Astro Flame Starfighter Review

Astro Flame Starfighter is a throwback to classic vertical old school shoot’em ups, or shmups for short, where players need to bob and weave and shoot their way through endless waves of enemies in order to reach the level’s end boss and progress to the next area.

Astro Flame Starfighter is a typical shmup where you have to kill or dodge as many enemies possible. Unlike most games in the genre, you do have a health bar that will allow you to survive as long as you can. Enemy projectiles will chip away at your health if you’re not careful. But stay on your toes because a direct hit with an enemy ship will result in instant death.

In order to make it through the waves of undesirables, players do have a few tricks up their sleeves. You have the default machine gun that fires unlimited amount of bullets. You also have a set amount of missiles in your arsenal that can become quite handy in some tough situations or against bosses.

In between missions, you can upgrade your ship thanks to green jewel like things, known as Resources, dropped by destroyed enemy ships. You can upgrade a bevy of your ship’s features such as the main weapon’s firepower, armor, increased rocket power, unlock a drone for additional support; among other things. Every time you upgrade something, the next level of the upgrade increases in price so it’s in your best interest to kill *everything*.

The game looks great; dark albeit colorful at the same time. The space environment is obviously dark, but thankfully the enemies and obstacles are colorful so they can stick out of the background making sure players don’t lose health or lives because an enemy was meshed with the background. However, the soundtrack is as generic as they come. Sounds like dark rock score purchased on a stock music website instead of uniquely crafted by the developers.

The most frustrating aspect of this game is the health system. If you get hit by projectiles, you’ll lose a bit of your health bar, but hitting enemy ships directly is a one hit kill. As far as I’m concerned, it should be either or. It’s easy to space out considering you have a health bar and accidentally hit an enemy and then die. Another nuisance is that when upgrading, instead of highlighting the whole skill, it’s a small circle at the end of it so it’s hard to tell which upgrade you’ve highlighted.

Astro Flame Starfighter is a decent, enjoyable shmup that can be enjoyed by either newcomers or long time fans of the genre. Levels offer a fair and fun challenge, the upgrade system is surprisingly deep given the lack of depth in gameplay. Despite its minor quirks mentioned above, there’s nothing inherently wrong with Astro Flame Starfighter. Longtime fans of shmups have something new to challenge themselves with whereas newcomers can safely give a shot at this otherwise daunting genre.