Indie Impressions - Iron Fisticle

Iron Fisticle

Now Available on Steam

Developed by Curve Studios

Long before the likes of Geometry Wars or Waves, twin stick shooting gameplay has been re-imagined countless times since the 80's first gave us classics like Robotron or Berzerk. Introducing the directional shooting and arena based challenges was the start of a new genre, and soon we saw deeper level progression in the form of dungeon crawlers like Gauntlet or SMASH T.V. Iron Fisticle seeks to bring modern twin-stick action and 80's arcade arena shooting into a classic RPG setting of medieval madness.

Iron Fisticle stays true to the classic formula with the original 8-directional shooting we remember from the best of arcade classics while adding its own brand of modern flashiness through crisp and highly stylized pixel art provided by the ever talented Tikipod of Aqua Kitty fame. The game spices up the basic high-score arena shooting gameplay with a few elements of randomization and persistence giving roguelike depth to a generally simple arcade concept.

The dungeons are laid out in a grid starting you in one corner and the boss in the other, with layouts being randomized each trip. Defeating any given room leaves you faced with the decision of which direction to travel in, taking into consideration upgrades and power-ups needed along the way to properly defeat the bullet-hell action of each of the four floor bosses. Different routes will provide you with either a shop for upgrades or a platforming mini game for earning coins, and sufficiently powering up your character along the way is vital before facing any of the floors bosses.

Even though the game stays mostly true to the shoot-'em-up roots of SMASH T.V. it includes the addictive properties of an RPG or roguelike. You also occasionally come across permanent upgrades that carry over on consecutive play throughs, which raise any particular stat and is where the persistence comes from. These are very valuable, making future trips into the dungeon much more manageable and high scores more obtainable for diligent explorers who are keen to find and collect a good amount of upgrades.

Aside from the stat modifying upgrades you find are weapons you can gain from leveling up, and the selection is impressive. From walls of throwing daggers, streams of blue flamethrowers, to rows of area effecting bombs there's plenty reason to keep playing and discover all of the devastating ways you can end your foes and rush through the levels even faster than before. Despite having beat the game, I still find new tools to play around with each time that make me re-evaluate how I could tackle it again.

Iron Fisticle is retro done right and a dream come true for score chasers. The adrenaline gives you an arcade high as you make a mad dash around each room collecting the pixelated food that drops to keep your multiplier going and test your skill against the world on the leaderboards. Even though a single play through can be experienced in one sitting, its the kind of game you'll want to visit often just to see how much better you can do the same way many of us revisit our favorite arcade classics.

With a solid brand of arcade-y twin-stick chaos chock-full of addictive RPG properties that push you towards multiple plays, excellent couch co-op, a heavy and groovy chiptune soundtrack complimenting crisp and attractive pixel art visuals all rolled into one package Iron Fisticle is one nostalgic experience that is hard to pass up.

Early Access Preview - Vector Thrust

Vector Thrust

Developed by TimeSymmetry Publishing by Iceberg Interactive 

Now Available on Steam Early Access

Flight simulators are something I haven't been able to get into for many years, not since the earlier days of console flight combat when there were fun and less complicated arcade action experiences that focused more on intense combat than technical realism.

Vector Thrust is the only of its kind in a long while to grab my attention and keep me plowing through the campaign obsessively the same way I did all those years ago, marathoning rental copies of Ace Combat for hours through late summer nights off from school.

In production for over two long years of dedicated development, Vector Thrust has already found a loyal fanbase of people such as myself who have been yearning for a lost aerial combat experience that is easy enough to hop into for all skill levels while still challenging enough to encourage thorough practice and countless heated retries in arcade spirit. Vector Thrust is a one of a kind aerial combat title that excels where the bigger companies have failed recently in delivering open dogfighting action that manages to keep me wanting to play through objectives over and over due to being just plain entertaining without the filler of modern games.

The game presents an ass kicking soundtrack as well as a slick cell-shaded style that while not exactly realistic gives a polished and stylish appearance to the explosive imagery of combat. Though it may not be a popular choice, it stands out and gave me a certain nostalgia for the cell-shaded visuals in Robotech: Battlecry and similar arcade-y air combat titles of the PS2 era.

