if you don't know already, kollumos is prodigiously good at making shmups in scratch and this one is no different. i believe this is the fourth shmup they have made.
i'm a big fan of their style of pixel art. it's fascinating to go back and play Locked Arcadia; you can see a clear through line with their use of high-contrast, limited color palettes and geometric designs. it reminds me of Mecha Ritz, but that comparison isn't entirely right either... kollumos' games really do look unique, and that distinctive style is refined in Shardz of Iron. i love it
the soundrack by scowsh is a bop!
the bullet patterns are colorful, pretty, and fairly dense. there's a good high score run on YouTube if you want to see how to play the game well. you are intended to make heavy use of your shield to convert bullets into gems.
it runs well with TurboWarp if you choose to play it in the browser.
follow kollumos if you don't already! they are prolific artist, and it seems like they are early in their game dev career. who knows where they'll be in a few years