Shmups Skill Test

This is a surprisingly addictive shmup that will more than likely hold your attention for a few nights if you're interested in the "Brain Age" angle.

My first major complaint is no actual tate/portrait mode support. You CAN rotate the display, but it has no actual vertical monitor support, so people with a secondary monitor for tate gaming are out of luck. Who rotates their main monitor without changing from landscape to portrait just to play a game in that awkward way anymore? Really wish there were portrait mode resolutions supported.

There were 2 minigames I didn't like that I wanted to bring attention to (I don't know the names so bear with my descriptions while I wing it):
-Dodge Everything! This one shoots out a very predictable checkerboard pattern shot, vertical then horizontal. This one will either be a very easy one that you get without trying 19 times out of 20 for an easy 10,000pts, or a frustrating miss where you can't predict the horizontal shot depending on your skill level. As someone who falls in the former category, I say this minigame is a total detriment and it's removal would only make Shmups Skill Test slightly better.
-Grab the scores! This one consists of trying to grab 10,000pts worth of 100/1,000 skill bars flying off the screen within 10 seconds. This one will be frustrating until you realize the top of the screen is much easier to grab the points... then after you find that out, it still feels a bit too random when it pops up as far as being an indicator of your "game age".

Both of these minigames are a bit annoying if you think they're being considered hard into the ranking. That said, when trying to figure out the names of these minigames for the review, I looked in the practice section to see what they were called and couldn't find them. I took that as an indicator of these games having less of an impact on your actual ranking and more as just a "street fighter smash the car" bonus stage. Wish there was more of an indication to show this, as these are the main games that really take you out of the whole "game age" ranking system.

All that said, I enjoy the brain age gimmick and thought it was done pretty well. I can absolutely recommend this game for a few nights of fun shmup fun when you just want to jump into some shmup minigames, or if you want a nice warmup before diving into your next 1cc attempt at your shmup of choice.

P.S. In response to top negative review: this isn't a bait title. It's Shmup SKILL TEST, not Shmup TRAINER. That's like being mad at the SAT's for not helping you git gud at math :p

kino

I kind of feel like I was tricked in getting this. Shmups Skill Test is definitely a bait title for a game.

Shmups Skill Test consists of a number of mini games all involving shoot 'em up game play. You play these mini games, get graded on your performance, and at the end, are given your 'shmup age'. With younger meaning you're a better shmup player. Though, I don't know if this is a simple ranking system or does something interesting when you start to get to children ages. I couldn't get below 40 years.

Additionally, it also offers a breakdown of how well you did the mini games compared to other players. Which I found a little more interesting, but I also don't know what sort of pool of players I'm being compared to, either. I mean, I know I'm not very good a shmups... I've played them and my progress, or lack there of let's me know all too well.

Where I think this game could have been good, is if it aided in developing a player's shmup skills. Something like Gunvein's tutorial. But without something like that, Radiant Silversword's Cardinal Sins game mode does a much better job of testing a player's shmup skills with a better presentation. And Radiant Silversword comes with an actual game (Radiant Silversword). Even SophStar has cadet training section that offers a better set of mini game challenges than the entirety of this game., and it also comes with a really good game.

Ultimately, Shmups Skill Test had a chance of being an interesting name. But not nearly enough content nor anything to help a player get better at shmups over just playing actual shmups. And there's a number of them here on Steam for the same or less money that are better than this.

Decent tool for testing your Shmupping skills. I get to truly see just how good I could be at shmups with some simple exercies, fun challenges and a daunting soundtrack. Give it a go, see how good you truly are at shoot-em-ups.

I'm no stranger to shmups, having clocked in lots of game time in DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours alone. From long running franchises to smaller titles in the genre, there isn't a shmup title I haven't played on Steam. After discovering Triangle Service's shmups, I decided to give one of them a whirl. And what better way to start with their legacy than Shmups Skill Test. Having clocked in at least seven hours of play, how well does it fare compared to the rest of Steam's shmups?

The Good:

The Bad:

Very cool. Fun to "refine your chops" in shooters.

Its a port of the XB360 version which itself is a port of an older title, so it looks like garbage in 1080p.

