Fission Superstar X

Fission Superstar X
N/A
Metacritic
82
Steam
64.869
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$14.99
Release date
21 May 2019
Steam reviews score
Total
82 (167 votes)

Blast off in Dr. Leopold's bomber in this relentless rogue-lite shooter. Tour the solar system on a desperate randomly generated bomb run. Face impossible odds trying to achieve the demented dream of an insane scientist.

Show detailed description

Fission Superstar X system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7
  • Processor: 1.33 GHZ 2 cores
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Graphics Card with Pixel Shader/Vertex Shader 2.0
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 100 MB available space
  • Sound Card: Any
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Scowlie Meerkat
Scowlie Meerkat

This sure is an annoying game.
You start off, you think it's going to get fun.
But it's repetitive and annoying and no early progression and you start back from scratch every time.
It's sad, the framework for fun is here. The dev(s) put in all the work and I'd sure enjoy a less frustrating version of this game.
But Less Frustrating clearly wasn't the vision, so they turned the dial to More and stuck it there.
It's an annoying slog that drops a random chainsaw on your head every time you hit your stride. Go back and do it again.

Kind of fun the first few runs. Would not recommend.

GoOtterGo
GoOtterGo

Great SHMUP, and if you liked Death Skid Marks you'll appreciate this, too. It's not exactly the same, but it has the same mechanical depth.

The folks complaining that it's not clear enough, or that it's too hard, don't seem to appreciate the core vein of the rogue-like genre. It's supposed to not hold your hand, it expects you to figure it out with trial & error, it's supposed to be hard. Yeah, some runs the RNG will be stacked against you, that's life. To quote Dwarf Fortress: you'll have "FUN!"

The game's great for short sessions. You do a run, you die, you finish your beer, and you move on with your day. Lots of variety, lots of corniness, lots of 'fun', just don't take it too seriously.

I hope they make a third game. So far Death Skid Marks is one of my favourite games, and this is well up there, too.

Decoherant
Decoherant

Fission Superstar X is a labour of love, a monument in praise of cheesy 60's sci-fi, 90's era side-shmups and the sort of art direction and light-hearted silliness that used to be common in videogames of the early 90s. This game feels like something you might have played in an arcade in 1996, while waiting for your parents to pick you up from a movie theatre. It's not of course, its a roguelite with modern design sensibilities and so many sprites on the screen it would make a neogeo board cry, but it FEELS like one.

In terms of mechanics, there's nothing terribly complex here. The PoV is zoomed in so far that you wont be able to do much fancy manoeuvring or tricky shooting, the upgrades and weapons aren't anything ground breaking or particularly novel, and the enemies have predictable blindspots and weaknesses that you'll need to exploit. After a few dozen runs, it can get pretty repetitive.

But the feel, the FEEL of it! Between the stellar spritework, the goofy plot, the beautiful debris effects and the spot-on 16-bit era sound design, this game just absolutely nails the feeling of something you rented from a blockbuster, spent way too many hours plugged into over a weekend and had to re-rent because it was juuuuuuust a bit too tough to beat in a week.

Maybe that only appeals to old farts like me. But if you know, you know. This game knows.

helix2
helix2

I really wanted to like this one, but there are too many strikes against it, not least of which it simply isn't fun.Imagine if you will, a space ship shooter, where all of your guns have huge blind spots, and enemy ships can simply come at you from a blind spot, and bash into you repeatedly. Easy for them to do as you fill a good quarter of the screen, making maneuvering feel less like space, and more like Austin Powers making a three-point turn in a tight corridor. Tack in the standard concept where killed ships drop useful items, but the way the game is designed, you can't get 90% of them. Imagine no more, this is that game. Tack on to those wonderful design decisions a near total lack of explanation about how the game works. Sure it's interesting to look at, but it is punishingly difficult to play. Collecting cash is a nightmare, far too often IF I survive to a shop of some kind, I can't buy anything, or hire a crew member. Three thumbs down, avoid at all costs. Even free would be too much.

Blinkdog
Blinkdog

this game can be fun but after you figure out do to the heavy RNG you have a very low chance of completing a run. skill will also not save you in this game because if RNGesus feels you need to die you're dead. 1 enemy can come in at a blind spot or just with a strong weapon and it's game over and this can and WILL happen before you can get a good build going. on that subject it's really hard to actually get a good build going with RNG shops after each fight part and RNG items within said shops you could end up not getting anything helpful. redoing the build up phase over and over and over also gets tiring and makes you wish you could skip it for a stronger build later in the run.

fighting gives you a gun for each crew member (4 but you start with only 2) on each of the 4 compass directions. the guns do not over lap so if someone is in front of you you can only use the forward gun. you do get a special weapon in the center of the ship that can push things away. you'll do a little flight part with a huge sprite for a ship where enemies will spawn from random spots and come in at you. if you don't die on these parts you'll get an upgrade (for special, armor, or aim) then you'll have 4 choices these include places to buy weapons, special weapons, crews, repair, or move on into deep space, following a comets tail, and other options. the shops are all different choices and the crew shop only has 1 crew for each slot. for the space option i'm not sure if using these do anything other than move you closer/farther away from the end goal since thats all the info that they give. your ability to dodging is also very limited as your ship is so big and not having all 4 gunners can be a death sentence is something powerful come from that direction.

the story is taken from a rick and morty episode but that's not a bad thing since a game like this is lose on plot and only use it for a reason to go from point A to point B.

the games fun and has some nice tunes so if you get past it's flaws you could really enjoy it. that said the flaws are huge and really take away from the fun. it's like playing a bullet hell game but with a ship that can't dodge the bullets.

mustangplane
mustangplane

I would say buy it.
Upside:
No BS, no microtrasactions or paywall.
One of the best art work you can get.
Game have slight retro touch.
Fun to play over and over again.
Good controls,
Good graphics
You can feel passion of this developer to this game.
Not expensive, special on sale
Good for quick game if you just need some fun in your life.
Downside:
It could take update (maps weapons,...)
Can be hard and it does not hold your hand.

