The Blue Flamingo is one of those games with a TON of potential but fails to deliver on many levels. It has some of the most unique art I've seen in a long time, especially when it comes to vertical shooters, but the gameplay just doesn't feel fun. It's more of a chore to play than a pleasant experience, as the gun is obnoxious to use (since it has no spread, very narrow missiles, and theThe Blue Flamingo is one of those games with a TON of potential but fails to deliver on many levels. It has some of the most unique art I've seen in a long time, especially when it comes to vertical shooters, but the gameplay just doesn't feel fun. It's more of a chore to play than a pleasant experience, as the gun is obnoxious to use (since it has no spread, very narrow missiles, and the bullets alternate back and forth from left to right so there's no constant stream of fire), and it cannot be fixed.
It's a very "grab-bag" style game, meaning you start a new game, play through until you die, then repeat. Each time starting from scratch. It's more of a mini-game than a full game, and is basically priced as such ($4.99). For the asking price I wasn't too upset with my purchase, also considering it came in a bundle that I got even a better deal on, but the game just isn't as fun as it should be.
There is no variety, it's the same thing over and over again, with very little change in enemies in the later levels if you're lucky enough to get that far. But aside from that, there is only one gun, upgrades only upgrading it's damage, not it's looks or speed, and there is one super weapon, which is a bomb which can also be upgraded but the upgrades only speed up the recharge rate. You only have one playable ship, and from what it looks like-one playable map (though the enemy patterns change each level, and later levels introduce a few new ones).
The controls are also terrible, and in a bullet-dodging vertical shooter, controls mean everything. You have to use the WASD (re-mappable) keys to move, and left-click to fire, right-click to drop a bomb. The problem I have with this is that you can't move with the mouse which allows for SO much more precision in games like these. Though I can usually deal with the keyboard movement in most vertical shooters, I can't in Blue Flamingo, because it's extremely sensitive which makes you fly across the screen and smash into incoming bullets and enemies if you're not very cautious.
Overall, The Blue Flamingo is one of those incredibly pretty games with a lot of potential, but it seems unfinished and has very wonky controls and gameplay. It's not an enjoyable experience and I'm sure if you buy it you'll get about an hour or two of playtime out of it before you uninstall it and probably forget about it. That's what I did, then I came back and played it for a bit more and decided it was time to call it a day, forever.
I would honestly look forward to a new vertical shooter by Might and Delight, assuming they learned from their mistakes this time around.… Expand