LittleBear
says: It's not like it's rocket surgery or brain science.
There were quite a few good games that I saw in January, not including those released for the AutoFire 2007 Shooter Competition. Games I really liked this past month are: Battle Blade 2, Mini Shoter, and Havoc Zone.
One developer stands apart, though, and that’s cactus. Both of his games, Space! and The Design, were great. So congratulations to cactus for being the first developer with 2 notables in the same month, and a thanks for making some great stuff 
Dragon Tejina is harinezumi’s entry for the AutoFire 2007 Shooter Competition.
The first thing I noticed about this game was the nice backgrounds, sort of water-colour looking and very nice. It took me awhile to find the auto-fire key, turns out to be ‘Y‘. There’s a workaround for this mentioned in the Shmup-Dev post.
The game provides 3 different shooting methods: ‘Y‘ for auto-fire, ‘Y+X‘ for rapid fire, and ‘X‘ for a charged shot. In a nice added touch you can eat the barbequed remains of an enemy destroyed by a fully charged ‘X‘ blast to regain some strength.
My main criticism of the game would be that the 1st level tends to take far too long. It’s not compelling enough to make you want to keep playing. A shorter, more intense game experience would have been better.
Dark Space is Havard’s entry for the AutoFire 2007 Shooter Competition.
Dark Space is a solid feeling horizontal shooter, with only the arrow keys for movement and ‘Z‘ for shooting to worry about. There are lots of powerups to collect, including the old favourites for options and missiles. I feel the game may be too easy yet, but expect a full version later on. I like the graphics and design of the boss.
Excellent Bifurcation is Linley’s very interesting and unique entry in the AutoFire 2007 Shooter Competition.
This vertical shooter provides you with two sides to play on, with ‘C’ swapping you between them a little reminiscent of Chaos Field. Except that you need to dodge on both sides, splitting your attention. What does “swapping” between sides mean? It seems you have a main ship that collects the powerups, though I’m not entirely sure yet. ‘Z‘ to shoot, while ‘X‘ for a powered shot round out the controls.
I like this one a lot, from the 8bit graphics to the unique gameplay. It really takes some practise to get the hang of the split screen, but it’s worth the effort.
Sokutsu no keikaku – Kaminari - is Areyos Alektor’s entry in the AutoFire 2007 Shooter Competition. As he mentions, it’s far from finished and still needs a lot of work. I’d recommend waiting awhile before trying it out.
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