The two campaign are a work in progress but already feature sixteen action packed missions between them that showcase everything from intercepting bombers to bombing carriers out in the ocean. These cover the core types of objectives you'll be carrying out as the game is fleshed out during its Early Access period and the campaign is crafted into a complete story with a narrative.

The variety and accessibility of the missions keeps the modest length campaign engaging from beginning to end, ground assaults feel a little rough with not a lot of risk of being shot down as you descend to bomb them but air-to-air dogfights are exhilarating and incredibly well done. Air-to-air combat is intense and fast paced and the A.I. is cunning and deceptive in how it maneuvers out of your view and attempts to keep you in sight at all times.

Before embarking on any given mission you're given a selection of true to life aircraft and their respective weapons to consider when taking on specific tasks. The selection is already great ranging from heavy and slow A-10 bombers to quick and deadly F-15 fighters and each excel in their own unique way, requiring you to put some thought into what you bring with you into combat. The environments you take flight in are gorgeous setting that paint the perfect backdrop for an all-out war, ranging from the dusty sand dunes of deserts to the sunny islands of the tropics.

The challenge mode appears to be the real bread and butter of the game being where most of the hundreds of aircraft are unlocked in the expansive tree of increasingly powerful choices. Each plane unlocked is a new mission earned, leading to even more unlocks for a massive amount of content that is genuinely exciting to blast through. The challenges are quick craft-specific tests of reflex and skill that present you with a seemingly simple task but must be conquered in expert speed.

These challenges are generally straight forward enough to finish, but the real difficulty comes in learning how complete each one in quick enough time to earn yourself a decent enough grade to move on and earn your next fighter and its respective mission. Each of the challenges include both a local and online score board enticing the player to revisit each of the diabolical scenarios to test your ability and see how you fare against the rest of the world.

Vector Thrust has come a long way since its already electrifying early alpha and is already the perfect arcade combat sim for people who just want to jump into some action and shoot their opposition out of the sky. With the promise of a fleshed out narrative that dramatically pulls you into the action in classic Ace Combat fashion, a more fleshed out multiplayer experience, and heaps more content to an already huge roster of available airplanes and modes this is the number one air combat fix to keep an eye on right now.

Whether you're a thrill-seeking arcade action fan looking for that quick dogfight or a hardcore sim veteran with a love for realism looking for something different Vector Thrust is absolutely the most accessible fun you'll have in a game in the genre which says a lot given the indie status, small budget, and even smaller team and it can only get better on its way out of Early Access.

Indie Impressions - Velocibox

Velocibox

Now Available on Steam

Developed by Shawn Beck

With origins in the Ludum Dare game jams, Velocibox emerges from its roots as the most difficult and rewarding endless runner around.

Frustration is a feeling that when applied correctly can keep the player determined, and Velocibox is certainly a frustrating game. As frustrating as it is, why do I keep coming back for more? Despite my initial hundreds of deaths on the first level, despite hearing "Level 1, begin!" ring through my ears and haunting me in my sleep, I still keep loading up this punishing game every chance I get to push onwards. It's probably because every time I play I learn something new and get a little further with the end of my current best stage always just out reach. Patience is clearly a virtue as you take baby steps learning to surf along the four deadly sides of this flashy and minimal Velocibox.

Velocibox originated as a Ludum Dare game jam, and after high demand comes to Steam as the newest and hardest offering in the endless runner genre. This is the definition of "one more try!" gameplay, like some kind of super addictive fusion of Super Hexagon and the usual avoid-em-up action of an endless runner, the gameplay is super easy to get into but quickly ramps up into pure chaos making mastering the game a serious challenge.

Levels are generally short but that depends mostly on how fast you're picking up each of the floating cubes along the way, as you can drift along endlessly until the correct amount are obtained. Each of the sections all have a random factor to their composition and placement on any fresh start but always feature the same general patterns, requiring a bit of muscle memory to fully master each one. You'll die an innumerable amount of times learning these layouts and the lack of checkpoints will punish your every mistake dooming you to start anew with each failure.

