I’ve had this game on my Steam wishlist for a while, and as soon as it went on sale this month, I bought it. It has a “silver” rating on the Proton Database, but after installing it, I had no problems running the game at all on my Linux desktop, without having to make changes.
Super Hydorah is obviously inspired by Konami side-scrolling shmups like Gradius and Salamander, but doesn’t try too hard to duplicate these games. The game features simulated CRT scanlines that look nice. Usually I opt to not enable such a feature because it just doesn’t look right for some reason.
Right off, you can see that this is not exactly a Gradius clone. You can start the game in which shields protect you three times but you only get half a score, or a shield that protects you only once but you get full points.
As soon as the game starts, it looks exactly as you’d expect from a Konami-inspired shmup. Weapon powerups, however, are handled differently. You can slowly charge up your shot to become a double shot (fortunately it’s autofire), but don’t expect any bombs until level 2.
The first boss is a creepy eyeball with tentacles, fairly reminiscent of the first boss in Salamander.
After you clear a stage, it brings you to the Mission Select screen. Apparently after the second level, divergent routes can be selected.
Now you can equip your fighter with bombs and missiles.
The second level presents a twist: here are human buildings you must not destroy, lest you be docked 2,000 points per building! Space insurance must be at a premium.The bombs are launched along with your regular shot, so be careful. They take several hits before they are destroyed. Hold your fire and shoot only when you are clear to do so.
I’ve only played the game for about an hour, and have yet to get past level 2’s mid-boss. So far, it’s pretty great. I just noticed that the stupid mouse cursor shows up in these screenshots! Nuts.