Support this developers i hope ill see more game like this in future.
This is real gaming not just make map online and no content.

Rainy
Rainy

Frikken awesome game! . Beautiful art and animations, reminds me of metal slug. Nice attention to detail (love the rocket booster at the start that falls away from the ship), a feast for the eyes, a kalaidoscope of colours, explosions, enemies and weird zany characters.

There also is alot of variety and content with regards to differrent enemies and weapons and ships and the game is quite challenging.

Did i mention how awesome the animations are, that smoke animation wow

One of the best, if not the best shmups on steam

Follow Curator Page for recommended Games:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38262110/

Dreengo
Dreengo

Simmilar to Death Skid Marks. Somewhere better somewhere not but this game is good. I'd like to spend some time in it.
Good soundtrack. No rokin guitars this time but I think it does not matter much in this setting.
To sum up: if you played Death skid Marks and you liked it there is much for you in this game.
If not then check death skid marks out or walk away.
Good luck!

elli0tco
elli0tco

This is a super fun game! Challenging as well,
explore outer space as you horrifically dismember other travelers with
Your guns for not other reason then you want to and they sorta asked for it
That and well they have sweet sweet loot so that you can upgrade your ship
To kill people even faster

Tystefy
Tystefy

Mission: Blow up Earth.

Instructions unclear: blew up Pluto.

Valnak
Valnak

Scientifically designed to give you an erection while playing.

Paradise Express
Paradise Express

This game is solid. Deceivingly simple while surprisingly deep. Extremely satisfying core gameplay loop. They nailed the pacing and combat that they slightly missed in Death Skid Marks.

My only two complaints is that the carry over between runs (called DNA points) are hard to get and aren't very rewarding or motivating as far as roguelites go. And the early game is boring and repetitive as hell once you've done it 15 times, to the point that I'd rate this the "least likely to instantly restart" roguelike compared to something like Enter the Gungeon or Slay the Spire. This is due to a mix of less variance between levels (it's mostly just space), enemies, guns, and unexpected situations early on.

If you're ever going to die it's likely going to feel punitive, like an enemy coming from the back offscreen and doing damage over half your ship's health in one wave gun attack that pierces shields, or just some new boss with kinda bullshit powers.

Still a fun game and I hope the dev continues to tweak the balance and mechanics, early game, and add some content and support this.

Doctor ☢ Apocalypse
Doctor ☢ Apocalypse

It's Death Skid Marks but with a twist. That's alright in my book. If you have not played DSM well then you should look into it.

The game mechanics are different enough but also nicely incorporated. Slightly streamlined and not so item dependent,

The art and sound are great and it has just the right amount of weird and silly that made DSM so great.

Worth the wait and the price is right for what you get.

Randy
Randy

As addictive as the first game. Loving the new direction and style. Gameplay is deep and fun.

Beanerschnitzel
Beanerschnitzel

I'm not someone who usually gets obsessed with a game (I hesitate to use the term "addicted"), but this game has me utterly hooked. It's even better than Death Skid Marks. The art style is amazing, the gameplay is great, and the sense of advancement makes it so engrossing. It seems a bit hard at first, but once you get the hang of things, the difficulty is just right.

If you want a space game to scratch that particular itch, where you think about playing it in the morning or you can't wait to play it after you get home from work, this is that game. It's so good.

charlie epsilon
charlie epsilon

If you enjoyed Death Skid Marks, buy this.

If you enjoy shmups, buy this.

If you enjoy rogue-lites, buy this.

If you enjoy space games with a demented sense of humor, buy this.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to start a run to Uranus.

Malphas
Malphas

Goddamn, what a gem!

Art style is great. It gives me an early heavy metal magazine and mobius feel. Top notch.

Gameplay is fun and addictive and something you'll keep coming back to.

Would've liked to see some more options for the resolution

GrimtyGray
GrimtyGray

Art is nice, concept is nice. Only problem that I have run into is that the Pluto boss is much harder than it needs to be without the first engine upgrade.

I say this because the first time I fought the boss I had the upgrade, and won with ease. Second time without it and lost in less than 30 seconds. The laser moves too fast for your ship to avoid if you aren't in the EXACT right sweet spot, if such a thing even exists.

Neptune boss has too much health for how much literally fucking nothing it can do to you.

the10kan
the10kan

If you like FTL, but you're certain you could fly and shoot a lot better than your crew, this is the game for you.

Sargs
Sargs

Not generally a fan of shooters, but this one has style. Graphics are great, music and sound are good and the gameplay tickles my fun-cells in a good way. I love the added spin of four gun turrets on one big ship that's not agile without being clumsy. Six hours play-time in so far, and I think I'll be putting a lot more in.

Now, if only I could work out how the whole earning more DNA points business works...

Doc.
Doc.

What a Great game,I really like all the different weapons and ships you can get. The art is amazing. Tho the RNG is sometimes unfair that is normal for these types of games. You should get it if you enjoy Rogue-lite game

Beauchard
Beauchard

Great roguelike space chase game with a fun, wacky setting and great pixel art. Thoroughly enjoying it thus far, well worth the purchase.

UmamiMami
UmamiMami

Tons of fast paced fun!