Getting into the groove is a slow affair for newcomers as the player takes their time figuring out how to navigate the fast-paced walls and its obstacles. Once you've got a handle on how to flip the stage and grind along the sides with ease the game opens up a lot more, going from frustrating to outright addictive.

The player will apply these newly developed skills flipping and coasting across walls with finesse and elegance picking up the important orange cubes with diligence. As skills improve and orange cubes are picked up faster, your multiplier ascends at an alarming rate and you'll be burning right through each of the stages in a minimalistic Super Hexagon-esque blissout.

Velocibox requires persistence and a bit of patience, that's for damn sure, but if you're willing to dedicate a high level of focus you'll be rewarded with one of the most intense and refreshing pick-up-and-play experiences. This is a must for fans of quick and colorful arcade action who aren't discouraged by a fierce challenge.

Indie Impressions - Runers

Runers

Now Available on Steam (w/ Playable Demo)

Developed by Let's Get Kraken Games

In an industry popular for flashy visuals and over-the-top plots we tend to forget what makes the games that have lasted us the longest so memorable, their content and the feeling of discovery. Runers ditches the sugar-coating and filler of modern games in favor of pure content and customization to help craft an experience that revolves around how you want to play.

Banished to the confines of a dark and dank dungeon with nothing but your arcane knowledge and the magical power of the Runes found within. The moody melodies and grim dim-lit rooms beckon you deeper in to the randomly generated chambers of ongoing dungeon floors which each act as an arena, staging chaotic top-down battles and sometimes throwing objective based events at you for a chance at an additional skill to level up and increase your survivability in these diabolical crypts.

Runers is slightly rough around the edges in terms of aesthetics with its art and sound effects having a very hand-made and appropriately gritty quality to them. This is however not at all a bad thing and will actually be a welcome feeling among old-schoolers who remember the early days of PC gaming, as this has a very similar feel visually to the obscure titles of the early 90s many are fond of.

Runers features the grid-like map progression and dungeon exploration of the classic Zelda games with the fast-paced horde slaying arcade-action of a Gauntlet title. There's no drawn out plot or complicated goals present here, instead Runers takes a more score-attack oriented approach testing the players ability to survive and make the best usage of their findings. Most of your early runs will end swiftly in humiliating defeat, but the more adept of players will experiment and explore the hundreds of possibilities made available through Rune crafting and the spells it produces.

Runes come in the form of different varying elements, from slow burning Fire to Air spells with the ability to knockback. Combining the different spells can be done in pairs of two or three depending on the amount of combiners you have. Combining two spells is as simple as using a Rune Combiner which are generally dropped off of the tougher glowing Champion type enemies as well as mid-bosses.

In order to obtain the more useful and generally passive or evasive three-spell combinations you'll need to either defeat one of the main bosses or accumulate 4 regular Combiners. This provides an even deeper level of decision making forcing you to choose between going with the instant gratification of a slightly stronger 2nd level combo or saving your Combiners up for the often life saving 3rd level spells.

The easiest way to meet your maker is to become surrounded. The game features Diablo levels of swarming from your adversaries and the worst thing to do is get trapped in a corner or against a wall as you'll quickly be blocked in by swathes of dangerous creatures with no escape other than the sweet solace of your own magic-blasting runes making way. Although you'll be overwhelmed early on much of the time consecutive runs will last longer as you learn the necessities of preparation, especially prior to facing the hectic boss battles and their bullet-hell styled patterns.

The rune system is the bread and butter of the game, providing hundreds of unique and effective combinations of magical runes all with different attacks and properties. Throughout the levels you'll find differently sized rune combiners which will allow you to combine different runes into bigger, better attacks to use on your action bar.

The abilities gained from each combined spell are unknown at first and to unlock the hundreds of useful attacks you'll have to experiment with the different complex combinations. Runes can also be stacked onto powers in the ability bar that use similar elements, strengthening a particular attribute tied to it. In the end what you have is a very free-form combat system with an extremely high skill ceiling, the limits being that of your own discovery and persistence.

Runers is the most customizable encounter I've had in the action rogue-like genre, complimenting the play style of every attribute be it speed, power, or wit. It offers a level of creativity and choice in how you approach battles that is unseen for dungeon crawlers, and offers enough variation to always keep you coming back. For the modest asking price, Runers is an engrossing and addictive experience with an amount of content that surpasses anything of its kind.

