Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers Review (bertstruiksma)
The bad 50s B movie aesthetic is pleasing but fairly shallow and not nearly as funny as, say, Destroy All Humans! What I ultimately got playing this, was a "let's do a tribute to those silly 50s movies with a strong female character this time and make a game out of it as well" vibe. And they KINDA were unable to make a game on par with the visuals. The basic shoot 'em up action is just that and it can feel quite boring to play at times with the predictable enemy patterns and longish spots with nothing to shoot, often with LOTS of radio buddy plot explanation/setup instead.
It can be hard to judge what is lethal to touch, as there are almost always a lot of missiles, debris, explosions etc. on screen and everything is in B&W (obviously!). Some of the set piece (boss) animations can be stuttery and occasionally very jarring, allowing for a moment of loss of control as an animation jerks along and the frame-rate goes down hard for a moment (as well as control over the game, which may cost you a life).
Fairly short experience, with a real difficulty spike only towards the end with a very drawn out final boss fight.
Hopefully the developers can make a more polished and fleshed out game next time with hopefully the same level of presentation, slightly more seamlessly integrated and less talking more varied game play.
In short: don't get your hopes up too high... it's OK enough and if you love the look of the game, you may be more forgiving but seriously (and for an obvious, I feel, comparison): don't expect anything near Cuphead's level of polish or fun. And there's no shame in that, as Cuphead is an amazing standout achievement. And this, I feel, is just not and I was a little surprised that so many of the reviews here seem to offer nothing but praise and little criticism, which I feel needs some balancing.