Rating (out of 10)

★★

Overview

Icarus-X is a boring vertical scrolling shooter made for mobile phones.

Positive (good features)

✔ Rotating lasers are a nice idea.

Neutral (average/expected features)

♦ It runs at 4K in Windows 10.

Negative (bad features)

✖ Dreadful music. Especially compared to Matt Murphy's midi music for Raptor (1994!).

✖ Ugly, uninteresting visuals and design.

✖ Yawn-inducing gameplay.

✖ Tiny space to fly in.

✖ Starting a map takes ~10 seconds.

✖ Bosses appear ~10 seconds before you can actually damage them.

✖ They copied Magic Find, the worst element of Diablo.

✖ Skill that improve Magic Find.

✖ Items that give bonus XP.

✖ Skill that gives bonus XP.

✖ Noticable early jump in difficulty.

✖ Grinding. Lots of it.

Conclusion

A boring, ugly, uninspired mobile cashgrab made worse by grinding.

Details

⯍ Experience with genre: I've played a bunch of these, starting with Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994).

⯍ Experience with game: Played it for a whole hour.

⯍ Recommended to: People who love vertical scrolling shooters but hate themselves/life.