Could do with a few QoL improvements:

- Detail what supercharged weapons do
- Mention that the shield doubles as a tractor beam
- allow you to freely browse through the tips

Only glitch I've noticed is that if you set the bomb off on a planet and you haven't already detonated the bomb at the preceding planet, you don't unlock that ship.

(YouTube)Dragnix
(YouTube)Dragnix

Target Audience: Very patient roguelite players

Summary:
This is a tough one, and if the option was available, I would be putting a thumbs to the side right now. There's some interesting elements with the 4 regions of your ship and having to play to your currents ship's problems and how to put your ship in the best chance to succeed. When the game starts to rev up its engines and you're barely surviving by the skin of your teeth, you can get some really fun moments and it makes the game seem worth it. The problem is simple: it takes way too long to get there, and it can feel really cheap when something goes wrong in this game in particular thanks to the screen and battlefield construction. But it's the slow progression with a lack of variety in the early hours that makes the game a hard drag in the early going, and what will scare people off the game despite some good elements.

Here's the thing, it's the inconsistency of some of the mechanics working together here that ends up giving the game an uneasy feeling from the get go, as having these moments where you could be playing perfectly, but an enemy come off screen and annihilate you ends up making you wonder what you could have done to stop it. How the game forces you to stop a run with blowing up your ship even if it's going well, just so that you've got another ship to make things SLIGHTLY more interesting in the early game. Certain players are going to enjoy the game if they have a high tolerance for frustration, but after run 8 in a row where I don't have any bullets cause the game hasn't given me weapon choices for the past 4 spots, and it just so happens to be the locations where the boss can actually get damaged, I'm just unable to continue on.

It's a game that I'd keep an eye on at least, because fixes and balance changes to the early game with more content will help the more unique aspects shine through and really make it worth your time and money, but I just can't at the moment. There's just too many flaws that drag the core strengths down.

Video Review: https://youtu.be/TAfjqtgOQ8c

Lists:
Positives:

    • The 4 regions of the ship and the unique firing cones is great, and can lead to some interesting gameplay and some good challenge.
    • You can feel great bullying enemies into the right location with your ship.
    • Enemies do have some force behind them and can be fun to deal with.
    • Shield mechanic being directional adds some good complexity to gameplay.
    • Good balance between bullet/energy weapons and their strengths and weaknesses.
    • Love the bomb clothing system and really gives the game some uniqueness that it was desperately craving.
    • Good characters recognizable from popular media and the art style brings out the personality traits well.
    • Music is reasonable and complements the action nicely.

Negatives:

    • The early game is a slog and doesn't ever get better thanks to the way the levels are designed. Even skilled players can't make it go faster, and considering how often you'll do it, it's a bit troubling.
    • Early game variety needed a big boost beyond the ships. Unlockables for new enemy/weapon types of level 1 type enemies would have gone a long way.
    • Yes, roguelites have elements where a bad series of luck can get you killed. It felt way too out of my hands in this game at times, almost like the game was purposefully screwing me over luck wise. It's too high in this case.
    • Mechanics have anti-synergy at times that can really work against the overall gameplay. Things like the Medic going against the whole concept of DNA points....speaking of which.....
    • Game doesn't teach you some truly vital information (like how to get DNA points) unless by sheer dumb luck at times. Wanted to flip a table when I found out how to get them.
    • But even beyond that, the amount of times that a specific character was killed over the actual ship is pretty rare. There's a balance issue here in my opinion.
    • Game does not like OBS hooked directly to it. Crashes when alt-tabs.
    • Sound design is hit and miss design wise, differences for bullets hit the enemy and bullets flying in from off screen in terms of being able to hear.

The Young King Geedorah
The Young King…

This game has is really fun rogue like element. I have been playing for about 5 hours and I have been having a great time. Great soundtrack and great art style.

TwitchTV/ZeroAff3x
TwitchTV/ZeroAff3x

Do you like Gold? Gold is currently $1,308 an oz or $42.05 a gram. Fission Superstar X only cost $14.99 and is the purest form of Indie Gold you can purchase on the market. Easy to see where I am getting at here.. It's time to BUY NOW!

It's gritty. It's got personality. It's unique. It has soul. It's a love letter to the golden era of 90's 2D gaming. It's fun. It's worth your money, your moms money, brothers money, teachers money, everyone's money. For the price, you are getting the next best Indie game since Nuclear Throne which speaks volumes.

This game is retro, deliciously good, weird, addicting, charming and frustrating. I highly recommend you check this game out if you are a fan of rogues, space, space rogues, shooters, side scrolling space shooter rogues, aliens, space cows or just love the sound of "pew pew pew".

What I like about this game;

-Weird dark/funny humor
-Pixel Art is some of the best I've had the pleasure of looking at.
-Dev paid close attention to all the little details and this game really shows the love that went into it.
-Music is super good to match the beautiful pixel art.
-Controls (using xbox controller) are tight, hit boxes are TIGHT.
-Lots of upgrades per run, upgrades to your ship change ship appearance. Upgrades come in the form of a variety of weapons, crew members and ship upgrades ie. Armor/Engine/Reactor/Shield.
-Lots of different stages keeping play-through's fun and fresh. Fun unique stages, like navigating asteroid fields with debris that can damage your ship and enemy ships or having epic space battles in the middle of a space whale stampede (yes, some space whales get hurt in the process).
-Epic boss fights with really cool unique boss appearances, animations and attack patterns.
-After defeating a boss you can decide whether to blow up the planet. Nuking planets to space dust if fun. Easy.
-Nuking planets rewards you with new ships to play with on future runs too, it's a WiN WiN! Each ship in this game looks and plays vastly different, some focus on armor, others speed, others a mix but my favorites are the ones that just focus on killing because killing is FUN.
-Every run is impactful. During your runs you collect "DNA" from various forms of "space meat". Space meat can be found from blasting open cockpits of enemy ships turning their pilot into jelly, blasting people who thought travelling space outside of a space ship is safe turning them into jelly or even bashing defenseless space cows floating the galaxy in search of space dust, turning them into jelly too. Collected "DNA" gets used at the start of a new run to upgrade your clone (aka starting pilot). Even just minor tweaks (couple points of DNA) can have huge impacts on your run. This makes every single run worthwhile in some form or another!
-There are lots of references to movies, actors, games and more to be found. During your travels you may find a crew member who looks like Darth Vader, the Terminator (both. Yes. I said both), Sonic the Hedgehog and more!

