DANMAKU vs Project Neon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DANMAKU
Engage in intense bullet-hell combat across 8 stages with 16 unique bosses. Choose from 8 distinct ships, each with unique abilities and flight patterns, and customize your loadout with 5 weapon types and 4 armor options. Every run offers a new challenge and the opportunity to level up your pilot.
- 8 stages with 3 difficulty levels
- 16 unique bosses and mid-bosses
- 5 distinct weapon types
- 4 armor types with trade-offs
- 8 customizable ships
- Pilot leveling system
- Graze and bomb mechanics
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DANMAKU Shooting - STELLAR FORCE 8 stages, 16 bosses. Every run you fly a different ship. ◆ 8 Stages, 3 Difficulties Route → mid-boss → route → boss. About 13 minutes a run. Clear NORMAL to open HARD, clear HARD to open LUNATIC. Higher difficulties give bosses more bullet patterns — and pay more coins. ◆ 16 Bosses One boss and one mid-boss per stage. You never fight the same one twice. ◆ 5 Weapons — not better and worse, but good at different things Vulcan / Spread / Laser / Homing / Reflect. Laser struggles on the route; Spread struggles on bosses. "Next run I'll take this one" is the reason to go again. ◆ 4 Armors — every one costs you something Heavy gives +3 HP and slows you down. Phase takes 2 HP away and pays you more the closer you fly to bullets. ◆ 3 Companions Gunner, shield, medic. Buy them, take up to two along. ◆ Pilot Level It always goes up when you play. A run you lose is not a run wasted. ◆ Graze and Bombs Skim a bullet and the coins climb. When there's no way through, bomb it. ◆ 8 Ships A small hitbox, more firepower, an extra bomb. They differ in how they fly, not just how they look.
Project Neon
Embark on a top-secret mission in this 16-bit shoot 'em up adventure. Navigate the cosmos to retrieve a recluse from Mars and dismantle his interplanetary defenses to save Earth from ecological collapse.
- Interplanetary defense dismantling
- Boss battles
- Intense 16-bit arcade action
- Cosmic navigation
- Shoot 'em up gameplay
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PROJECT NEON is a retro arcade space shooter, built as a brand new game for the Neo Geo. It runs on original MVS and AES arcade hardware, on a cartridge we build ourselves, and players around the world play it on real cabinets today. This is that same game, now on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. BUY IT ONCE, OWN IT One price, the complete game. No ads, no in-app purchases, no timers, no account. Everything is in the box, just like an arcade cartridge. One purchase covers every Apple device you own. A REAL ARCADE SHMUP • Hand-drawn 16-bit pixel art, made inside the limits of the original hardware • A soundtrack composed for the Neo Geo sound chip • Fierce bosses guarding four planets on the way to Mars • Built for high-score chasing • Touch controls, game controller support and haptics Ready to fly to Mars and save Earth?
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: DANMAKU at Free against Project Neon's $1.99. DANMAKU also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 weeks). Project Neon's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On rating there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
DANMAKU is free to download; Project Neon costs $1.99 up front. DANMAKU sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Project Neon asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for DANMAKU against 5.0 for Project Neon. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Project Neon has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
DANMAKU ships an update fortnightly, Project Neon every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | DANMAKU | Project Neon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #133 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 80 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | MIZOU, CO., LTD. | FULLSET |
Customer experience
DANMAKU
Project Neon
In-app purchases
DANMAKU
- Supporter Pack$4.99
Project Neon
No in-app purchases









