First thing's first, this is a good game. I mean, blow a whole day just to beat, good. The visuals are great and work well together, the music is quite tight, and I couldn't help but actually start memorizing the formations. I like the story, too. A little more involving than most upgrade-shooters. I like it.
The gameplay depth is where I find myself scratching my head. I find myself wanting speed up modules of some sort. All the time. Speaking of dodging, the sprite size of our spherical hero is far too large for some of the dodging required, especially in the last stage. And the pods seem a little... flimsy. I get that you're probably meant to spam the ever-loving crap out of them (9 pods max, huh?), but I'm not sure if using them is ever worth stopping the action to place them, then going back into the action and possibly having you or a pod eat a hit. Also, I learned very quick; pods + tight quarters= nope.
I could be wrong. All that could be part of the difficulty. But if I didn't say anything, you would know, so... yeah. Grain of salt. GG. Awaiting Sky Hounds 2 with baited breath. 3.5/5