Neko Navy feels like a mixed hybrid of beloved bullet hell games like Ikaruga and Touhou. Standard tropes of the horizontal shooter are embraced, limited bombs and all, while a strong sense of the obscure manage to set it apart. Piloting a cat through various levels/days while dozens of, sometimes, meat based enemies fire hundreds of projectiles is a little odd; after the first area, it all starts to seem to be par for the course.
Check out our stream of Neko Navy here:
Neko Navy is not a simple game. Even on its easiest difficulty it does not present itself as a casual experience, but that is to be expected as this is a bullet hell after all. In fact, a high difficulty factor is embraced as the each level is labeled “easy,” “hard,” and “death.” Only after several attempts was the first stage in Hard mode cleared; didn’t even bother to check out the Death mode as my pride was already crushed.
The problems with Neko Navy arise from the asking price as it sits right below 11 dollars. While the game is enjoyable, and easy to recommend for anyone that enjoys Shmups, it becomes more difficult to do so positively for anyone that isn’t simply rabid for the genre. The strong sense of the bizarre is a memorable selling point, however. If the game were to experience a Steam sale in the coming months it would be an easy recommend for anyone that looks back at the 90s and the awkward levels of frustration at Gradius and R-Type fondly. Anyone else could probably just skim over this and head to something directly created by Cave.