Classic, requires skill to play, needs something.
I agree, it's pretty solid and polished. The game might be somewhat punishing difficulty-wise for the unexperienced gamer, but since the levels are all pre-made, you can just continue to grind the same level a few times and slowly memorize when and where the enemies are going to arrive.
Not that much stat building, with a generic all-round boost instead of skill allocation, though very welcome.
The weapons were alright. Not many to chose from, but fairly effective. I'd wish the homing missiles had a better turn-rate, and didn't just disappear once they left the side of the screen. The rubber-cannon is VERY useful, especially when you have the option to !ROTATE! your weapons at the loadout. That was a really nice feature! I'd wish more weapons could utilize that efficiently, though.
(Sidenote, I was reminded of the game Enigmata while customizing.)
The ship speed seems mediocre compared the the enemies speed, especially in the last few missions. Enemies suddenly popping up at high speeds, with no time (or ability!) to act was frustrating.
It's been said before, but i'll say it again; dry. The game had a fine opening for a small storyline, but after that, nothing. Just raw gameplay. Some might like it that way, with not too much chit-chat holding up the game, but putting in just a bit of extra content, like some more background story, or maybe just a bit more description in-game would do good.
All in all, it's visually appealing. The audio and music works well. Gameplay works alright, but slightly steep in difficulty. Sadly, a few things just leaves this game with something missing, but other than that; high quality, nice work!
4/5, 7/10