Iro Hero Brings Throwback Vertical Shmup Action To Nintendo Switch On 7th June

Got my eye on this one,looks pretty good.. I've got enough polarity shifting on my plate at the moment though. Not sure I can cope with any more head mincing.

Pixel look meets Ikaruga gameplay...? I'm not sold, but let's wait for the review. Once thing I don't like is how they use the screen - I can just barely live with these huge borders for old games that were made for vertical screens, but in a new product?? That's the wrong kind of retro for me.

Ugly ship and sprites of which are way too big, Ikaruga rip off play mechanic. No thanks, in the huge sea of shooters that exists today why do people bother to spend their time naking such bland and unoriginal games.

@Mr_Horizon Have you played Ikaruga? It's nothing to do with the pixel look it is because both games feature the same colour shifting mechanic.

The reason the border looks like this is because vertical shmups are generally supposed to be played with the screen in portrait mode.

Almost all of these have the option to display the screen portrait. Most monitors and some TVs (and the switch console by its very nature) have the ability to rotate 90 degrees.

All of the genre stalwarts from Cave, Treasure & G Rev do this.

I think the main problem is shmups are such a niche product today much like 2D 1v1 fighting games are. This in the sense of they all come across as very similar (BlazeBlue, Guilty Gear, Persona Arena, Arcana Heart), but the nuances in the combos and scoring systems are there for people who love the genre and are interested in mechanics. Remember these are games that can normally be completed in 30 - 45 mins and are there to be played through for high scores and 1CCs (1 credit clears).

Its the same as me not really enjoying sports games. I think they are all the same. I know in reality they are good games and have nuanced differences I am just not their target market.