What I think this game could improve upon;

-Information seems to be lacking. Maybe a CODEX or something that explains what "shields" do since they do more than proctecting the ship (they collect money, powerups, ect too!). While most of the confusing bits like "how DNA works", "how shipyards/space stations/weapon shops" work and things of that nature can be solved by putting time into the game, not everyone is willing to make that investment. More information on how things work would be welcomed.
-Death Skid Mark characters felt somewhat special to me, you got to know their name, background and even got a Polaroid picture of them whenever you recruited them. While the crew members in this game are vastly cooler in nearly all facets, I do wish there like 2-4 sentences for each that had a glimpse to who they are and why they are in some creepy space station on the outskirts of the solar system. Good news is things like this can be added later still, so am quietly crossing my fingers it happens.
-Back to DSM crew, it was fun to see their faces get beaten to a pulp until they were toothless, couldn't see and covered in blood usually dying soon after this. This game the portraits stay the same, only changing in color, filling up with "blood" the more damaged they are. I liked crew damage better in DSM.
-There is an option to "target-lock" enemies (least for gamepad) though when pressed appears to do nothing. It could be user error though, am not sure. Would be interesting if this actually worked though.
-Absence of stat tracking. Won't lie was pretty bummed that you can't keep track of your runs, kills, crew members killed, ships destroyed ect. with this game. I made it known that it would be nice to have these features but am not sure if they will get implemented or not. I am staying optimistic though and again have my fingers crossed. If they don't get added, it's not a big deal, I'll still have lots of fun without.

Crew bios and crew damage is the only things I like more about DSM than FSX, the rest of the game is amazing. This game is definitely one of the best indies I've played. In fact it's the best indie of 2019 currently in my book, out classing popular ones like Risk of Rain 2 (though they are still in EA to be fair) or lesser known ones like Wargroove and Shakedown Hawaii to name a few I had fun with thus far this year that I think this game does better.

Am very happy with my purchase and if you are into games like this, you'll be too! HIGHLY RECOMMEND at full price, for $14.99 you are getting a bargain for the amount of gameplay you'll get out of it and quite honestly this developer deserves the support. DSM and now FSX are some of the best Indies you can play, this game is a huge step forward in terms of replay value and fun. I get goosebumps thinking about the future for TP3000, sky is the limit.

Thanks for reading my review if you made it this far. Hope it helped you with your choice on whether or not to make that purchase. Also, big thank you to everyone at TP3000, Phillipe Dayon, Mathieu Gamache, Michaelle Bouchard and everyone else involved in this games development, well done! Keep it up, very impressed with your work.

-Your Friend,
ZeroAffex

yac
yac

Celine is love, Celine is life ❤️

Well, technically she is the end of all life but what a cutie!

Entire game is very original - the setting, the graphics, and the mix of rouge-lite goodness - I'm thoroughly impressed!

ZippyTheWonderMoonrat
ZippyTheWonder…

Awesome, having a blast.

Overall think the game is a ton of fun and can easily see myself playing a ton more hours.

It's a fun balance of skill, strategy and luck (roguelike).

Wish it was slightly less hard but whatever, prefer it too hard than too easy I suppose.

Really recommend dev's put in-game instructions on two key elements that aren't explained much in the game: gaining DNA and how shields work both for defense and as a tractor beam. Easily fixed!

jIvE! aSsEd!
jIvE! aSsEd!

Fun to play.
Like a mix between Death Skid marks and FTL.

worth every penny if your into either of those games.

Pretty Bitchin'

Johnny Casey
Johnny Casey

Great art style, awesome soundtracks, reference that I can laugh out of it, and it's fun to see things go BOOM all the time.

Absolut
Absolut

I loved Death Skid Marks and still love the style of play and art of the designer. I love that it's a bit slower paced, DSK was a little too fast for me. Added mechanics keep you busy - collection of money/healing, shields, energy/ammo for weapons and crew actions at the end of each round.

Fission Superstar X has lots of charm, great graphics, great style. The gameplay doesn't quite live up to DSK's action but it's deeper and fun in a different way.

Don't!Get!Eliminated!
Don't!Get!Elim…

Needs twice the playable screen space. It's far too quick and easy to get boxed in due to how much of the playable space your ship takes up and how many blind spots it has. Could otherwise be fun, but atm it feels like a quite basic Flash tier game with catchy music.

Chicken Weenie
Chicken Weenie

The game has a bit of a learning curve, it is challenging but decent amount of fun

Also the soundtrack kicks

Von Gromenauer
Von Gromenauer

If you liked Death Skid Marks as much as I did, you can skip the review and buy the game.

Fission Superstar X is a roguelite set in space. You pilot a space bomber carrying Celine Fission, a nuclear bomb, on a Solar System tour of concerts at the behest of the mad scientist Leopold from Planet X. You start with just the pilot and a crewman of your choice or an upgraded weapon, and you get to recruit more crew, upgrade yourt ship and buy new weapons with the cash you earn from blowing up the ships sent by each planet's defenders against you (because you are trying to land a giant nuke in a stage at their planet).

