Right now, it's a pretty good time to be a fan of shoot 'em ups!
Not only did Polygon Bird's Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga-esque shooter Birdcage recently release on Steam, earning some incredible early reactions from players. But we also have a ton of other exciting indie shoot 'em ups on the horizon to look forward to, with the latest of these to be added to our own personal wishlist being the promising 2D sidescroller, AGGRESTA.
The promising shoot 'em up first came to our attention earlier this week, thanks to the regular Time Extension collaborator, Ashley Day, and is an independent game from the Japanese developer named Tetsu (てつ), who has been sharing updates of the game since the project first began back in 2020.
It mixes Gradius-style arcade shooting with sword-based combat and looks set to include some impressively detailed levels, ranging from verdant cities to underwater stages and enemy strongholds located in the middle of a densely-packed asteroid field.
Right now, details about the game are scant, with Tetsu (てつ) writing online that the reason for this is that they want players to be surprised and to go in with fresh eyes when playing. As a result, we're not even entirely sure of the platform yet, though PC would probably be a safe bet.
Regardless of that, though, the project looks phenomenal from all that the developer has shown so far, with the stages featuring a nice mix of 2D and 3D elements, and some brilliant mechanics such as the ability to flip the ship horizontally to fire backwards at enemies who have managed to slip past you.
We'll be keeping an eye on this one in the future for sure. But you can also stay up to date on the game's progress by following Tetsu (てつ) directly on Twitter/X or checking out the #AGGRESTA tag.