Good. A few suggestions, @ribboncable. Have button ❎ do something besides nothing in the game. Perhaps to it use a held power-up that can be picked up off the board. You could have a slot for 3 held items. Tap ❎ to go from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 1st, hold to activate. 🅾️ of course to fire.

Power-ups that can be picked up are:

• Warp 1 - enemies run half speed for 5-seconds.
• Warp 2 - enemies freeze up for 5-seconds.
• Flow - Player's shots travel through enemies and are 2x stronger for 15-seconds.
• Laser - Player's shot turns to laser, instant beam, for 15-seconds.
• Seek - Player's shots turn to heat-seeking shots for 15-seconds. No need to align shooting, shots will turn to hit enemy even if behind player.
• Bounce - Player's shots hit and bounce off enemies like pinball. Good for clustered enemies where one shot could take them all out after being hit multiple times for 15-seconds. Each shot lasts 2-seconds.
• Cross - Shoot not just in front but above, below, and behind for 15-seconds.
• Shield 1 - Player is protected from all shots for 10-seconds.
• Shield 2 - Player is protected from all collisions and shots for 10-seconds.

Also it's okay for the screen to shake when the player is hit but not when he is hitting a target. I see you have an option for none or all, could add 3rd option such as this.

You further could have the enemy show a special effect when hit called "white." That is when a shot hits a boss or larger ship. All the pixels inside that sprite turn white for a single frame and back to normal to next to show the player has indeed hit the enemy correctly.

the green ship looks like an among us

One of THE BEST shooters I've seen on Pico-8! The graphics, the music, the enemy design, everything! I love that it doesn't send you too far back when you die, letting you retry the previous section. Massive congratulations for making such an incredible game!

why is the green ship literally an among us character in the thumbnail

I'm a little confused on how the health system works. I got hit twice between health pickups and still never got a game over. I noticed getting hit causes some sparks to start coming from the ship, but between the 2nd and 3rd hit, there didn't seem to be any difference.

@kimiyoribaka
Full health: no effect.
First hit: sparks.
Second hit: sparks and smoke.
Third hit: kablooie!

@Scrubz
Thank you so very much!
Chris and I had a wonderful time making this. c:

@dw817
Those ideas might better suit a different type of game than they would this one.

Hi @ribboncable:

You know you may be right about that indeed. Sometimes my ideas can be quite ambitious and gamewriters just aren't up for it.

Best of wishes with your completed game then.

This is brilliant, I like the tight art concept!

Dude. This is so impressive. The art is incredible. The music is fantastic. The gameplay is hectic and challenging. Amazing work.

well executed. the music and sfx especially caught my attention!

they changed the green ship :(

@omriperez @UnitVector @beepyeah
Thank you all so much. UuU

Its a great game, but losing upgrades on hit makes it really hard

good game