Super simple and something I've been looking for forever. Everyone should play this even if you are not into shooting things. 5/5 and it is charming and cute and cool. :- )

Imagine that you're an old player who has been out of the game for a lengthy period of time. You pick up a game that you should be able to beat, for whatever reason. Either the game is considered very easy, or you know that you've 1cc'd it before and are just rusty. You fail miserably. You fail miserably again. And again. And again. Do you just give up at that point and hang your hat up? No, of course not. You go to play something else to brush the rust off of your skills and to bring you back up to speed. If not for that particular thing happening to me, I would have never picked up this game.

The unique thing about this game, and definitely the draw, is the metrics. You play a randomized series of short games and do your best. The short games are randomized, easy, and usually well explained enough/self evident enough that you can accomplish your task reasonably. Most of the short games are set up so that you lose eventually, the goal is usually to not lose for as long as possible. At the end of the random sequence, you get an evaluation as well as a sort of aggregate "Gamer Age" - definitely not correlated with age, as I was able to rapidly get this score a decade below my real age.

The evaluation is generally useful, and it tells you what you need to work on. Moreover, the short games become unlocked for you to play in isolation, so you can perform isolated practice on your skills. This makes Shmups Skill Test into a sort of low-level gym, or in my case a rehabilitative clinic.

It mostly serves its purpose, but isn't without flaws. First, this isn't a game you can play for 30 minutes straight, within reason. The soundtrack contains a number of extremely annoying tracks, and the best tracks are "acceptable at best." Second, there are a number of valuable skillsets that aren't trained here - chain building and manipulating different shot types being the biggest two that come to mind.

The graphics look cheap, but proper color choices save this most of the time. Probably the only case where I would claim this might cause a problem are the ball dodge and building dodge games, but it may be on purpose that these games had poor color choices to challenge the player.

Most serious players should be able to get most of the achievements effortlessly, if they're in practice. Someone is going to immediately point out that I don't have even half of the achievements - I am out of practice, obviously.

This is a game for new players, or old players who have let their skills decay for whatever reason. For those players, I would recommend this game easily, as it is a good way to improve some of the basic skills that a player needs. This game is often marked down below $4, and it is certainly worth that.

I love shmups but I didnt love this. It is a 5 minute game and way too random for me.
The only good thing about this game is the music.
Proper oldskool stuff.

It looks like a cheap unity game, but undeneath the weak presentation is a very addictive mini-game collection.

Just a quick warning, if anyone buys this game, DO NOT USE FULLSCREEN, it raises game speed by a ridiculous amount where if I tappes left on the D-pad once on my controller, I would go flying across the menu. Everything works fine in windowed mode.

whether you enjoy old arcade shooters or play bullet hells with a keyboard, this game is worth giving a shot if you want to have some skills measured! To master all the challenges and go for a high score, you're guaranteed to spend a few nights with this game

A really unique game, and good to come back from time to time. Basically a mix of Wario Ware and shmups (any kind), you get about 5mn to complete several minigames giving you a ranking and "gamer age" at the end, compared to an online average (local leaderboards too obviously).
It feels a bit dated on a lot of points (graphics, UI, feel), but everything fits together in a coherent package.
If you like shmups, you really need to get this, it's worth its price, and actually help a bit your reflexes (unless you're already some expert, which will still give you some interesting minigames and training).

So, finally, Shooting Love 200X has released... I remember seeing and hearing about this a LONG while ago, back before the 360 version came out, and wanting it... but then I just never got around to importing it. Fast-foward to now, and the whole thing is out, consisting of Exzeal, Trizeal, Minus Zero, and this game, Shmups Skill Test.

Shmups Skill Test is an.... interesting thing. When you first try it, you're likely to have alot of "WTF" moments. The game hits you with a barrage of funky "minigames", each geared towards testing some specific trait/ability that somehow relates to shmups. In the main game mode, you go through a series of these, randomly chosen from the available minigames in each category. For example, the first category is always "overall", which essentially throws you a mini-shmup, where it's all about dodging, blowing stuff up, all the usual. The enemies keep coming, and you get points for taking them down. Simple, right? Well, the rules change after each round. The next round might be a "here's 20 squillion powerups bouncing around the screen, only grab the red ones" sort of thing, or it might pit you against Definitely Not Hibachi, who throws bullet patterns at you to dodge, getting more and more intense as time goes on, your only goal here being to survive; naturally, you cant kill a foe such as that. Or the game might try to hit you with buildings. You're even going to get to do some recycling, as you battle your hated arch-nemesis, Physics! No, seriously, that seems to always be the one at the end....

