Cycle Chaster H-5 Review

Cycle Chaster H-5 tells the story of a brainwashed soldier who’s leading an army of mysterious aliens currently occupying a scorched planet Earth. Fast forward to 400 years later, our protagonist, a lone pilot is looking to save the said brainwashed soldier and bring him back to his senses. Can you survive the onslaught of the alien army?

Cycle Chaster H-5 is a side-scrolling shmup (shoot’em up) where players have to survive an onslaught of alien ships and their projectiles. Thankfully, to help survive this war, the pilot’s ship has three different types of weaponry: 2 spread-like and an auto-targeting attack. You can swamp better firepower at any time by pressing the B button on the controller. You also have a power meter than fills up as you kill enemies.

The meter has two purposes. The first purpose is that once the meter reaches 100% and up, you can shoot a powerful shot that will destroy most smaller enemies in its path and gives you an opportunity to do a reasonable chunk of damage to the massive bosses that await you at the end of each level. The other purpose is that this meter also acts as your health meter.

Speaking of which, boss battles are one of the most fun and challenging part of the game. While facing a handful of cronies and their projectiles, bosses will take more screen area and they’ll shoot projectiles in every which way to test your reflexes. Unlike most shmups, this one is more forgiving. If you die at the boss for example, you’ll be able to continue at the battle making it easier to understand its pattern.

The game’s 2D visuals are hand-drawn and vector-rendered; giving it a unique and colorful style. While the same color patterns do seem to repeat, the mixing of the various colors gives it a very bright and enjoyable visual appeal. The soundtrack is a generic, forgettable affair, but it might sound familiar in terms of sound as it was created via the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip, which is the same one used for Mega Drive/Genesis games. So the enjoyment of it will depend on your tolerance for this type of sound.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with Cycle Chaster H-5. But there’s a legit lack of a challenge in a matter of speaking. Having all your weaponry available from the getgo and not having to rely on underpowered guns until you find something better is a bit unfortunate.

Cycle Chaster H-5 is one of the most enjoyable, easy to pick up and fairly challenging shmup I’ve had the chance to play in quite sometime. It’s simple and there’s nothing to complicated; you have all weapons at your disposal from the get-go, controls are solid and it has a distinct unique style. While this is a great shmup for those looking to dip their toes in the often overly challenging genre, it might be a too easy for those looking for something more substantial to chew on. Definitely worth your time.