The gameplay is similar to one of those bullet hell sidescrollers, and the duration of each stage depends on the choice of route you made at the end of the previous stage. There are special hazards, minibosses, and, of course, bosses, each more absurd than the previous one. Space rednecks, nazi antropomorphic cats, space pugs, space wasps and space social network addicts are just some of the ones you will encounter. In regards to the grahics, they are hand drawn and made by the same guy from Death Skid Marks, so you can expect hilarious and grotesque graphics.

Cornhub.com
Cornhub.com

Take a look at the screenshots and description. Is this your sense of humor? If yes, get it. If not, still get it.

Gameplay is similar to a twin-stick shooter, but you can aim any direction (with some exceptions based on your ship), rather than just 4 or 8.

Warning: not every gamer enjoys permadeath. If you don't like starting from the beginning (plus what you've unlocked) every time you die, this game is going to frustrate you.

Key
Key

If the cover art brought you to this page like it did me, play it. Sick nasty fun.

Skullking Von Mooncrest
Skullking Von …

A gem of a game if Starbound was to add ship battles i personally think the devs of that game should takes notes from games like this.

Legally a Beverage in 23 States
Legally a Beve…

It's Death Skid Marks in space

Campa
Campa

the idea feels interesting, but its not great. You control a space ship and shoot your way from planet to planet, theres some roguelike elements. Its interesting, but not very great.

The shooting mechanics could be reworked a bit, specially the ship controls. Its a good implementation of the shmup concept into a roguelike game, its just sad that the shmup still need some more love for it to be better.

The aesthetics are great, its weird that it just feels a bit claustrophobic, and i wish it showed more of the crazy world and the great art at each station

i recommend buying the game with a bigger discount, its not worth the price right now at the beggining of the game. The problem with roguelikes is that they either get you or they dont, if they miss you its real bad.

I really wanna have fun with the game, there isnt many interesting and good space games, most are just boring and generic garbage sadly, this one has the right vibes and elements to be interesting, hope the devs keep working on it and flesh it out to the point where its better

ps. i got a refund because this game was not worth the price i paid for, i will probably rebuy it again when its real cheap

Craven
Craven

A hidden gem with explosive and fun gameplay

ratbuddy
ratbuddy

Lots of fun, highly replayable. Would buy again.

Bix
Bix

Great game with lots of varied levels and enemies, progression, ship unlocks, bosses, and cool music.

Fun, challenging and highly re-playable.

Nimrath
Nimrath

This game is fun, due to a lot of things coming together very well. Story, while not important to the gameplay, sets a very nice backdrop to the mechanics. Short review, but not much else needs to be said. If you're into crazy sci-fi shooters, this is definately a game to check out.

fri_freeman
fri_freeman

I must admit, at first I thought there's not much to do in this game and I planned to refund it after an hour or something, but before I knew it I already played for 5 hours. So fair's fair, I'm giving it a thumbs up just for that.

It's good, but not great. Main problem is just the first ship is too limited, and unlocking other ships takes too much time. But here are two tips that HUGELY increase my enjoyment of the game.

1. After you played it a few times, you'll get option to randomize the game more. TURN OFF the level length limiter. It will make the levels potentially longer so you can get more money to customize your ship more.

2. YOU CAN ACTUALLY PULL LOOT WITH YOUR SHIELD. OMGWTFBBQ I must admit I found this out way too late, and I'm amazingly embarassed.

I wish there are actually non combat choices or events you can have though.

Brigador
Brigador

Simple yet incredibly polished rogue-lite side scroller with amazing art.

It's cheap. It's fun. spend a few great hours or stay - either way it's worthy.

TheBeefiest
TheBeefiest

Tits on bombs, and dumbass space whales

Fresssack
Fresssack

its a realy good game for in between

Schlomo Reipstein
Schlomo Reipstein

Good blend of FTL and DSM, so get it, and git gud!

Hazmatt
Hazmatt

This game is so fun! It's like a mix of FTL and Xevious I think. Very well-made and very addicting.

Xatham
Xatham

This is probably the best game I bought this year. The art, the backstory, the mechanics, it's all fantastic.

It's rather hard, though, and some of the bosses are not so well balanced. For instance I find the Neptune boss much harder than the Uranus one. But it's all so great!

loganjamesalex
loganjamesalex

Has that stereotypical "edgy" style similar to maybe Shadman. Lots of Hitler and Stalin references etc. . . If you don't mind that aspect the game is really quite fun. I have only made it past Neptune so far but each run has been fun and there are tons of options to make it harder on yourself if you wish.

Dead Romeo
Dead Romeo

Okay, I have probably played more of this game than a person should have within the first week of owning it. Frankly, it rocks! It's like if The Binding of Issac and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime had a skinnier, anti-social lovechild. Plenty of replayability (not as much as BoI, but still a lot!), fun, music is good, story and theme are dark and goofy, I just plain love this game! If you enjoy Roguelite games, this is definitely worth every penny!

sharang2
sharang2

Very cute, fast paced and interesting

DeathStrike
DeathStrike

Another great game from the makers of Death Skid Marks

🎌๖Bone E. Skeleton๖🎌
🎌๖Bone E. Skeleton๖🎌

It's a simple, short game with a ton of replayability and content

Knockin' Boots
Knockin' Boots

Hahahaha, first impressions, lovin' this game!
I love twin-stick shooters. I think I've tried all the "major" ones (e.g. Nuclear throne, Enter The Gungeon, Brigador, etc), and I'm always trying out new ones.
Anyway, I bought this game cause it looked different. And it is! It is the video-gamey-est, rogue-y-est twin-stick shooter I've ever played.
Good things:

    • It's fun! And DIFFERENT! More complex and more strategic than other twin-stick shooters, but not so much that it takes away from the fun.
    • Awesome pixel graphics. The ships look great!
    • Great Soundtrack
    • It's a game I can play during short breaks! There's a save feature and games tend to be fairly short anyway.
    • It's a rogue-like shooter! Well, rogue-lite anyway. There's decision-making and strategy but it makes it more fun!

