Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2015
Solar Shifter EX
Developer Elder Games
Warp into action with Solar Shifter EX. Man your ship and dive into fierce combat situations in space and over beautiful and distant planet surfaces. Solar Shifter EX is a sci-fi shoot 'em up with the unique ability to 'shift'. From the Steam store page
54 reactions from 1 source (Steam reviews) · newest Jun 10, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
48
Mixed
26 positive · 28 negative
95% range 35–61%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 26 | 28 | 0 |
Steam's own rating
Mixed
54 of 115 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
54 of 54 · most liked firstThis is one of the games where I wish Steam had a thums-sideways. To summarize: Pro: - nice and colorful visuals - fast-paced gameplay - 'shifting' mechanics adds a very unique twist Con: - enemies and their formations are kinda repetitive, little variation - success is heavily tied to quickly finding a sweet-spot on the screen and just sitting still - constantly shifting camera angle does not work out all that well for gameplay - collision box of your primary ship seems a bit too small,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great graphics, probably one the best looking shmup on PC, great music and... that is all that is great about this game. The gameplay mechanics are poor and boring, you dont get any fun from it, just pure frustration at best sometimes. There is a shift option which allows you to teleport quickly on the screen, sound neat yeah? Well in practice it is annyoing and chaotic. There is no super weapon or bombs like a proper shmup should have to help out in dire situations, you have an upgrade…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Longer Version] Soler Shifer Ex is a scrolling shoot'em up from the same developer of Meridan: New World. I was looking forwards to buying it since seeing the trailer. Impressed with Meridian I had good hopes for this, I was not let down. For a scroller, the game has a lot of depth and detail to it. While it's not a massive bullet hell it is still a challenge with plenty of different enemies on screen. Checkpoints are used so you won't lose much progress on the way if you die and the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hi there! I cannot recommend this game. Basically it's idea of shifting mechanic is unique, new and entertaining for me but..I put all the pro's and con's in comparison, so you see, it's not so a good idea to buy/ play it. Pro: - decent, perhaps good graphics, even by todays standards - good, moody music - unique basic gameplay of 'shifting' - upgrade system - achievements to, uhm, achieve - trading cards - 2 different perspectives in the campaign (Aliens and good space cowboy) - it's a game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First impressions are very favourable. Used to love shoot em ups in the arcade as a teen. Games like R-Type and many that I cannot remember the name of. Not played any in many year, so this feels fresh to me and I am blown away at this. It looks amazing and is silky smooth on my ancient Phenom II 960T 4X3.0Ghz and Powercolour 1GB HD6950. So i have done the first level and two thumbs up so far, if anything changes so with the review, so if you see a thumbs up I am still loving it. Edit:…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ_aZooCAqo I'm not English, so the full review will be in Italian: The game is very good, graphically very nice, with a soundtrack really nice to hear. At first everything it is very difficult, but improves with increasing levels! (making upgrades to the space shuttle) The game runs smoothly at 4k! I recommend it to everyone, especially to lovers of sci-fi shoot 'em up Rating: 7/10 Hardware Used Processor: Intel Core i7 4790k @ 4.4 Ram 16Gb G.Skill…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a bit mediocre but it's not bad and doesn't deserve the hate it's getting on Steam. I paid 99 cents for the game today on sale and I have already gotten my moneys worth and then some. For the 4.99 standard price, I still don't think it's a bad game and it definitely doesn't deserve the hate and negative reviews. The graphics aren't going to blow anyone away but it's meant to have old-school vibes and it does in my opinion and does a decent job of being challenging but doable and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An Arcade Shooter / Shoot 'Em Up https://youtu.be/TukKN3iKcLg + Visually the game looks fantastic, especially for a top-down shoot 'em up. Great environments, lighting, particle effects, and detail. + The gameplay is certainly enjoyable, tons of enemies on the screen at once, large gunships, bosses, loads of action. + Unique warp mechanic that let's you teleport a short distance to avoid lasters or tight spots. + Nice soundtrack - The "difficulty" is a bit extreme. You die in a few hits,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not nearly as bad as you may expect from a game with Mostly Negative reviews in Steam. Seriously, for a $4.99 game that is often on sale for, like, $1? It's not even that bad of a deal. First of all, the game looks surprisingly good. Not in high tech way, of course, but everything here shines and explodes, so, it looks pretty impressive. In a way, it reminds me of 3dfx days and games like INCOMING. If you know what I mean. There are just so many basic effects that... well, it's spectacular.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solar Shifter EX, while appearing to be visually pleasing, is just that and nothing else. It's one of the most boring, repetitive and shortest Bullet Hell shooters I have ever played. It's really horrible, which is a word I rarely use.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The only good thing about this game is visuals (in static) and music Small enemy ships move with some kind of weird stuttering, despite the fact that game runs somewhat consistently with a high framerate. Enemy patterns are very repetitive and static, while small ships quite often have A LOT of health and won't die unless you hit them with both missiles. Which means in most cases you just eyeball a safe spot on the screen, and just stay there for a minute while holding fire. Game has health…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solar Shifter Ex is an old school shooter from the developer of the amazing Meridian: New World, based around classic 80's hardcore arcade games such as R Type and Gradius/Nemesis. Solar Shifter Ex (SSE) certainly has a lot to live upto as they are as hard as they come so this is a shooter designed with toughness in mind but with modern gaming standards but does it succede? First thing you will notice when you start to play is the big bold graphics of the enemy and your ship too which is very…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game suffers from bullet sponge retardia, where you spend most of yout time dodging ships that won't die instead of their shots. For a SHMUP, it is well below average,
