Demonizer

Demonizer by Iori Branford is a 90’s style shmup in which the peaceful monstergirls fight back against the human invaders who want to kill them. I love this game. I love the cute jRPG-esque pixel art, I like the power-up mechanism where pink hearts allow you to recruit additional monsters who act as shooters and pickup-collectors, I love that humans can take cover. I love that you can save fellow monstergirls from cages and boiling cauldrons(?). I like the goofy story. I really like a commenter actually taking unironic exception to the treatment of humans in the game, A+ thanks buddy.

This game was made with LÖVE which is so incredible to me. There’s also an android demo, which I haven’t tried. Multiple people have asked for a casual mode and I’m afraid I’m inclined to agree. This is predicated on my firm believe that even the most inexperienced player should be able to make it to the end of a shmup, even if it’s only to see a Grade F / Really Bad / Quarter-Feed Wonder ending. The game’s campaign mode allows you to start at any level, but starting a later stage with zero upgrades/levels can be a significant liability. Since this game is checkpoint-based, allowing the player to have more lives in casual mode might help.