Hydorah

Hydorah is a freeware, sidescrolling shoot-'em-up indie game developed by Locomalito and released on March 6, 2010 for Windows. It was later expanded as the commercial title Super Hydorah and re-released by Abylight Studios on September 20, 2017 for Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The game follows the Delta Lance, a lone space fighter, as its pilot fights to defeat the evil Meroptian alien race and save humanity.

The game received positive reviews, praising its graphics, design and music, while criticizing its game balance and unforgiving difficulty.

Gameplay
The gameplay has been compared to Gradius and other classic sidescrolling shooters. The player controls the ship on a sidescrolling plane and can choose between several weapon classes that are divided into main, secondary and special weapon. Each level has a mid-boss and final boss. The game also includes a 2-player co-op mode.

There are 16 stages in the freeware version of the game, and 21 stages in the remaster. The stages are connected with a map and can diverge at points with a second "true" ending available if the player completes all levels. While the original game limited the amount of saves per playthrough to 5, the remaster allows infinite saves and continues.

Development
Both the developer and composer of the game reside in Andalusia, Spain. The original game's development took two and a half years. The game's soundtrack was composed by Gryzor87 and resembles that of 16-bit titles.

Reception
Super Hydorah received positive reviews, with an aggregate score of 82/100 on Metacritic.

Tim W. of Indiegames.com called the original Hydorah a "gem of a game" that would "more than delight" SHMUP fans, but criticized the lack of a difficulty setting. Eric Caoili of GameSetWatch called the game "rad-looking".

Sergio Martin of Vandal rated Super Hydorah an 8.5/10, calling it a "magnificent work" and praising the level design and music, also calling the difficulty fair, but criticizing its lack of originality as well as the amount of visual distraction on screen. Carlos Forcada of Meristation also rated the game 8.5/10, praising the graphics, level variety and controls, but calling the difficulty too high for many gamers. Jose A. Rodriguez of IGN Spain rated the game 7/10 and said that it was fun, addictive and intense, but called it too difficult and repetitive.