Good old arcade shmup

A good shooter is like a beautiful dance, spinning and weaving through each stage.

Where Andro Dunos II excels is in its balance; no weapon feels redundant, but at the same time you don't feel like you need a degree in laser swapping to make progress. Enemy patterns feel manageable, but the game doesn't encourage you to hang out in one spot. That visual flourish the game does when enemies fly in from the foreground or background before joining the action both looks cool as hell, but also does a great job to telegraph where the enemies will show up. Big ships take enough shots to destroy that they don't feel trivial, but at the same time you never feel like avoidance is your go-to option. The game also does a great job of making some enemy shots destructible, which also encourages you to go into the line of fire to clear the way. You are incentivized to put yourself in moderate danger to avoid being totally creamed, and it keeps the tension at a constant level.

Any one of these elements could have easily been thrown off balance resulting in the whole experience toppling like a house of cards, but the game pulls off the balancing act perfectly. Yeah it looks great and the soundtrack will get your blood pumping, but that's just the icing on top of a strong overall experience.