It took me a while to really figure out what I thought about this game. Its formula isn't really all that different from other similar shooters.
Arcadia is another dual stick style shooter which was released on Steam fairly recently for 5 bucks. Unlike Bullet Candy, Arcadia isn't wave based. The player is given a playing space to cruse around in (quite quickly) and small shapes cruse into the arena with the sole mission of colliding with the player. Two modes of play, Casual and Chaotic, are given.
This is definitely not a flawless title. In fact, while I was playing it, I had thought of a lot of negative things to say about it, but despite all that, I continued to play it. The game play in and of itself is really good. The big problem is that it's a high score based game with no local high score board. (or any high score board for that matter.) The only way to gauge your progress is the achievement system, which consists of high score milestones. Also, gamepad support was recently added but is faulty at best. That appears to be something they are still working on.
Neon Lights is set up in the format of a Dual Stick Shooter. This one is a bit different from the other ones I have reviewed thus far. The gimmick here is that the shooting is totally automated. The player automatically emits a constant stream of bullets in the direction of motion. As enemies fade into the screen, the player must race around the screen in order to send the wave of bullets in tactical places.
This is a pretty fun gimmick which gives the game a bit of an arcade-ish feel. Like, I really wish I had a USB arcade stick to play this with. This is especially true since there is no attack button. I have taken to playing it with my Dual Stick controller, but since the game only uses the left stick, it feels like the rest of the controller is dead weight. It should be noted however that this game DID recognize my controller. Not bad for a free game since Arcadia, which costs five dollars by the way, does not.
