A shoot 'em up where every extra life joins the fight
Shoot 1UP DX throws out the usual rule that a 1UP sits in reserve until you die. Every ship you collect enters the field right away, so your force keeps growing as you play. You command up to 30 ships at the same time, and they move as one phalanx: contract the formation to squeeze through enemy fire, expand it to unleash the Plasma Auger. Your weapons upgrade as you collect more ships, and they downgrade again when you lose them, so the size of your armada is always tied to how hard you hit. You can also sacrifice ships for a bullet-vaporizing bomb that gets stronger the more ships you've collected. The setting is a sci-fi side scroller where your home world has been ruined and you're leading a detached battalion against the mechanical-tentacle hybrid attack forces behind it.
Playing together
The game supports 2 player local co-op, and both players' forces are on screen at once, which the store text describes as 60 simultaneous player ships. Remote Play Together is listed as a Steam feature, so a friend can join your session over the internet even though the mode itself is local co-op. Each player manages their own growing armada, which means twice the ships to position, twice the plasma to spread across the screen, and shared pressure to keep formations from colliding with incoming fire. Coordination matters most when one player expands for the Plasma Auger while the other contracts to cover a gap.
What to know before starting
There are six levels of alien territory to push through, and the difficulty is adjustable. Cranking up difficulty also raises gameplay speed, which is where the tighter dodging comes in. The store text notes that the normal settings are tuned so that regular players can enjoy the manic shooting without it becoming punishing, so you can pick a level that suits your group. The Steam version adds remappable keyboard controls, leaderboards, achievements, and trading cards. The store text also flags sexual content and nudity among the tags, so keep that in mind before playing in front of anyone who'd rather not see it.