Played it for a few minutes, didn't get too far - unfortunately, there were many parts of the game that didn't quite hit for me:
- Movement felt extremely stiff, and the weird physics is definitely not what I'd love to see in a shmup. it was downright impossible at times to avoid colliding with enemies and especially their bullets that flew much quicker than the ship had ability to evade. Tank had more control but was extremely large and slow, making it impossible to dodge the kamikaze ships.
- Power-ups really didn't feel like they contribute much. Defense and full heal are fair, and I do like how the full heal goes over the health bar - probably a bug, but a fun kind of bug. Offense seemed to increase piercing, which is cool but I'd much rather have a faster fire rate and more coverage, considering how underpowered the ship is. Movement didn't seem to have any noticeable effect, and Energy I have 0 clue what it did, if anything. There was barely any scaling, perhaps I just didn't play long enough, but then comes the third point:
- Enemies went full power before the player even had a chance to power-up. Repeated restarting after being demolished from unavoidable damage, hoping you'll get more power-ups, is just not fun, especially with how little effect the power-ups have. A grace period of at least 1-2 minutes when enemies aren't all coming out at once, while gradually increasing the spawnrate, would have been much less frustrating to deal with.
I hope the feedback will be useful. To end on a more positive note: the feeling of seeing your own art/music/sounds etc in your own game is really empowering - please cherish it - and I think the spritework of Strike Mode turned out pretty neat for a first time. I'm sure it'll get even better in your next game, along with other elements. Cheers ^^