Wow, this is very cool and totally overwhelming. Anyone else given it a shot?

I'm still figuring it out, but I think I have the basics. The gameplay follows on from Galaga 88, it feels like a direct sequel, with visuals more closely resembling Ikaruga.

Instead of formations swooping down from the top only, they can appear from all edges of the screen. Orange warning boxes appear at the edge of the screen to indicate where they will enter, and beautiful blue swirling lines are drawn telling you how the formation will move.

You'd think that makes the game too easy, but the speed and frequency with which formations appear make this signposting essential.

There are two main new tricks, first each formation has a critical enemy, an orange ball, which when hit destroys that group. The game throws more enemies than you can handle at you often, so you have to go for these formation leaders. There is also a combo system around destroying these orange balls in quick succession.

The next trick is two placeable drones, which weaken your firepower but can sit strategically placed in the middle of each enemy swarm waiting for key enemies.

Occasionally a black hole will appear, which if shot enough sucks up all enemies allowing you to capture them. Captured enemies then fire rapid circling bullets which allows you to fill the screen with your attack, although this is short lived as they are vulnerable to enemy fire.

I think the basic strategy is to keep the combo going as much as you can, while picking off as many ships as possible in a formation before going for the orange ball which takes out the lot. Drone placement is critical in this, in order to survive some waves and to keep the combo going by placing drones in anticipation of otherwise unreachable enemies.

The whole thing is relentless and visually perfect. It fires off all those memories of playing Galaxian and Galaga in the arcade years ago, while at the same time being something new.

Need to spend more time with this!