If there’s one defining characteristic of shoot-’em-ups—arguably even more so than shooting ‘em up—it’s dodging enemy bullets. Avoiding getting hit has been a foundation ever since Space Invaders first hit arcades, and the decades of evolution since has largely been around making not getting hit as exhilarating as possible.
But every now and then, a shmup comes along that asks, “What if getting hit was good, actually?” Ikaruga, with its famed polarity mechanic. Drainus, with its ability to absorb enemy shots and use them to counterattack. HitP Studios’s Schildmaid MX joins that subversive tradition with one of the most exciting and dynamic takes on the “catch the bullets instead of dodging them” concept to date.
At first glance, Schildmaid MX looks like any other side-scrolling shmup: fly through space gunning down hostile aliens and avoiding environmental obstacles. The difference is that should you make contact with an enemy bullet, you won’t explode … instead, you’ll automatically activate a shield, turning all enemy shots into power-up items. The shield will only stay active for a limited time, but every time you kill an enemy, the shield recharges a little bit. As long as you can keep a kill streak going, you’ll stay in this nigh-invincible state.
The catch? When your shield does finally run out, you’ll enter “Danger Time”, leaving you vulnerable to enemy fire for a few seconds before your shield becomes available. The other catch? The shield can’t protect you from lasers, rockets, or homing missiles. There’s no getting around good, old-fashioned, honest dodging when it comes to those.
There’s a fun risk/reward dynamic between this system and the more typical shoot-’em-up action. Your immediate goal is almost always going to be to get into shield mode and stay there as long as you can—it’s safer, it’s your only source of power ups, and it’s a source of lucrative score items once you’re at full power. That encourages a more aggressive style of play, but this aggression can quickly come back to bite you if you get careless in avoiding the other, non-shieldable attacks.
At the same time, you need to be aware of the shield timer, lest you slip into Danger Time at an unfortunate moment. Managing kill streaks adds another layer of strategy and route planning: knowing when to go all out and when to hold back for a second can be the key to keeping your shield rolling from one wave of enemies to the next.
When all the pieces line up just right and the intricacies of the system start clicking into place, Schildmaid MX creates a feeling of controlled chaos that’s nothing short of sublime. And even before you master it, the basics of the system are simple enough that you can just jump in—”catch bullets unless you’re in Danger Time” is a very easy concept to hit the ground running with, and the nuances will organically fall into place from there. Few games make the process of practice and mastery as seamless and exciting as this one.
A variety of game modes and unlockables add to the already excellent game at Schildmaid MX’s core. There’s a very good novice mode (Jaeger) mode that hits just the right balance of keeping things exciting without getting too overwhelming. Experienced shmup players will breeze through it, while newcomers will likely find it a challenge—but not excessively so. It’s one of the better novice modes I’ve played, in terms of teaching rookies how to play and presenting a surmountable challenge without oversimplifying things.
Krieger mode is the standard arcade mode, dishing up a hefty challenge and the possibility of taking on secret bosses when certain conditions are met. If you had any concerns that the shield mechanic would make Schildmaid MX too easy, this mode will quickly put those to rest. An onslaught of rockets and lasers hits almost right out the gate, meaning there’s a lot more stuff to dodge and making it harder to keep shield uptime, which in turn makes Danger Time are more frequent obstacle. Where Jaeger mode is a great introduction to the shield mechanics and how you can benefit from them, Krieger is the mode that really dials up the risk/reward aspect and lets those systemic intricacies stand out.
For both Jaeger and Krieger, there are three standard ships to pick from: slow and tanky, fast and precise, and something in the middle. Helpfully, the game shows comparable difficulty at the ship selection screen: the B60-E Grief’s homing missiles and stronger shield, at the cost of firepower, make it a good choice for survival (and, therefore, a good pick for beginners). The Hydra G130 and S-19 Wyvern are more nimble and less sturdy, and therefore more difficult to play effectively, but with a much higher ceiling for skill and scoring potential.
Chimera Mode is an endless survival mode where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible with a single life. Rather than one of the three standard ships, this mode puts you in the cockpit of the intentionally overpowered Chimera—a ship that combines all the strengths of the three standard ships and none of the weaknesses. You’ll need that power, though, because the difficulty ramps up quickly and there’s no room for error.
Lastly, there’s Sieger mode, a short, high-difficulty single level designed for scoring competitions. It’s mechanically similar to Krieger, but with the difficulty jacked all the way up and without any breathing room whatsoever. Simply surviving to the end is a big task, but for more accomplished shmuppers, there’s a lot of scope to push those high scores.
Still not enough? All those modes also have unlockable EX variants, not unlike the Arrange modes you often see in console ports of arcade shooters. The main difference here is that you have more powerful variants of all the standard ships with new weapons, and a higher level of difficulty to go with it.
All of this makes Schildmaid MX feel like a complete package. It isn’t just a fantastic shoot-’em-up that takes a clever, unique idea and delivers it to near perfection—though it undoubtedly is that—but a console port that’s feature-rich and gives you plenty of reason to keep coming back for more. This is an essential addition to any shmup fan’s library.
Version tested: Nintendo Switch
Review code provided by the publisher.
