Yea, yea, another shooter on the PSN but this looks damn good!

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/31643.html

http://www.ps3addict.net/news/news/novastrike-announced.html
Tiki Games, a California-based independent developer, announced the development of Novastrike, an original game for the PlayStation3. Filled with the intense, frenetic gameplay of a classic top-down shooter, Novastrike will also bring a number of innovations to the genre, including continued updates and content additions to keep the game fluid and changing.

Hardened shooter veterans will find a wealth of options in their arsenal in Novastrike, a sci-fi war zone that pits players against an onslaught by the world-conquering Draelus. From the cockpit of their experimental Scythe fighter, able pilots will utilize free-roaming flight and multiple weapon variations to combat an armada of alien forces in the air and on land. With ship and weapon upgrades, and a slew of allied units, players of NOVASTRIKE will engage the Draelus in a variety of planetary environments, completing objectives and facing fearsome opponents in their fight to drive back the invasion.

"Tiki Games is committed to putting out high-quality titles that bring something new to the table," said Kevin McCann, president and creative director of Tiki Games. "Novastrike takes its roots from the toughest shoot-'em-ups, and brings that gameplay into a free-roaming, unpredictable space - and when players think they’ve conquered that, our continued support for the game will keep them on their toes with all-new game content."

Novastrike Features:
Seven expansive challenging stages driven by objective-based goals
Free-roaming flight: there aren't any rails here, so players can fly in any direction
Progressive weapon acquisition and upgrade system: as the player collects weapon drops from enemy ships the weapons themselves become available to the Scythe - there are nine base weapon systems, each with three subsequent upgrade levels
Air and ground targets: two separate weapon systems allow the player to combat both air and ground opponents
Multi-sectioned enemies where individual components can be destroyed; for example, carriers have hangars that launch fighters - these hangars can be destroyed independently of destroying the Carrier, preventing the Carrier from launching additional fighters
Multitude of enemies and environments: players combat enemy fighters, bombers, kamikazes, aces, carriers, and destroyers, all leading to an end-boss fight
You're not alone: friendly fighters, bombers, and destroyers will aid you in your efforts to vanquish the Draelus invasion
DualShock 3 support
Continuing support: Tiki Games will be developing additional content for Novastrike throughout 2008
The game will be available soon on the PlayStation Store.

That does look like a lot of fun.

I'm really looking for some good old fashioned side scrolling shooter along the lines of Lifeforce, R-type, Thunderforce, etc.

I can get TF5 & RT-Delta for PS1 but they still fetch ~$40us. I know the hype was there but I was not really into ES or SS.

That control scheme looks horrible. They should just make it like super stardust HD and redo the difficulty of the game to match that.

Nothing like HAVING to approach whatever you're shooting.

Doesn't look that great from the video preview, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Looks very good old-skool shoot'm up. Sort of SuperStardustHD but with (almost) flat ground. Announcement gives a hit that Tiki Games has plans to do a micropayment add-ons.

Reminds me of Time Pilot.

Reminds me of Time Pilot.

Yes Time Pilot I love that game !!!!!

Also the early Thunderstrike games.

I don't want a rotary(if you don't know what I'm talking about here you're too young :) )/dual stick setup. There are enough of those sorts of games right now. We want more true shootemups. Even the music sounds oldschool

I'll DL a demo and take it from there.

I like the sound. There is nothing more satisfying than the booming sound of a brilliant explosion. :)

I'm really looking for some good old fashioned side scrolling shooter along the lines of Lifeforce, R-type, Thunderforce, etc.

I can get TF5 & RT-Delta for PS1 but they still fetch ~$40us. I know the hype was there but I was not really into ES or SS.

I agree 100%. When I read top down shooter I was automatically thinking like Astro Warrior (SMS) or MUSHA.

I'll DL a demo and take it from there.