There are no game-overs here; you move onto the next challenge when the current one is cleared (if it's a type that CAN be cleared) or when you get hit, or in a couple of specific cases, when you screw something up (like the one with the rocket). At the end of the gauntlet of tests, you're given what is essentially a scorecard, and it calculates a "gamer age" for you; your overall goal is to have this number be as low as possible. You also have a traditional score though, so dont worry, that's still there.

For the most part, the various minigames are well done. Unexpectedly well, in some cases. For example, my favorite is this one that tells you to "DODGE!" and then drops you in this horrible hellhole filled with giant red spheres. Shooting doesnt help, here... it's all about dodging the spheres as the camera/playfield spins and zooms all over the place, but you cant just memorize THIS challenge, no sir. You never know what the thing is going to do next in this mode. It'll abruptly change the direction that everything is shifting in, and change the speed, and keep spinning, and it can do this pretty freaking fast.... and then come to a near halt, slowly spinning like 5 giant orbs around you, making you wait for what you know is probably coming, that moment when it just abruptly lurches off in some random direction.... overall, that challenge is not about MEMORIZING, it's about REACTING. It's hard to explain, but it seems to react to you, too... if you were to play it enough, you'd probably see what I mean. There's definitely some sort of AI in place there acting alongside the RNG. The interesting thing is? No matter how many times I try that minigame, it *never* does anything unfair despite the randomness and all the wild movments and spinning. I have yet to have a "what the hell was I supposed to do about that?" moment. Or any moments that feel like they're completely about luck. And that kinda amazes me, considering how this specific minigame/mode works.

And honestly, the whole game is like that. It just WORKS, and that includes all of the many bits that have RNG in them. When there is RNG, it's all in the right places, and more importantly, not in the WRONG places, AKA, places where it can kill you regardless of skill. And for the non-RNG challenges, they're equally well made; none of the patterns that Definitely Not Hibachi fires at you are at all cheap or broken or anything like that, for instance, though you might get a TAD irritated at the one where the bullets blink on and off yet dont actually stop existing during the "off" state... you'll see what I mean when you get there. But even that is never unfair, never cheap.

And overall, the actual scoring system... I dont mean the age thing... seems well done too. Each minigame is weighted properly, in terms of how much overall score potential it has for you. Getting a truly high score in the main mode really will involve mastering ALL aspects of this.... which is pretty much the entire purpose of the whole idea. So that's well done.

As a rule, the different minigames are all pretty fun, and definitely quirky. The only ones I kinda dont like much are the ones called the "shooting tests". The idea is to last as long as you can, and stop things from reaching the bottom of the screen by shooting them. .....without rapid-fire. Things will take more and more hits to destroy as time goes on. That's right... this is a test of just how rapidly you can hit the damn fire button. And you have to go really... freaking.... fast.... to master it. I hit level 99 (the game measures current difficulty in "levels" that keep slowly going up over the course of each minigame) during the main game challenge the first time the "shoot the boards" one came up, and by the end of it, I'd stopped holding the controller normally, and was instead slashing my entire hand across the facebuttons, back and forth, REALLY fast, in order to keep up the utterly absurd fire rate needed to keep going. My entire arm and shoulder still hurt after having done that. The nasty part, there's an achievement for hitting level 99 in that.... but you have to do it in the challenge mode, not the main mode. I'll have to do that AGAIN later... ugh. BUt yeah, I'm not too fond of the fire-rate test thing. But I can understand why it's there, even if it is a very outdated concept (it's mostly very old shmups that had fire-rate as an important thing; nearly all modern ones use auto-fire, so that your arm doesnt fall off).


Overall though, I think the entire thing works well. Most importantly, I just find it really FUN. And that's the key to everything, eh? And I think that's what's special about THIS one.... shmups can be fun but are often also frustrating; there's always that one boss you cant quite manage, or that one enemy formation that will impede your progress, or just that one THING that happens every freaking time, and you get irritated. I know I do. But in this game... I dunno, it never gave me that feeling. When I'd screw up, I kept thinking "I can make up for that mistake in the next couple of challenges". Or something like that.

