Shoot 1UP DX Review (Nintendo Switch)

by Jim Smale · October 15, 2020

Instead of stowing each 1UP, you collect, each new ship becomes playable immediately, resulting in an ever-growing armada of destruction! With your home world ruined, lead your detached battalion’s charge by destroying the mechanical-tentacle hybrid attack forces responsible for your pain.

Pros:

Decent graphics.
72.2mb download size.
Own in-game achievements.
How to play section.
Can rebind controls.
Auto shoot-on/off.
Shmup gameplay.
Show warning arrows-on/off.
Online leaderboards.
Two modes-main game and special mode.
3 difficulties-chilled, normal and serious.
The special mode-one ship, increase stats and can save progress.
Two ships-one initially then unlock a second.
Two-player local co-op support.
Game speed option-25-200 percent.
Gimmick-you controls a set of ships at once and can expand and contract them at will, contract all the way to be a single ship.
Pick up and control more ships as you play.
Game world-you gets to choose your route as a fork will appear in the world.
The score is done by picking up score icons.
1ups a plenty. Each one up spawns a new ship so you can amass a huge arsenal and it changes the formation when you expand.
Big boss battles.
Combo counter.
Collect timed power-ups.
Special mode (Trek) options-goof off (more 1 ups) and turn-based mode (pauses until you input your controls/moves).
Trek-you play as one ship and build up your stats like a shield and shot power, dying resets your stats, finishing the game, and looping around will increase the game difficulty.
Bullet hell Shmup action.
Trek mode plays more like a roguelike Shmup.

Shoot 1UP DX is coming to Nintendo Switch on October 15th

Cons:

Hard to see which achievements you have.
Hangs when viewing the leaderboard.
The points as pickups don’t always work as you can get the kills but not the points pickup.
The learning curve with how the expand/contract works in general gameplay.
The playing area is quite small.
A short game so if your a one and done kinda gamer it won’t take long, maybe 20 mins on easy.

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
8/10

Sound - 8/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
8/10

Length - 8/10
9/10

Fun Factor - 9/10

8/10

Summary

Shoot 1UP DX initially looks like a basic kinda plain looking shooter, it shows brief glimpses of maybe being something else but the first impression is that of low level. So that’s how I got this game wrong, I judged it on a first look and it came back to bite me on the ass, for what I found was one of the best examples of a Shmup and one that dares to add its own unique twist. Here in Shoot 1UP DX you play as a ship on the story mode, you collect the many 1 ups, which are actually more ships and you can expand or contract the group of ships so you can (on the fly) change the formation and mix up your shooting, it’s a wonderful mechanic that is so unique and fun to use. The scoring isn’t even normal and goes for a more Japanese Shmup style of scoring by having the defeated enemies drop a points pickup, again it all culminates into an experience any Sup fan needs to play, the other modes take on a more roguelike approach with just a one ship one run level up as you go type deal. I wanted the game to allow more freedom as the levels do and did feel claustrophobic and packed in. I never found going full expanded formation especially good unless I wanted to lose ships. The game has online leaderboards and local two-player Co-op but no other online interactions. Overall I enjoyed my time with the game, it surprised me multiple times but with a short story and no score chasing Pals to challenge, the game cooled its keys but is a game I would pick up to get a quick shmup fix.