SATAZIUS

I suck at shmups, but on my first few playthroughs I had little difficulty clearing many of the levels.

And the nice thing is Astro Port's formula of customization and level exploration with branching paths and approaches ensure that repeat playthroughs are not boring as you'll have an opportunity to tinker with different combinations of weapons, tactics, and level paths.

The choice of power-ups is cool, the gameplay is fun and how some levels can scroll up and down pretty far with different paths is ingenious.

I hated the music, with a few exceptions, but the graphics are clear and nice, even at lower resolution.

Controls with gamepad are responsive but a bit finicky as I kept crashing against walls, especially on ceilings and floors, by moving just a tad too much.

It's also really nice to look at, Astro Port know their mecha designs (the bio-mechanical spider especially, and also the first boss that loses the external hull and then changes shape), and the thumping soundtrack complements it nicely.