Bad things:

    • Biggest caveat is lack of controller options/fine-tuning. I use a Xbox360 controller on my PC, and the controller is too sensitive always pulling in one direction in the menus, making it hard to select anything. I can get around this by flicking the direction stick in the direction of the pull, and it usually stops.
    • No tutorial or instructions! Really bugged me that I didn't know what the different powerups were, how things (e.g. crew stats) works, the difference in the different game choices; there's no tooltips or anything. BUT I figured out most of it by my first playthrough so it's not a big deal.

smb
smb

Underrated gem! It´s difficult to describe this game, it´s original, funny, relaxing, roguelite, shooter... the only similiar game to Fission Superstar X it´s Death Skid Marks (another excelent game). I really recommend!

lucern
lucern

I have to start this (overall) positive review with salt, because I think this game is a minor redesign away from something great. It's good, but nothing good in the game comes without being sullied by the bad.

The great:
*The gameplay builds up to an intense form of bliss. It's most everything good about FTL mixed with Galaga and Bomber Crew, in a creature-feature late night sci-fi dressing.
*The music is energetic and really well done.
*The story is hilarious, and the art matches it.
*There's a great variety of ships, guns, and such with generous damage state graphics. They're mostly the domain of the baddies, but see below.

The Bad:
It's got three features that should never go together: it's brutally hard, it's got permadeath, and its beginning is super dull. Compare it to early Rogue-likes like Nethack, and you see the flaw - every start in that game is either different or quickly becomes that way, whereas that's not true here. So you put 30 minutes of drudgery in to get between 5 and 30 minutes of fun. One mistake can end a run of otherwise perfect play, as can some between-mission RNG, and that means you get nothing new to play with. 3.4% of buyers ever win the game, and far more might have finished, except that your run will almost always voluntarily end at one of the planets along the path to unlock a ship (one of the few unlocks). You have to start with the same boring weapons. You get new ships that don't really feel that different for the most part. And you explore all this without much help, either online or through information in game.

In sum, most of the great features are locked behind the bad ones, but it's easily worth $5 considering the fun you'll have figuring out whether I'm right. A DLC alleviating these would be an instant buy from me.

Zero
Zero

Its a tough game, I like the Rogue elements though...tough is not even bad. They could add a save option for people who like it easier! Permadeth is not for everyone.
I would still recommend it. Great idea, good designs and characters. If you like space shooters and RogueL games, give it a try.

jr2
jr2

Pretty fun. If you like FTL, Convoy, and the like you should love it.

noe
noe

A fun and interesting shooter, although it lacks the staying power of conventional rogue-lites.

The gameplay is quite unique and feels very well rounded. The different weapons, enemy ship designs, the way ships explode and the way the combat unfurls is all fantastically crafted. There's a decent amount of various modifiers to the levels and different equipment to use.

But at the same time, the upgrade system for the crew very quickly maxes out and recruitment becomes relatively pointless past there. Players can only upgrade each ship part once per zone, which is an arbitrary restriction that gates players into having the same ship build each time basically since it's not very difficult to max out the zone tier every time and thus reach the cap. The ship upgrades for each tier seem to appear on a delay after advancing to the next zone, which is annoying since it means you can't upgrade your ship to the next tier until you're arbitrarily a few levels into the next zone. There's a decent amount of weapon variety but most of it only comes into player all of the sudden towards the latter half of the game, and energy depletes so fast and is so vital for using your shield that taking ammunition based weapons is often far safer. There's very little for players to actually buy or customize in the long run.

Towards the latter part of the game the enemy ship hitboxes also become weird in that players can't get as close to them anymore, which also makes it harder to hit them with melee weapons since they so easily bounce away the moment the weapon taps them. Having the player bounce back anytime they go near the edge of the screen also makes it difficult to maneuver at times. The way players collect loot from ships is awkward in that if a ship is destroyed behind the player they have little chance of getting the loot before it flies away, which arbitrarily punishes players for destroying ships at certain angles or distances from them. The game also never tells players that they can use their shield to collect loot, knock enemies back, and damage smaller enemies. Meanwhile enemy shields are broken in that when the shield is active it blocks all damage on that side of the enemy ship regardless of whether the shots it receives actually hit the shield or not.

Players can end their run after defeating each boss to unlock a new ship once, but there's like ten bosses in the game. So if you want to unlock all the ships you have to walk away from ten different runs, each at a different interval in the game. At first it's okay but after a couple hours restarting an entire run just for a ship is extremely discouraging unless you're at a point where you know you can't continue without dying. Especially towards the latter half of the game when each run goes over a half hour potentially and the game demands you remove all that progress just to get a new ship.

The second boss isn't very well balanced. It demands players to constantly use their ship energy on shielding the perpetual and often unavoidable boss attacks while also demanding players spend their energy on attacking the boss back. Thus dooming players to run out of energy and die to unavoidable attacks because they have no energy left to shield it, and essentially necessitating the player to use lots of ammunition based weapons; which aren't always available or effective.

