The excellent The2Bears.com weblog has been doing a multitude of mini-reviews from the new Shmup-dev.com PC game competition in which, quite simply: "...[the] game must be a horizontal shooter... it must have at least one level and a boss at the end of it." Easy enough, huh?

One of the highlights of the competition thus far is the mini-reviewed Prototype, of which it's commented: "I’m a big fan of R-Type and Pulstar so it’s no wonder I like Prototype. You’ve got various shot-types, missiles, a beam that you charge and a “force” type object. In an interesting twist you can control which direction the force faces, rotating it around your ship."

Also well received was Cyberspace Assault, which "has an abstract graphics style reminiscent of Kenta Cho’s games and other Japanese shmups. Some nice thought has gone into the gameplay: you have two types of shots, a straight beam and one that bends somewhat under your control." Great to see the renaissance of the shooter continuing.