Habroxia 2

Habroxia 2 makes me erupt with positive and overly excitable adjectives: entertaining, fun, delightful, near-perfect. I could go on, and I will: fast, frenetic, fluid, confident. This is a game that demands the attention of any fan of 2D retro shooters and offers a seismic improvement over the original. You'll be hooked from beginning to end.

It's been a long time since a shmup has felt this modern, while still preserving the roots of the genre. As long as you can get past a little bit of grinding, Habroxia 2 is the sort of experience that we've been missing on PC for far too long. Man your battle stations, because it's time to take a trip deep into bullet hell.

Retro-styled shoot 'em up Habroxia 2 makes for an entertaining experience even if it doesn't rise above others in the genre.

It’s just a shame that its stages, that have you both moving horizontally and vertically, are a tad bland and samey. The same goes for its bosses, too. It doesn’t hamper the experience all that much, but as you move from one stage to the next you occasionally get the feeling of déjà vu. Still, Habroxia 2 is very much worth any shoot ’em up fans’ time and money. The gameplay is on point, and that is largely all that matters. Throw in some nifty unlockable modes and a bucketload of upgrades to unlock, and you have a game that offers serious old-school thrills along with some modern-day flair.

Unfortunately, one aspect that kept pulling me out of the game was how often the tracks looped. They’re not terribly long, and to make matters worse a number of tracks have a short two-to-three second loop that goes on way too long before the rest of the song continues. Tracks that may have otherwise been enjoyable became tedious by the time I finished the game.