Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers Review (Tim)
Didn't like it. The trailer did a better job evoking B-movies than the cutscenes. In particular, the English dub felt very modern. I was expecting Mid-Atlantic accents, mugging, unexpectedly conservative and jingoistic ejaculations from the characters, and so on. But aside from the filming style, I didn't get a strong B-movie vibe.
The gameplay is interesting but frustrating. There are a couple stages where you play this MASSIVE ship with a similarly large hitbox, and it's novel considering every other shooter is trying to be a bullet hell. Then you switch to one of the smaller planes and it's like, "Oh yeah, I'm playing a so-so shooter without a strong gameplay gimmick."
The upgrades system really grated on me. One upgrade grants rechargable lives... that take most of an entire stage without taking hits to earn... unless you eventually earn a combination of upgrades to speed up the process. One grants you a fire from behind sub-weapon on a cool-down... Even though it's not always relevant to the stage & takes up one of your two sub-weapon slots. I wish it had more universally applicable core moveset & left life acquisition to a score mechanic instead.