I like the idea of playing the common enemies instead of the hero, but I ended up pretty confused at how to actually play well. Through the first level I though "oh, this is easy, so long as I keep making shields", and that got me by. Had enough backup shields on the screen by the end that nothing could touch me. But the second level started off crazy, and I wasn't able to get any leeway; there were so many ships that I couldn't spawn anything without it being instantly destroyed.
When I gave up, the screen looked like this: 
I don't know... maybe I just didn't get it, but it's hard to feel like I'm the popcorn ships at this point.