Cycle Chaser H-5

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1

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Review:

Cycle Chaser H-5 is a Shmup released on PC in 2023 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2025. This game has players swapping between three different weapon types, with shield/special attack system that has players weighing the benefits of attacking against defending.

This mechanic has players constantly charging up their shields, but after it reaches a certain point they can sacrifice a part of their shielding to send out a more powerful attack, giving this game a risk/reward mechanic that would be nice, except… well, it’s constantly charging, so there’s not much risk here, and unless you play on a harder difficulty you won’t find much challenge, either. Beyond this, the gameplay just strikes me as pretty bland. Not bad, just nothing unique or interesting to set it apart within the genre.

The presentation isn’t going to do much there either. The game uses pixel art visuals with a pretty clean look with a lot of geometric shapes, and while this looks fine, it seems pretty lacking in personality. The same goes for the synthesized music, which works well enough, but isn’t memorable at all.

In short, Cycle Chaser H-5 is mostly a pretty bland and forgettable Shmup. Its one clever feature, the shield/special attack mechanic, isn’t well-utilized here, and nothing else really sticks out as especially memorable or exceptional. And given how many truly great Shmups are on the Nintendo Switch, I feel like a game in this genre needs to do something interesting to be even worth a look. Cycle Chaser H-5 simply does not do that.

tl;dr – Cycle Chaser H-5 is a Shmup that has a shield/special attack mechanic that has potential to add a good risk/reward element to the game, but it’s not well-utilized here, and nothing else about this game stands out as particularly great or unique. As a result, this is a bland entry into the genre that, while not bad, just doesn’t do anything to recommend it over numerous outstanding Shmups on the Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C

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