Vimana Review

The fusion of Indian mythology and vertical shoot-em-ups might seem a little unorthodox, but these two fields come together to create something exotic with the release of Bitwave Games and Toaplan’s Vimana on Steam. The titular Vimana craft is at one’s disposal – should players step into the cockpit of this spacefaring adventure?

Vimana Review

A vertical shmup that has roots in the arcade scene of the early 90s, Vimana manages to play the part quite well. If one were to wander through an arcade from this era, its blasts of green bullets, sci-fi spacecrafts, and constant action would becon for any gamer to plunk in a quarter in to see what’s in store.

However, like all good shmups, there’s so much more to Vimana’s formula to discover as players progress each cycle. Players will still be taking down anything and everything that moves, but the rate of fire helps to change things up. Players of Vimana will have a twin shot by default, which can be upgraded in typical genre fashion – that much is par for the course, albeit welcome nonetheless.

However, there’s also a charge shot that spreads the love into a greater area. Knowing when to attack head on and knowing when to blanket the surrounding world could very well mean the difference between victory and failure in a signature one-credit-clear run. Of course, there’s also a bomb that varies things out by turning into a seeking target against foes. Again, not the deepest or mos revolutionary system around, but it nails the fundamentals.

Completing Vimana is a fairly short endeavor, but the game does cycle players through for a more challenging run upon doing so.

Of course, the joy of a shmup is its replayability, and Vimana has a suite of options that allow players to tweak their playstyle. Feel like things are too difficult? Players can rewind for minutes at a time, just to make sure they get past that tricky section that did them in.

There are other ways to improve one’s playstyle, including the activation of a visible hitbox, adding additional hitpoints or even quick saving and loading (though we would never save scum!). Want to get more out of the experience? The ability to see an enemy’s health bar and change the overlays is also available. Want to see where things went wrong? There’s even a replay functionality baked into this release.

It’s just a shame that there’s little to this package outside this functionality. The Steam release of Vimana is arcade-perfect – and then some – but the lack of bonus content is somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, there’s still Steam achievements for those looking to show off their prowess, along with online leaderboards.

While this release of Vimana is arcade-perfect, it does prove to be a bit light on content. Those looking for their next one-credit-clear will enjoy this space showdown, but more casual fans might be left in the lurch.

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