Death Ray Manta SE (2015)

Whenever I started up the game I found myself playing for much more time than Initially expected. Some visuals are distracting for me and get me occasionally frustrated when it felt like my death wasn’t my fault. However the game still keeps pulling me in and whenever I fail it always makes me feel like I can do better and I end up improving my game in small but noticeable ways. The game is also great to watch and listen to, which made it entertaining even when I wasn’t the one playing and I am sure I would enjoy playing it with someone even though it is a single player game.

There's nothing wrong with a very arcade-like twin-stick shooting experience with a little flavor of Robotron and some others, I love the classics and still load up Robotron with some regularity...

Death Ray Manta SE is laser targeted to a very specific group of players. If you long for the heydays of the Llamasoft games, this game gives you the feeling you had playing these games back in the day but with spruced up visuals, a plethora of fish puns and a more accommodating nature. There’s some required repetition and the visual presentation might immediately repel some, but for those it’s aimed at, Death Ray Manta SE is an excellent “just one more go” game. Only now, it’s “just one more go, on the go” with the Switch version.

The price of Death Ray Manta had already been placed at £1.99, and at the time of writing it is now on offer for a mere £0.59! It would be complete madness to overlook this even at that ~£2 mark, let alone its super bargain price now. Death Ray Manta SE is a must for anyone shmup fan out there, especially those that adored the Geometry Wars releases. This is high octane, nerve-racking fun, and truly exhilarating with each and every play - twin-stick shooting at its very best. To quote something a wise man once said, "Absolutely brilliant!"

This spruced up version of the original Death Ray Manta is both a wonderful homage to the past, and a deliciously reckless arcade shooter.