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quite nice graphics and thats all. - poor mechanics - unplayable perspective - predictable and boring enemies
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will say it's pretty good. My only real issues are 1) if you're still holding the fire button down (whether it's mouse or keyboard), 90% of the time.. shifting doesn't work unless you let go of the attack. It also has issues shifting RIGHT more than left. 2) The explosions! The explosions are ridiculous, tiny ships blowing up into giant flames that cover half the screen preventing you from even seeing the "bullets" coming at you. This is a big no-no for bullet hell, you can't dodge something…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is an excellent game with a few flaws. Pros: - The gameplay is excellent, a great balance between challenging and fun - The soundtrack is fantastic - The visuals are very impressive, especially given the size of the team - The shifting mechanic works well and gives a unique feel to the game Cons: - Shifting with the keyboard doesn't always work well, you definitely need a controller for the best experience - The camera angles are rather confusing at times I recommend this game to all…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The shifting system is an interesting twist but the godawful shifting camera completely ruins the game. The screen feels overly cramped too. There are plenty of superior shmups going all the way back to 1994's Raptor: Call of the Shadows.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Extremely challenging and insanely fun! Solar Shifter is a shmup with immersive 3D backgrounds and massive battles. You can use your ship to shift out of tough situations, avoid deadly lasers and obstacles. I enjoyed every minute of this little gem so far, and its only fault in my opinion is that the screen can get a bit cluttered sometimes due to the 3D background. This isn't that much of an issue, and the addictive nature of the gameplay will quickly get you hooked. The price is also more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is not exactly horrible, as you can probably see from a lot of the other reviews. It reminds me a lot of the awkward yet occasionally entertaining Sega CD shooters, especially in the way the well-rendered backgrounds seem strangely disconnected from the action. I can't say it seems too punishing from my brief time with it but I don't think I'll be spending much more time with it because: a. It's kinda ugly. b. There's no telling what elements of the background you can collide with and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is loosing sale momentum (assuming it had any) coming up in bundles in Indiegala and Groupees. Games look really neat with 3D effect and camera effect, but that is where evertyhing stops... The main gameplay is to find the sweet spots on the screen to be able to do maximum damage withtout taking any. If you failed, you restart at checkpoin to try again (which can be quite annoying since some restore points include annoying voice dialogue...) until you pass because you can remember…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had a blast playing this, the environments are amazing. the gameplay is excellent and the music is so good! I've played on laptop, almost none of the new games runs smoothly anymore but this game did. i preferred an xbox controller instead of keyboard/mouse, controls were really smooth. Downside is a bit long loading times. Highly recommended game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Before I played This Game... I had a small wee wee, no friends, no girlfriend, depression and absolutely no will to live. None of these things have changed, but the game is pretty good.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game does not deserve all the hate it is getting. It has a unique concept that is worth a try. Execution has some flaws. Art style and graphics are nice. Upgrade progression is simple but there. Finishing a level feels like an accomplishment, and once you get the hang of the shifting system, its a fun challenging game. The patterns repeat so you can memorize them and master each level. HINT, dont use the right stick. Instead hold X and use the target system to shift. Much less chaotic…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really fun, old-school shoot'em up. Nice graphics, great new features...and excessively hard
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having played Cave shmups, and other ones like Astebreed this comes across as really mediocre. Pros - Graphics and sound are decent. Cons - Camera angles constantly change, messing up with your viewing plane and leaving you guessing which angles the bullets will come from. - Static, unchanging bullet patterns which test your memory rather than reflexes. - The Shifting mechanic comes across as gimmicky as best and doesn't really add an extra layer to the gameplay.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad game, ok storyline, ok voice overs, ok sound tracks. Graphics are pretty good, not a bad price regularly, but definitely worth taking a look if on sale. 6/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good , hard old school game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun shoot'em up (like the old Raptor game-play) with a teleportation ability to spice things up. The graphics looks great, it runs well and the more you play, the more addicted you'll become. The difficulty is hard (challenging, but not frustrating). If you like the genre, you should definitely give this a shot, you won't be disappointed.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game that socks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Review + Giveaway x3 Game key was provided by developer. A fresh take on an old genre, Solar Shifter EX is straight-forward shoot 'em up satisfaction. First to impress me was the "punch" the action carries with it. You can feel the wallop behind every bullet and rocket and soon enough there's an impressive fireworks display taking place on your monitor. Defeated enemy ships explode with a nice visual effect and an audible "boom". Music is upbeat and fast-paced which is a nice match for the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solar Shifter EX is a good bullet hell game with great 3D graphics. The Solar Shift mechanic that let's you teleport around adds a lot to the game. The environments are detailed and pretty but it can be a little hard to see what exactly is going on with many bullets and explosions on the screen. Here's my First Impressions of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfQZv9kapY