The art and music are both very well done, the overall tone of the game is extremely indicative of a crude adultish comedy cartoon. It's neat; but it also retains the equally crude elements of specifically sexualizing the female characters, projecting baseless insults towards specific people with such crew members as the 'trash furry', and apparently having an enemy faction based off a real life hate group. Millions of humans didn't die just for their murderers to be parodied in a stupid computer game, use your imagination and come up with your own enemies.

That aside. It's a fun and quirky game, but between some of the design hiccups and lack of evolving upgrades and customization throughout the run; along with the length of each run in relation to how repetitious the combat gets, makes it less compelling the keep coming back to compared to some other rogue-lites.

Swamp Edd
Swamp Edd

Don't use shields! They make space whales blind!!

Chernobog
Chernobog

Something of a spiritual sci-fi successor to Death Skid Marks (and I LOVED DSM), this is a generally good follow up, using many of the same design ideas. FSX centers around an odd little plot about sending a mad scientist's doomsday missile on a concert tour around the galaxy, with an option to blow up the planet and end your current run for a new ship to play with on your next run. Heavily based on random results, you pick your way through roughly four options of paths after each stage of taking down enemy ships to determine conditions on the next level. Along the way, you're grinding the heck out of enemy ships to get much needed resources. You can (and need to) recruit fellow crewmates to man your gun ports, operate your shield, and steer. In many ways, this follows the DSM formula.

However, I find myself not necessarily enjoying FSX quite as much as I want to. In a nutshell, both DSM and FSX are difficult rogue type games, but while I eventually got good at DSM and enjoyed the options given for new runs, FSX remains overly difficult and seems to lack the fun chaotic features of a new run. You can make the game harder (which is not really desirable, tbh, the game is already very difficult), choose a different rather useless starting teammate or a better gun with no team member, or a slightly ship (if you have one unlocked from a previous run). Honestly, I found the lack of starting choices/options to be a problem here, where DSM isn't as pronounced on this front.

Starting runs on FSX get monotonous and boring very fast. There's just nothing going on or that you can do to really change it up. The especially clunky ships aren't really that different and lack the fun play strategies that the cars in DSM had. There's no chaotic starting randomizers like the bumperstickers in DSM. Enemies have very little personality (just space pirates and police mainly). I don't know... it's hard not to compare this to DSM in many ways. And because I loved DSM, it hurts, because while this is a spiritual successor as mentioned, some parts feel like a bit of a downgrade.

I'd give this a 6 out of 10 right now, but I must admit I'm losing interest due to the excess difficulty (Neptune boss in particular, looking at you) and tedium of making new runs where too little changes.

Some good points... I enjoy the art style, as far as shop scenes and crewmates go. If you like the DSM formula, you'll generally like this as a strategic rogue shmup. And while too challenging at times, it's pretty close to the level I'd like it to be. Music is okay, but gets monotonous. I'd recommend playing your own after a few runs.

To the developer, I'd recommend the following, if its of interest.

1. Better explanation of game mechanics. Was the gathering and flashlight quality of the shield mentioned anywhere in the game near the start? It's incredibly essential to know these. I only learned about it on the forums by accident. Also, killing the cows gets you great money, but it doesn't seem like attacking whales or cars matters matters? It feels arbitrary.

2. Please break up the tedium of starting a new run or even just in general. There's a lack of interesting options to play with compared to DSM, which had bumper stickers and more easily accessed new vehicles. Maybe add a couple of simple new starter ships with different play styles? The starter crewmen/gun choice is also pretty lackluster.

3. I've noticed from the achievements that a lot of players can't even beat the early bosses. In my case, while I figured out the Pluto boss (and the following one), the Neptune boss feels like an attrition battle and it's hard to tell if I'm even doing anything to it sometimes. Maybe target zones needed to be more clearly demonstrated or hp slightly reduced?

4. Certain projectiles can be very difficult to see sometimes. Between the dark space and racing stars in the background, small projectile sizes from blasters and ammo weapons make it difficult to tell if I'm even being attacked, let alone let me know I need to shield in response. I'd make these a little brighter, perhaps.

Funkyzeit
Funkyzeit

This is a.. low effort experiment game.. made (or ported) with clickteam fusion..
Better get Death Skid Marks - a better game than this.

Ayrlah
Ayrlah

Seriously fun, Fantastic music!

Droiagon
Droiagon

This is so close to being a good game.. but it falls short.

Each run takes way too long to get to even the first boss. You start off severely handicapped and have to rely on luck to get anywhere close to a fun experience. Most weapons run on energy with regenerates, but then some weapons run on "ammo" which is not plentiful so if you want to upgrade you risk just.. running out of ammo in the middle of a fight. So much fun.

You can have a great run for 30 minutes then an enemy comes out of nowhere and destroys you which feels like the devs just wasted your time. And most importantly, for some reason 2 out of 3 visits to the somewhat rare weapons shop has only weapons that are worse than the default gun.. what??

cabtv
cabtv

Game is too hard and random. You can have a very good run and get instantly killed (permadeath) by bad positioning or an enemy coming from an unexpected angle.
Would play if trainers exist or i could somehow reduce damage taken. I really like sidescrollers, but i don't have time to do the same thing over and over again to maybe get a good run once every hour.

*edit, so i used a cheat to get unlimited dna/ammo/money and still lost at the second boss.. i'm out, that game is cool but needs a casual mode.

Clortho
Clortho

If you liked Death Skid Marks (the creator if this game was a co-developer of that one) you will like Fission Superstar X. Similar gameplay, different setting, same sense of humor. Be warned, it is a roguelite, so it can be brutal. Even a single misstep can destroy your ship and end your run. That said, it is designed to be played over and over. There are many ships to unlock and tons of different things about the game to discover. There is a lot of quality playtime here for not a whole lot of money.