Functionally, everything is good, by the way. Controls are perfect, no issues there, there's leaderboards, and a replay-save system that works in all modes.

Overall, this is a pretty strange game, but it's one of those ones that I can recommend to any shmup fan... particularly if you like Triangle Service.

....also the soundtrack is REALLY bizarre. ....yay?

Lovely collection of shmup mini-games. Single player is great for chasing a high score or moving up the global leaderboards. 2-4 multiplayer is a blast, one of the better 'couch multiplayer' experiences you can have on Steam. The online score board has replays which is very helpful and a nice touch for a $5 game.

Important to note that this game doesn't allow you to confiugre a rapid fire button. This is important because scoring in this game is significantly easier with rapid fire, so you'll need a controller with a rapid fire option. Or just do it the old fashion way and get carpal tunnel.

It's like Brain Age except it actually helps you in your everyday life.

Don't waste your money, for the same or lower price you can buy many other bullet hell games that are in every way better then this garabage. The devs were probably aware of how shit their game is since they put the trashcan in the background behind the title....

I only bought it for a chance to win Minus Zero in contest.

(Note: Owned the game originally on the Xbox360 via the Shooting Love 200X collection. Game is basically the same as it is there minus the TriZeal Remix, Exzeal and Minus Zero titles)

The Shump's skill test is a odd little duck of a game, essentially a mix between the Brain Training series for the DS and more classic arcade japanese shooters, this game pits you up against a variety of different challenges, testing aim, speed, dodging ability and several other factors to generate a final score and 'Shooting Age', the lower ages you geat meaning the better you have done.

Style-wise it is a little basic at times, this isnt a bad thing as it means that you can focus on what is going on easier but the lack of flair does hurt a little. Another complaint is the scoring mechanic, for those who want to focus on leaderboard chasing, the game is a little too random with some games giving out much more point-wise than others meaning you could be playing for quite a bit before you reach the ideal run.

These complains though are quite minor in the long run as the controls work brilliantly, setting up controllers is easy thanks to clear instructions on setting up buttons and the whole game runs smoothly at all times, optimized well for even the more lower end of computers. In addition to the normal test mode, you can also try out most of the different games in a variety of score-rush modes, as well as having a go at them with 2-4 players side by side.

This is more for shump fans though, those wanting a more full story-led game would be better off elsewhere but for the low price and amount of content, its well worth picking up.

I love this game. It's like Brain Age, Shmups, and a slow-paced Warioware came together to test your skills with a controller. Plus, the PS1/90s arcade aesthetic works perfectly with this game IMO. Shmups Skill Test is definitely worth a shot, especially with that small price tag.

I can't think of many shmups that have made me laugh out loud, but this one sure did (in a good way)! If you like zany action, fun Engrish, and shmup parody, this is the game for you. There is plenty here for shmup veterans to enjoy, as new stages or even music tracks can contain references to timeless classics. Plus, you get to feel good about keeping the earth clean by throwing empty cans in the trash.

As for the actual gameplay, the controls could not be any simpler. I used a 360 arcade stick, and it was recognized flawlessly, and all gameplay that I have been seen can be done with just the directional input and only one button. Some challenges have auto-fire implemented, but others require you to button mash and seem to be a test of how quickly you can do so. In addition to shooting challenges, there are also various dodging challenges, bombing challenges, and power-up and medal collecting challenges. Failure is often more hilarious than success.

Clearly this game will provide nostalgia for shmup veterans, especially since some bosses, challenges, etc, will remind them of specific other games. But I also think this game is great for a shmup newbie who just wants to test their skills, or anyone who likes to try to decrease their age as much as possible, like in Brain Age. Don't expect to play long sessions of this, but for the price it is definitely worth it!

Warioware meets Brain Age all in a shmup. One second you're blasting an army of tanks, then you're dodging through some really aggressively spinning scenery, then you're... shooting cans into a recycle bin to save the Earth?

Complete about a half dozen of these challenges and you'll register a score and get an insulting shmup age of 57 or something, then you get back in and knock out a different assortment of games.

It's not a hugely long-lasting affair. The games are certainly nice in the one-and-done quick change format, but they aren't compelling. It fits perfectly as a niche shmup that you can knock out a full session of in 10-15 minutes, but it's certainly not a game you play seriously.