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I havn't had this much fun in a game in years. Kudos to the very small team behind this game. Visuals, music, sound, it all comes together very well and you don't even need a high-end pc to run it at 60fps. Just buy this before it gets more expensive.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solar Shifter EX is yet another of literally hundreds of retro arcade bullet hell/shoot 'em ups infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. This one has almost passable graphics which is nice to see, and there's a shifting mechanism that doesn't add all that much to the game. This is an old and dead genre, and while some professional production quality went into making this, it still ends up having less than average quality gameplay, with some rather…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solar Shifter EX pros: //fast game with modern day graphics with easy controls that moves from location A to B to C and so on //good amount of action and special effects cons: //a lot of difficult battles //sometimes bad camera angles //good game Personal Suggested Purchase Price: $0.49 Or Less During Sale
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've grown to like this game. At first, I was willing to uninstall it, but I decided to give it another go. I wish I didn't have to look at the opening screen each time I fail the level. It would be nice if that was changed. overall I would recommend this game to new, rookie or novice players like myself who's just looking for something to shoot up. Oh, and I would prefer NOT having the auto shoot feature. Let me kill things at my own pace. :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just not that good.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtu.be/E1c_frQnOpA This vertically scrolling shoot-em-um struggles with many of the basic elements of the genre. Most egregious are the enemy waves that never seem to care about the player as they shoot off in random directions with no chance of hitting their assumed target. The plane of interaction doesn't track to the motion of the landscape flyover creating a disconnect between the two that often makes it feel like two games overlapping each other.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →*Negatives* 1) Poor Audio(clipping audio) 2) Poorly Optimized(shouldn't need a powerful pc for this, but you do) 3) Repetive, more about being in the right spot than dodging 4) Long load times *Positives* Decent Boss Fights Ok merc story Got more E value than cost of the game so thumbs up
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A non-biased quick look @ the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2oMupUh2y8 In good old shmup fashion you will face uncountable formations of enemies that'll try to stop you. Be clever and use the Phase Shifter's jump drive to your advantage or you will get shot. Warp into action with Solar Shifter EX. Man your ship and dive into fierce combat situations in space and over beautiful and distant planet surfaces. Solar Shifter EX is a sci-fi shoot 'em up with the unique ability to 'shift'.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sound doesn't work, gameplay is boring, camera animation is just simply bad and the developer clearly doesn't know what makes a shoot 'em up game good. Also, can't control the ship with the mouse. Avoid.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Visually gorgeous clean-room implementation of a shmup. The devs obviously have technical talent - bit it needed playtesting by someone who's had experience with a shmup and/or games in general.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Damn these gameplay mechanics are poor. The shifting thing is kind of a neat twist, but as a bullet hell game, this one is pretty bad. Very simplistic, with frequently confusing camera perspectives.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ez ennyi pénzt se ér,ha magyar,ha nem...egyszerű buta mint a faék,fejfájdító követhetetlen 3D-be helyezett 2D,semmi egértámogatás,csak azért markold,mert azon kell lőni,és a shiftes teleport is ökörség,nem ez hozza meg a shootemup reformját,mi vagyok én,polip???Baromság volt betenni,hogy tökre nem számít a Shmup tudás,de itt még nyomjál jókor shiftet,mikor elengedsz minden mást,majd ugorj más pozícióba,mert olyan sugár jön,ami RÖGTÖN megöl,ha hozzád ér,de közben manőverezni is kellene a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The idea and some game element implementation is quite good, however the gameplay itself is horrible. Also I am greatly dissatisfied with the controls in the game. The ship you drive has a "teleport" ability. So far this is good, howevr, it is quite buggy. So overall as a gaming experience I would not recommend it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →too easy to die. i dided on first attack, everytime
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSIydmRpItA
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades I am going to be brutally honest from the get-go: Solar Shifter EX is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the worst shmup games I have ever played in my life. Literally any good shmup player will realize how bad this game feels like from the very first moments of starting to play it. There's a lot of things…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Outbreak is an intense and thrilling game that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The gameplay is engaging, and the graphics are impressive. I highly recommend it to fans of action and survival games!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not the best. It fails the number one rule of SHMUPS. The player hit box is not well defined and the ship is gigantic.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Some people say the game has an automatic fire feature But I didn't find this feature Was it removed? This game is difficult for me, but graphics are great
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tags: Shootemup & Bullet Hell Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Botches core mechanics. Nice engine but camera wobbles left and right, diagonal angle cam leads bullets and directions to be crooked. Shift gimmick is clunky. So this is a 3D game in which you have to go left and right and shoot down waves. The waves are prescripted, are dumb as they just aim wherever randomly, and it is often easy to find a blind spot in the first ship and then all other ships of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Boring. Read whatdoesthisbuttondo?'s review.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Horrible game - skip it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Old school shoot em up, nostalgics of firsts game should like it 7/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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