Protips: A lot of the finer details of this game are not explained and you have to just discover stuff on your own. This is fine for some things but can be frustrating when it comes to some of the key gameplay elements:

Shields are important to protect your ship so don't be afraid to use them. Activating your shields also has a tractor beam effect on nearby loot dropped by destroyed ships to help collect it.

DNA is used to upgrade your pilot before a run and is consumed. You start with 5 the first run but have to earn more via playing. Killing spacewalking enemies and shooting pilots/crew out of their ships before destroying them earns partial DNA points. Do the Space Cow levels and explode as many as you can to really earn some DNA.

The only crew stat you can't easily upgrade during the game is AIM. Therefor, collecting crewmembers with a naturally high AIM stat is important.

Not all weapons are well balanced. Some are OP, some are crap, so look at their stats. Some weapons may look OP but have slow rates of fire or high ammo/energy costs. Mix up your weapons between energy and ammo types. If you are low on energy or out of ammo you can't shoot and some levels prevent you from recharging.

All drops from destroyed ships are good. Mostly, you will see money and ammo. There are 4 special capsules: repair ship, heal crew, recharge reactor, destroy enemies.

Small ships have a single health bar but larger ones are like your ship with each section having its own health bar. Focus fire on one area to take them down faster. The Neptune boss ship has 4 sections of health and you have to take out all 4 to kill it.

DO NOT let your pilot get killed. You won't be able to control ship movement until you replace them.

The first time you blow up a specific planet you unlock a new ship. Doing the same planet a second time does not unlock anything.

Erzengel Tyrael1982
Erzengel Tyrael1982

+ Good Music Retrostyle Very catchy
+ Progress with ur Pilots/weapons
+ Inovative idea For a spaceshooter (abusing blindspots of enemies, Pretty big ship for a spaceshooter, dodging isnt that hard...)
+ Different obstacles/ enemies
+ Spicy bossfights

- No story
- No fkn continues ( ur ship can go down in seconds if u dont be careful)

+/- Pretty hard
+/- No tutorial

5/10

/HNC\ G-Force15
/HNC\ G-Force15

Quite simply too difficult. There should be an easy mode, I dont mind playing that in FTL. I am pretty much done with this game, it requires, to me, a very specific set up upgrades. The weapons in the shop are frequently rifles, worse than your basic gun. Very simple fix could be implemented, but they choose to keep it inaccessibly difficult.

OnionySunPraiser
OnionySunPraiser

very replayble, fluid gameplay, instinctive controles
overall very fun and worth the price

FrostyTD
FrostyTD

This is one of my favorite games, the game looks nice, explosions are awesome, and it's a challenging game to complete. I usually play this in my spare time between work and school when there is not much time to play games. as its a quick fast pace game. overall i love it

Mabry
Mabry

Yes the game is brutally difficult. However, that doesn't mean you don't have fun playing it. If you're looking to purchase this game with the sole intention of beating it, you may want to look at some angrybird titles or something else that'll hold your hand because you're expected to take a beating in this game.
In Fission Superstar X you take control of a ship strapped with a giant bomb set out to ignite the world in.... SONG and DANCE!
The controls are very easy to understand and you'll eventually learn how best to use them to your advantage.
Expect death but always shot for the stars!
This game is a fun play if you don't take it (or yourself) too seriously.

yvetox
yvetox

I can safely recommend this game to anyone. Gameplay is simple but fun, soundtrack is a blast, price is low - if you scrolled thinking "might pick this up"... Please do. This game clearly is a product of passion.

Jan
Jan

A good side scroller shooter roguelike game. Graphics are tight, but fit for the genre and run without bugs. The concept is cool and bizarre: player must try to travel trought solar system in a starship carryng a powerfull bomb , fighting enemies, landing in every planet to offer an odd concert or blow it. Mechanics is well and simple; there are 9 vehicles to unblock, one for each planet blowed, 3 main types of weapons, many kinds of common foes, 10 mini-bosses and planetary bosses.

The action sets in a highway shown by a side view-screen, with varios diferent events and obstacles, like big starships, space creatures, asteroids and mine fields, ion and solar storms... Player can hires until 4 crew to operate the 4 weapons domes, to pilot, connect the shield, repare ship or heal other members. Every passanger has 3 skills with 10 grades each. There is no map, only a long way in 9 stages of increasing difficulty with encounters randomized, like shops to buy weapons and enhances for the 4 starship parameters or place to hire and heal crew.

Game is very hard, requires perseverance to handle it, because by the random factors, win cannot be garanteed: less of 5 % of players reachs the 2 main goals. Gameplay is frenetic and fun, specially at final stages. To Get 90% of achievements takes about 60 hours, depends on player's hability, and over all the learning progress, discovering which are the better ships and weapons, what happens in events and how to beat bosses, specially the two first big ones, that maybe are the worst and explain whty so many players gives up. The hard mode is nearly impossible.

Remembers the great Death Skid Marks too much to be something casual, seems a clone in quite many aspects, but at least is a good one.

Panzer Magier
Panzer Magier

A mix of space runner and ftl. Its a bit too simplified and the difficulty is perhaps unreasonably high. I initially despised the art style, however it kinda grew on me. The music is stellar. Interesting niche game that is absolutely worth every cent.

GiggleFist
GiggleFist

It's quite a challenge but if you can piece together the mechanics it becomes so fun on another level

Croc
Croc

This game is unfair, it will beat you up if you do not understand it but once you learn it all, it's very satisfying when you finally explode the planet.