Super Killer Hornet: Resurrection feels like the sort of game that would come to a developer out of a bizarre fever dream. Imagine a hyperactive shmup, involving a homicidal insect (which may actually be a spaceship), fighting a barrage of alien demon creatures across planets. Now picture it set to a soundtrack by British hip-hop rock artist The Sixty Fours, in which you create combos and get upgrades by solving basic math problems, and you've got a pretty good idea of what Killer Hornet is.

For as ludicrous as the premise sounds, as a fan of shmups I was still open to giving it a chance and hoping to be if not impressed, then at least entertained. The problem though is two fold: firstly the outlandish components fit poorly together, and on top of being really weird seem gimmicky, like the developers pulled random nouns and adjectives out of a hat and based the game around them.

Second, taken by themselves the different parts that make up Killer Hornet are of a very low quality, almost to the point of embarrassment. The shooting is bland and the enemies the very definition of "cannon fodder", flinging themselves into the path of my gun and being incredibly boring to fight. Few new enemies get added over the games 6 levels (which take about 30 minutes to complete, but this is countered by bosses being reused repetitively to inflate the length of the levels without actually adding anything new. Neither of the two soundtracks are noteworthy, with The Sixty Four's being particularly jarring as it is essentially the same as playing an MP3 over the sound effects and doesn't effect or connect with the action on screen. Most glaring though is the art direction, an area I historically give a lot of slack for the sake of "artistic expression", but in this case cannot dismiss how truly awful it looks (made even worse by running at a locked 640x480 resolution).

It's been awhile since a game has inspired the roller coaster of momentary surprise and excitement so quickly followed by disappointment and disgust that Super Killer Hornet did. It's a shallow, poorly made game with an absurd price tag that I honestly don't believe belongs on Steam. It's crazy setup might have made for a fun 5-minute flash game, but is not something I can get behind as a retail title, and my advice for anyone considering it would be the same as for those confronted by an actual hornet: stay away or expect to get stung!

I think the verdict on this one is save your money.
It plays and looks very much like a student's term project, rather than a fleshed out game.
As a bonus addon to a groupees bundle, it's right at home. But charging $7 for this, on sale, just seems unethical.

Boasts full controller support, but there's noticeable input lag with a 360 controller on movement and bombs. Bombs don't go off immediately when used, so you can still die after bombing (and it'll still use your bomb). It's also not clear what level of enemy they destroy, some will survive the bomb and instantly KO you, as there doesn't seem to be hit invuln while bombing. Maybe chalk that up as a "feature".

The soundtrack options are limited to a few songs, nothing autoswaps. When you pick a song, you're limited to that one song on repeat for the rest of your gameplay, until you start a new game and pick a new one. Gets old real fast.

Graphics, well.. you can see the screenshots. But instead of endearing retro, it just feels cheap. Not a major point of contention, but it's a little weird. Clash of styles.

Finally, the math system is wholly unnecessary. What demographic is this being marketed towards? The "Brain train twist" is elementary-grade addition, subtraction, and ohboy sometimes multiplication being thrown at you amidst the bullets. It feels poorly thought out to say the least. Various numbers will fall during gameplay, and you collect them to boost your power upgrades, forming equations + answers. 8+1=45 is totally mentally taxing, I think this game just might be too hard for me. Once you hit max power, it then becomes a game of dodging the numbers, so you don't accidentally downgrade yourself. During the 2nd stage's razor blade mode, you can't even see the numbers falling in the swarm of enemies that appears, and will likely eat a downgrade or two. The 2nd stage boss forces you to assemble these equations, if i may even call them that, while dodging bullets as your sole way of damaging the boss in the second phase of the fight. Just let me shoot stuff, please.

All in all, I think this is the first shmup I really disliked. The math system is an unnecessary dilution of what would be otherwise somewhat passable gameplay.

edit: In survival mode it does away with the math, feels much more coherent.

Pros
- Clean, tight controls
- Very challenging game
- Interesting and original soundtrack
- Recognizes and supports XB360 pad

Cons
- No options at all
- fixed resolution is very low and not widescreen (cannot be changed)
- Short game with only six levels

The game is pretty fun, but just feels very unpolished. Visually it feels like you are playing a zoomed in Gameboy Advance title. I enjoy the game, but don't think it is worth the price they are asking. I got it on sale for $6.99 and it feels a bit much for something this barebones. I would have loved to see the game support higher resolutions, to me that omission is a dealbreaker.

Whilst it's no ikaruga this is a solid cave-ish shmup with a novel twist.

If you liked the original Super Killer Hornet this is definitely an evolution - more of the same in principle, but better than the first.

2 unlimited fire modes with a standard "shooting slows you, and one gun is more powerful but slows you more" dynamic; plus a limited smart bomb that clears all bullets.

Enemies are more sporadic than wave based, but the patterns are mostly pretty memorable.

Graphics are well done and the game has its own sort of british-bullet-hell style that has a hint of H R Giger to it. Nothing feels under-done in the weapon effects and explosions department, but importantly enemy bullets never get visually lost amongst it all.

The main thing to recommend it for me is the idea that it has of powering up your ship's weapons by doing maths - the power-ups make simple maths problems and you have to get them right to power your gun.

As well as the maths problems it has some novel combo-based scoring mechanics that come in with specific enemies and in general communicates them well to the player (I worked them out more or less straight away).

Definitely a fun diversion from the run of the mill shmups.

Well, it seems that many people are hating on this game, but i came here to thanks the creator for making this game, i had fun playing it and i think that is all that matters, at first i saw the numbers falling down an i tought they were normal multipliers like in Beat Hazard, then i realized they were adding and multiplying operations!
I know it needs to improve but i gotta say that if you are into SHMUPS you gotta try this one, the creator said that he's going to improve it.