I'll catalogue the title under the "because Japan" category, unless someone smarter than me points out a math joke. Anyway, the title connects to the game because you've got one player with six different weapons; wheter the game is unlimited or not, I don't know yet (whoa, unforeseen full circle about the title 
)
6x1 is a twin stick shooter on a console without twin sticks (don't have a New 3DS or a Circle Pad Pro): your ship moves along a spherical surface, attacked by waves of wireframe enemies; a boss will appear after a variable number of waves, depending on the stage you're playing.
The player's ship (named Leo, if my understanding of spoken Japanese is not that rubbish) has six different weapons, identified by six different girls; weapon change is done via touch screen, L and R, or Y and X. Each weapon has three power levels, indicated by how a girl looks: NES sprite at level 1, better sprite with CGA colours at level 2, full sprite and colours at level 3; power ups are dropped by a couple of enemies per stage; getting hit by a bullet resets the current girl to level 1, along the usual loss of one life.
Weapons include the standard forward pew-pew (fully upgraded is similar to Contra's spreadgun), homing lasers, (very) short-ranged "flamethrower", mines dropped behind your ship, a forward-fixed "sword", and a slow but powerful AoE grenade. At first the homing lasers look overpowered, but playing advanced stages reveal that those are underpowered and unable to control large number of enemes; the sword and the grenade are the most useful against normal waves, with bosses requiring to change weapon based on their patterns.
Against stronger enemies and bosses, it feels like 6x1 begs for a second stick, as the tactic is to wait attack them in between their patterns; weapons seem to built around the lack of a second stick as two can be used to fire behind your ship (the mines and the grenade; the latter travels forward a short distance, stops, and explodes after a while) and you've got homing lasers. The game plays well, but in the five stages I've completed so far, there's nothing really noteworthy. I'm not a huge fan of twin stick shooters, the only one I've played to any decent lenght is Nanostray on the WiiU, and compared to that or Super Stardust, 6x1 is slower, doesn't have much visual flair, and enemies only seem to appear in circles around the player.
Speaking of visuals, the curved surface makes understanding if projectiles will hit their target rather difficult; sometimes I've also had difficulties in understanding where a boss was related to my ship; not really sure where the hitbox for your ship really lies, as changing weapon alos changes the ship appearance, and they don't have a common center point, like a glowing spot or somehting like that.
Graphics aren't that great either. Projectiles are simple with pixels, all enemies are in wireframe, and bosses are not-so-complex shaded polygonal objects; your ships look different from each other but they are little more than a messy mass of pixels; the sphere you move on has an hex pattern going that gets very blurry when moving; the background is static, but creates a good contrast for the rest of the game elements. Girls are the most elaborate piece of art in the game, though they don't look very original: they all give a Vocaloid feeling, with one looking like a mix between Hatsune Miku and the Fei Yen; I also get vibes of Beatmania characters from other two of the girls.
6x1 seems an average game; will play more to see if it goes below that.
) 6x1 is a twin stick shooter on a console without twin sticks (don't have a New 3DS or a Circle Pad Pro): your ship moves along a spherical surface, attacked by waves of wireframe enemies; a boss will appear after a variable number of waves, depending on the stage you're playing.
The player's ship (named Leo, if my understanding of spoken Japanese is not that rubbish) has six different weapons, identified by six different girls; weapon change is done via touch screen, L and R, or Y and X. Each weapon has three power levels, indicated by how a girl looks: NES sprite at level 1, better sprite with CGA colours at level 2, full sprite and colours at level 3; power ups are dropped by a couple of enemies per stage; getting hit by a bullet resets the current girl to level 1, along the usual loss of one life.
Weapons include the standard forward pew-pew (fully upgraded is similar to Contra's spreadgun), homing lasers, (very) short-ranged "flamethrower", mines dropped behind your ship, a forward-fixed "sword", and a slow but powerful AoE grenade. At first the homing lasers look overpowered, but playing advanced stages reveal that those are underpowered and unable to control large number of enemes; the sword and the grenade are the most useful against normal waves, with bosses requiring to change weapon based on their patterns.
Against stronger enemies and bosses, it feels like 6x1 begs for a second stick, as the tactic is to wait attack them in between their patterns; weapons seem to built around the lack of a second stick as two can be used to fire behind your ship (the mines and the grenade; the latter travels forward a short distance, stops, and explodes after a while) and you've got homing lasers. The game plays well, but in the five stages I've completed so far, there's nothing really noteworthy. I'm not a huge fan of twin stick shooters, the only one I've played to any decent lenght is Nanostray on the WiiU, and compared to that or Super Stardust, 6x1 is slower, doesn't have much visual flair, and enemies only seem to appear in circles around the player.
Speaking of visuals, the curved surface makes understanding if projectiles will hit their target rather difficult; sometimes I've also had difficulties in understanding where a boss was related to my ship; not really sure where the hitbox for your ship really lies, as changing weapon alos changes the ship appearance, and they don't have a common center point, like a glowing spot or somehting like that.
Graphics aren't that great either. Projectiles are simple with pixels, all enemies are in wireframe, and bosses are not-so-complex shaded polygonal objects; your ships look different from each other but they are little more than a messy mass of pixels; the sphere you move on has an hex pattern going that gets very blurry when moving; the background is static, but creates a good contrast for the rest of the game elements. Girls are the most elaborate piece of art in the game, though they don't look very original: they all give a Vocaloid feeling, with one looking like a mix between Hatsune Miku and the Fei Yen; I also get vibes of Beatmania characters from other two of the girls.
6x1 seems an average game; will play more to see if it goes below that.
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