Progress is going to require perfecting earlier levels, getting all medals and opening up Hard difficulty to re-earn even more medals plus rake in the greater star rewards they contain. The only cure, of course, is more stars for more powerups, but everything is now expensive and the better rewards of later levels are locked behind large medal requirements. Laser barriers cross the screen, missile turrets shoot an insta-death barrage, tanks and helicopters and planes all require a little more pummeling to go down, and the powered-up Sky Force ship all of a sudden is barely adequate for the task. Once you get past the opening areas Sky Force Reloaded starts pulling out the heavy firepower, and by the time it does you'll have learned to try to kill everything and take silly risks to do it. Each of these options can be upgraded multiple times through different tiers of power, and by the time you near the end of the game the initial single bullet is a fast-paced spread, homing missiles pop off one at a time and do serious damage to anything they hit, stars almost take care of collecting themselves, and yet death is still just one bad judgement call away. After a few purchases the main gun is joined by wing cannons and a missile, you can buy a magnet to attract stars, more health is always useful, and there are two special weapons and a shield for when the stages get extra-crowded. The little starting popgun isn't going to cut it for anything past level one, and earning the medals to open level two needs an upgrade or two. This could have been a deeply obnoxious mechanic but instead it forces you to learn each level and perform it right, and if it's too hard to clear properly there's always the store back at home base where you can spend your hard-earned stars on more power. While you can get through each level with a bit of care, progress is gated by medals so you can't just clear a challenge and move on. There are four medals to earn per stage, usually given out for 70% and 100% of enemies shot down, 100% of humans rescued, and clearing the level without taking a hit. It's very easy to get greedy and crash right into something that should have been avoided while working to keep a chain alive, though.Įvery level is the same every time, and what this means is they're meant to be memorized and replayed to perfect a run. Sky Force Reloaded is a precision shooter rather than an overly-frantic one, so while things get crazy deep into the higher levels for the most part you can dodge even the densest bullet patterns with a bit of care. Weak as the ship is at the start, level 1 is a relatively kind place that you can survive with a bit of careful dodging. Enemies drop a star or two and every one collected acts as currency back at home base. You'll need to line up just right to tag them as they fly in a straight line, and the ones that snake around a bit are bound to have a few survivors escape off the side of the screen. It's just barely enough to get a toehold on the first level, taking down the streams of planes that fly harmlessly in formation. In the beginning all you've got is little more than a popgun firing a single sad and lonely bullet from the nose of the plane. It's a long climb to the top and defeating Scarlett Mantis will require every upgrade you can buy with the stars you grind from the levels. After a brief intro level with a fully-powered plane, Scarlett lets loose a screen-clearing laser, destroying your lovely plane and putting you all the way back to the start of the power-up ladder. Almost immediately after defeating the final boss of the first game a new threat arises in the form of Scarlett Mantis, and she's even more troublesome than her predecessor. It seemed like the brave pilots of Sky Force would finally get to relax after taking down General Madness in Sky Force Anniversary, but that was pure wishful thinking.
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