I like the sound. There is nothing more satisfying than the booming sound of a brilliant explosion. :)

Agreed, I was pleasantly surprised with the booming sound of missile hits in Twisted Metal: Head On ETE

Yes Time Pilot I love that game !!!!!

Also the early Thunderstrike games.

I don't want a rotary(if you don't know what I'm talking about here you're too young :) )/dual stick setup. There are enough of those sorts of games right now. We want more true shootemups. Even the music sounds oldschool

You mean like the Ikari Warriors rotary control? :D

The one game I remember playing that had dual analog that worked very well was Assault (by Atari?) in the arcades years ago.

yeah Ikari Warriors :)

Assault ? not that Hover tank one was it?

yeah Ikari Warriors :)

Assault ? not that Hover tank one was it?

That'd be the one. I'd have been a child millionaire if it werent for those two games. They stole a lot of my quarters...come to think of it, another rotary controller game took the most...Forgotten Worlds. That is by far my favorite arcade game of all time...it is easily the one I spent the most money on too. The Genesis/Megadrive version did it no justice..

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/06/04/novastrike-invades-psn-this-week/
Coming out tomorrow.

I'm gonna try it out this weekend. Read the blog entry and I like the responses from Tiki. It looks like they'll add in new features such as coop without nickel and diming us.

Looks great (I still play Time Pilot on Live Arcade) other than the tiny ship. I think I lost track of it a few times in the video!

Looks great (I still play Time Pilot on Live Arcade) other than the tiny ship. I think I lost track of it a few times in the video!Agreed. Maybe it looks bigger on a big-screen TV? Also, there was a little bit of slowdown which was really odd...

There won't be a demo, at least immediately, unfortunately. I would have to be pretty blown away by reviews to pick it up without a trial.

I picked it up "blind". Ten bucks, not too big of a deal. Frankly I wasn't that interested in the game - I didn't need *another* shooter. However, I wanted to show support for an indie developer. I just admire any group that can finance its own game development, even if the game is relatively tiny in scope.

I played the first level, and I suck. I barely made it through, and I was on my last ship. I did enjoy the game, and I'll play it more, but I'd like to see a save/continue/password system, as I doubt I'll ever have the time to sit down and play through all 7 stages in one session.

And people shouldn't expect a polished game. The graphics, sound, and controls are just fine. But I thought that the "training" level, and the way messages were displayed on screen, screamed "amateur".

Regardless; I enjoyed it, and although I don't know if the game is worth $10 on its own, I have no problem supporting a small company.

Blind buy...sucks...I don't say that about many games but for $10 SSD, Everyday Shooter, etc are far superior games in that price point and far more polished.

Its annoying to play and would be far better if the control scheme was better. I spent more time chasing things. The ability hover or strafe would help the game a lot too but those features are not there.

Should have picked up Commando.

The game difficulty is a bit hard when played at the medium level. It's fun for me, but sometimes aggravating. Waiting for the coop support as it should be more fun then. As t-ray said, don't expect a polished game, but it's a very good effort for an indie studio. Let's hope more get on board.

$10 is about twice as much as it should be for this unpolished, average game.

Why can't Sony pony up and offer more demos of games like this?

$10 is about twice as much as it should be for this unpolished, average game.

Why can't Sony pony up and offer more demos of games like this?

Sony is *extremely* open in regards to PSN content. Of course they have some sort of acceptance process. But other than that, the content owner decides on pricing, structure, and if a demo will be offered. In other words, Sony does not require and pricing schema, does not require a demo, and doesn't even care if the content competes with Sony's own property or falls in line with a saturated genre.

I imagine that offering a demo for developers/publishers is a difficult decision to make, especially for the little guys. The time it takes to put together a demo is not insignificant, and that time may be better applied to the actual product. In the non-gaming software world, packaging and deployment of a product can require up to 33% of the overall project timeline; offering multiple build outputs complicates things further.

And of course, offering a demo, and the actual retail package, means that two separate distros be reviewed and accepted by Sony, which would likely lengthen the process.