This is such an innovative feel to the shmup genre. I think people should go in with no expectations of what a shootemup should be and you will have fun. The levels are fun, choosing your ship mods and weapons to fit your playstyle is great, and the boss battles are challenging. There are 8 different pilots with different skill sets and you can upgrade health, energy, or armour with exp saved up. The first game and this game are completely different but both are fun in their own right. I prefer this one over the first and story mode is my favorite.

Great Shot em up Game. Improve your Shop and destroy your enemies. Try some sorts of guns which fit your gameplay better. Choose Ship improvments for Armour/Health/Hull and Co. Fun for about 10 hours. In every Level another Boss Fight and some nice riddles to solve. Try IT and have fun

Now this isn't a bad game but like all modern sequels these days, they messed with the formula and made it more boring. Aqua Kitty UDX was a fast, furious and fun arcade shooter, whereas Astro Aqua Kitty is a bit stop, start. Having menu's of weapon options and upgrades does not enhance the game at all. It detracts. The first installment you got to a level end/death and you hit the buttons fast to get back to the action. This constantly messes around mid level stopping the action. I'm not sure if the graphics are upgraded but they look good. The music I felt was better this time. Had a more polished feel. This game desperately needs a button config option. I like playing with detached joy cons and this change direction on L button only does not work well for me. I want the two rear shoulder buttons again. I also think the Metroidvania style of map isn't necessary. It does add a nice twist and freshens up the gameplay a little. It's not a bad implementation, it just isn't for me personally. I think they made an excellent effort here and I'm glad I bought the game but for me UDX is a 9/10. It is near perfect. This is not. I think they tried really hard to innovate but didn't pull it off well. A bit like Breath of the Wild took a **** on Zelda's excitement and Tales of Arise took an even bigger **** on Tales of. This is a very sub par follow up but unlike BotW and Arise, these guys still made it enjoyable. I may upgrade this score and this is a very good 5 score. Not a don't bother 5 score. I do think the level of polish really shows but comparing it to the expert balancing they managed on UDX, I struggle to score this higher.