Chips take up precious space in your armoury, with only a handful of chip slots provided. Each chip is an upgrade that can offer different advantages such as increased health, better stealth, increase fire rate, higher resource rate drops, armour, repair, and quicker movement. The variety of these secondary weapons needs to be commended, ranging from missile launchers to electric wave projectors, Gatling guns to good old triple fire and plenty more besides.Īlthough these weapons are a massive help for a short burst, the main power ups come in the form of ‘chips’ you can add to your craft. As you progress you can obtain one of a large number of secondary weapon types, more powerful but limited in ammo. It doesn’t rely on quick reactions and a trigger finger that goes for days. It takes a few runs before you realise the upgrade system is the key to mastering this game. There are other weapons, but their firepower and ammo are severely limited. It’s a shame that graphically it can’t compete with either of those retro titles, instead relying on some uninspiring pixelated backdrops and very basic ship designs. If you’re expecting some heavy weapons and smart bombs to unlock pretty quickly like those found in more famous shmups, you’re going to be disappointed, as this is the type of precision shmup where your firepower remains totally underwhelming, making even the first foes you come across a multi-hit nightmare! You have to know what you’re getting into, and Nova Strike is more of a herald back to the 16-bit era, comparable to Xenon Megablast maybe, or Axley. Nova Strike takes flight as a vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up without any discernible plot, thrusting players directly into the fray with a feeble single-firing cannon. Roguelite elements grafted onto a retro Shmup sounds fun, but is Nova Strike worth the endless runs, or should it be decommissioned? The Finger Guns Review:

Free for apple download Nova Strike