Monsters In Neon Space

Monsters In Neon Space is a simple side-scrolling space shooter that has a unique look. Immediately when I started playing the game I thought of neon signs. Each stage is practically filled with neon background details, and enemies that look like the neon signs you see in cities. While the look of your ship in this game and everything else about it appears on the simple side it is far from simple.

You start the game with some choices that have to do with what color ship you want, what weapon you wish to use, and what type of special bomb you will use. The choices are slim, but you'll find that the different combinations of weapons and bombs you can use will greatly effect how far you can make it in the game. For gun types/weapons you have the choice to go with rapid fire, wide shot, or laser. I find that laser takes care of most enemies, even bosses with ease. As far as bomb/special weapons go you have a bomb that explodes in a circle, a homing type of missile, and a gravity vortex weapon that sucks everything into it. I found that the circle bomb actually worked much better for me. The gravity weapon was pretty cool as well, but the menu will warn you that it is for advanced players.

This game not only gives you a variety of weapons to choose from, but you also have some in-game upgrades that are available to purchase with the neon circles you collect from enemies. There are a total of seven upgrades available in the game. They include gun upgrades for enhancing your shots, bomb/special weapon upgrades to enhance the range/power, speed enhancements, a mini option that shrinks your ship, a shield, a wide shot, and the option to buy extra ships. You actually have no sort of hit points or life meter in this game. You just start off with 7 ships, that actually amount to 7 hits.

Each stage in Monsters In Neon Space contains an ending boss, and each boss monster requires different tactics to defeat. I found that there only a certain amount of neon rings throughout each stage, and it's best to save the upgrades/enhancements for defeating the boss. I had to play many times over to be able to beat the stages, and bosses. I had my difficulty set to normal, and the game felt like it was on hard. There are only two levels of difficulty available to choose from in this game, normal and hard. I have to say that this game is definitely much more challenging than it appears. You have to combine strategy, and skill if you hope to make it to the end. Use your upgrades, and enhancements wisely. That's the best tip I can offer when it comes to tackling this game.

In the end I found this game to be fairly fun, and challenging. I would have liked to have seen some different ships to choose from though. I also need to mention that sometimes when I was purchasing/adding more ships with the neon rings I had collected it caused a 'Code 4' on my Xbox 360, and sent me to the dashboard. It actually happened multiple times. I'm not sure if it was because I went past the max number of ships, or if I added them too quickly? Whatever the case was, it wasn't good. If the developers can fix this glitch/bug the game would definitely be better.