ImageStriker Review – Not an Exceptional Shmup, but Still a Great Place To Start for Beginners!

Sometimes, its fun just to have a straightforward game that doesn’t break the mold, but is still quality. ImageStriker is one such game. It is a traditional vertical scrolling shmup featuring a score chaining mechanic and an excellent soundtrack. It has two main ways to play. An arcade mode with six levels, and a three-minute caravan mode in the style of classic Hudson Soft shmups.

Graphics

Being an early release by TERARIN GAMES, the graphics are really simple. The backgrounds are just there, with limited special effects as you play. The focus is clearly on the gameplay with the goal being to provide a shooting experience in the vein of late 1980’s shmups. It is not a bullet hell or danmaku title in any way.

Gameplay

Your ship can equip a variety of weapons by flying over them, such as a laser that passes through walls and another that shoots rings out in a spread formation. The only one that is practically worthless is Side, with its main benefit being that if you have it equipped you can take an extra hit before dying. This is also the case for all other special weapons (which makes the game nice to play for beginners). One other wrinkle in the gameplay are the little pods that fly next to your ship. You can change their location with the push of a button. Another button allows you to change your ship’s speed, although this isn’t very helpful unless you are playing on the highest difficulty or in Caravan Mode.

Speaking of which, this second mode is one of my favorite parts of the game. ImageStriker’s chaining mechanic really shines in this 3-minute high-score challenge, with lots of ground objects available to keep the points going up faster. It’s entertaining to see how high you can make your chain go.

Music and Price

There are two last things worth sharing about this game. One is its music. The soundtrack for it is excellent, and makes ImageStriker stand out from some other shumps. This is really important because the graphics are not impressive; having the music slap helps compensate for weaker areas of the game. The second main point is the price. It’s free! You can add it to your library on Steam whenever you want!

While the game doesn’t excel in any way other than music, its gameplay design is still competent and fun. I played it for about 5 hours learning how the game worked and earning the different achievements. It is a quality introductory shmup for new players to the genre.

Title: ImageStriker (also available on itch.io)
Genre: Vertically Scrolling Shmup
Year Released: 2019
Developer: TERARIN GAMES (Japanese website)
Played On:Steam
Price Paid: Free

Remember, we can have different opinions about the games we play. If you like something more (or less) than I do, both of our perspectives are valid.