Zyrcon

Mouse only shmup, and your ship only moves laterally on the ground. Picked this up on sale because I was unsure that I would like it because of mouse only controls. This mouse is easy to navigate, efficient, and fun to control. First game, I didn't know what was going on, but after the first couple of games, I was like this game is pretty incredible. I think the part that really impressed me the most was killing that little flying octagon thing and collecting all the gold coins left behind. Like a gold rush. The upgrades were also an added bonus because once you kill the upgrade ship, you can select upgrades with your money. Pretty choice retro shoot em' up.

It is a lot of fun, although I definitely recommend using a mouse instead of the steam deck trackpad.

Super cool!
Unique control scheme that just works so well, interesting weapons, super responsive controls.... I can't believe this costs only 2$.
There's SHMUPs on Steam I paid like 10x that, and they're far, far worse.

Great works, take the same concept and take it further, and you'll have a SHMUP that'll be played as much as Tyrian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x59P6opWZs

Things certainly start off on the right foot with lively '90s synth-styled game music even if it's not actual chiptunes, and a bouncing, multi-colored scroll of words along the bottom like you used to see for cracked games on the Amiga, C64, and Atari ST, among others. And that long scroll of words is praising Amiga shoot 'em ups and their developers... Stardust, Apidya, Xenon 2, Battle Squadron, Agony, SWIV, Project-X, and so on.

Also in that scroll of words is the mention that this is their first game in 30 years! Digitalica originally did a digitized 2D fighter for DOS called Unlimited Warriors in 1996 and this is their first game since. How cool is that?

Some neat history and classic shmup callouts isn't going to make a bad game good, so thankfully, almost miraculously for $1.99, this shooter is pretty damn good. I was skeptical at first as mouse control almost never works in shmups, but it's different here. The mouse is mostly for aiming your target reticle and your ship does follow underneath, but Zyrcon is a gallery shooter, not a scrolling shmup, so really the game is more about aiming than movement. The better your aim the quicker you dispatch enemies, kind of like a lightgun shooter and headshots vs. bodyshots. But your attention is divided with everything else to shoot on the screen in the form of asteroids, which drop plasma cores, along with destroyed enemies dropping coins, all of which is collected with the left mouse button. But when you're collecting, you're not shooting. Risk/reward.

Those coins buy you some upgrades in the shop, which appears as a floating ship among the enemies every now and then. The upgrades are expensive so you're hoping to afford one every time the shop ship appears, this is not an upgrade-heavy game and there's no meta progression, it's structured like an arcade game. Shooting enemies also fills your stasis meter, which is a slowdown + shield power, activated with right mouse button. It drains quickly but is crucial for getting you out of trouble.

The last major gameplay element is your three shots -- laser, shotgun, and ricochet -- and as you'd expect they're all better at different tasks and for different situations. The only downside is there's so much going on the screen at once and a lot of meters and statuses to keep track of, which is kind of impossible.

A fun, unique shooter for a couple bucks from some old school gamers and game makers. Made my day.