in 2011.

Sky Force 2014 - a mobile remake of 2004’s Sky Force. Released for iOS and Android as a Free 2 Play title. Consists o 9 stages in the main campaign, 1 bonus stage, and 4 tournament stages.

Sky Force Anniversary - a wide screen port of Sky Force 2014. This version was converted into a premium title. F2P elements have been removed, balance and progress was adjusted, the play area has been extended to cover the whole 16:9 screen and local co-op mode for 2 players was introduced. This version was released for Android TV, Steam and Apple TV in 2015 and following that, in 2016 for PS3, PS4, PS Vita and XBox One. Sky Force Anniversary was featured in PS+ and XBox Game Pass collections in October 2017.

Sky Force Reloaded - released for mobiles in 2016 as more of a sequel to Sky Force 2014 than a remake to 2006’s ‘Reloaded’. It features similar F2P model and shares most of it’s predecessor game mechanics. All the stages are a new content, however, and new unlockables have been added in the form of different planes and supporting Technicians. This installment features 13 campaign stages, 3 bonus stages and 5 tournament stages (+1 special for Christmas Event).

June 2017 saw the release of the widescreen versions of Sky Force Reloaded for Aplle TV - the game remained F2P and is available as a single package shared between mobile devices and the TV box.

Later that year (Nov/Dec 2017), Steam and console (PS4 and XBox One) versions were released. These versions transitioned from F2P to premium in a similar manner as ‘Anniversary’ did. With a small delay, Nintendo Switch got it’s version in Feb, 2018.

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Yes, they are.

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I tried Sky Force Anniversary last night. There’s more progression mechanics in Reloaded, like when you receive cards and other doodads, but otherwise the game is very similar to Reloaded. Also, it is way less stingy on the achievements. In Reloaded I’ve been playing for almost a week and finally got my first achievement. In Anniversary, I already got two achievements maybe even three, in one day.

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How much bullet-hell goes on in this game? I’ve always enjoyed the genre, but it seems like at some point developers decided the more crap flying in the air, the better. That just seemed to diminish my ability to enjoy the actual game.

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Not that much. Like I said, Level 5 is when the screen gets really filled with fire that you have to avoid, and in that level they disable your weapons, so the only thing you do is dodge.

Then level 6 went back to being a normal level, and there wasn’t as much bullet hell dodging as in level 5.

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A one-off level I can deal with, especially as it seems story-related (suggested by turning off your weapons).

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Hit my first paywall in the iOS version. I noticed you only get 10 lives and they slowly add more, but it only just became a problem. I can’t play for 10 minutes now. That’s actually a good thing, I need to go do stuff.

I downloaded Sky Force 2014 as well. Seems the unlocks/mechanics are identical, just different levels. Maybe slightly better graphics on reloaded.

Couldn’t handle the Apple TV version, it looks gorgeous, but the touch pad is just too small.

Kind of considering the Steam or Xbox version to see what its like with a controller.

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This game is really good at holding your hand. I need some more friends however, because it doesn’t look like @tomchick liked it much, and I have a really long ways to go with @krayzkrok

I’m belouski on Steam as well.

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Can you do cross platform friends? I’m 05 91 64 87 on iOS.