Shootvaders: The Beginning

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Shootvaders is a Shmup released in 2021 on PC and then ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2023. This game has players using various resources to purchase a loadout for their ship before heading into battle.

The presentation here is mostly pretty decent, with clear, colorful 2D visuals joined by some nice sound effects for gunfire and explosions. They’re a bit too nice, though – they drown out the music, so I can’t really tell you much about that.

When it comes to the gameplay, I have some mixed feelings. The minute-to-minute gameplay is good – there’s a decent variety of weapons that are satisfying to use, and the core game mechanics work fine. Unfortunately, everything else gets in the way.

Let’s start with the ship upgrade mechanic, which takes far, far too long to accrue enough resources to build up your ship after your initial startup funds are spent. And while the game’s levels do occasionally drop temporary power-ups, for some reason when these power-ups run out your ship will be powered down, giving you an incentive not to get them. On top of all of this, the game’s enemies and levels are all repetitive and lot at all smart, just staying in place and firing straight down, occasionally flying at you in a kamikaze attack, and every few stages, you’ll have to fly through a zig-zagging corridor that’s just as repetitive.

I really enjoy some parts of Shootvaders, which makes all of the frustrating problems of this Shmup just that much worse, because I know they’re standing in the way of a game that could have been a solid budget entry in the genre. As-is, this game is merely just “okay”, and there are far too many great Shmups on the Nintendo Switch to bother with a game that’s just ‘okay”.

tl;dr – Shootvaders is a Shmup that has some good core gameplay, but those positive elements are let down by repetitive levels and enemies, slow progression, and a seemingly-broken power-up system. This isn’t a terrible game, but there are far too many better ones to waste your time with this one.

Grade: C

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