Indie Impressions - Deep Under the Sky

Deep Under the Sky

Now Available on Steam

Developed by Northway Games and RichMakeGame

In the undiscovered recesses of a faraway planet, beautiful and strange organisms live and breathe in a psychedelic Venusian world of dancing lights and Metroid-like organisms. Similarly psychedelic to the visual style of the game is the soundtrack, with its equally as trippy and ambient qualities that build up and evolve with each successful move you make.

Deep Under the Sky uses a one-button control system that while incredibly easy to use is surprisingly deep in execution. The objective of each beautiful organic stage is to fertilize each glowing plant with the debris from the exploded amoeba-like jellyfish that release from the base you control. As simple as that sounds reaching each carefully placed plant and spreading your pieces far enough to fertilize them will be a matter of careful aiming and finesse as you surpass each obstacle and navigate each twist and turn of the maze-like passageways.

Releasing your little jellyfish and aiming their trajectory with split second perfection is a zen-like experience almost akin to a surrealistic and extra-terrestrial Skee-Ball, the game is all about accuracy. As the levels progress your jelly-like projectiles become faster and force you to think quicker about deciding when to employ your various maneuvers. Each tap of launch button you make and each skill you employ have a huge impact and consequence.

 You start out utilizing the simpler skills mostly involving rocketing your pieces in a specific direction, nudging it into the right direction when timed properly. As you move on more hazards and obstacles to work around are introduced and you're quickly navigating elaborate series of bounce pads to reach the proper destination.

By the second and third world you gain the ability to morph into a ball to roll across surfaces and gain momentum as you descend any hill. Timing the start and release of your ball form is incredibly important and adds even more reflex based timing. This feels really good, and again reminded me of some kind of psychedelic Skee-Ball or Pinball even more.

All the elements are present that make for yet another beautifully strange creation from the minds of gems Incredipede and Pineapple Smash Crew. If you're looking for a fun and simple way to relax with the added effect of being visually and audibly stunning then come and chill out Deep Under the Sky.

Indie Impressions - Power-Up

Power-Up

Now Available on Steam

Developed by Psychotic Psoftware 

 

 
In the midst of a great war, humankind now hangs on the edge of extinction. All but one pilot representing the human race is left with nothing to lose, and a thirst for revenge. The story in Power-Up is simple sci-fi fare but is effective through its usage of snazzy dialogue and slick visuals that all give a nostalgic retro flare.

As the first stage starts the massive human vessel deteriorates in the background as I find myself dodging the pieces of its firey debris. The situation is intense and the narrative well thought out, pulling you into the role of this lone human pilot very well. When games were still all about the challenge, shoot-em-ups reigned supreme and Power-Up follows in that classic form. The game follows a horizontally side-scrolling view in the same vein as classics Gradius or R-type but with a visual style of its own personality.

Power-Up gives you a versatile set of weapons displayed on a Gradius style weapon bar and include all of the classic variations you'd expect in usual shmup arsenal. You've got your standard straight shooting pea-shooter, a spread shot cannon, side-shooters, a back-firing laser, and a powerful but short range plasma cannon.

Most importantly is your ability to 'power-up' each weapon individually allowing you to strategically distribute your pickups between desired weapons for specific situations. Personally, I mostly stuck with a high leveled pea-shooter and the spreadshot, but there were still plenty of moments were the game throws situations that require the other guns at you forcing you to think quick and on your feet.

Using a fully leveled weapon is where the intensity begins and the action really starts to shine. The feeling of shredding through a crowd of enemies with a high-powered barrage of bullets is an exciting one, and even more so when you face each of the huge and beautifully detailed bosses and their tricky attack patterns.

The retro atmosphere provided by the stylish visuals, detailed backgrounds, and heavy music are all the work of one man and obviously with a lot of love making this an even more impressive endeavor, as well as a seriously solid entry into any shmup afficianados library in its own right.

 

Power-Up retains everything we love and remember from the classics while giving it a unique makeover, and is something I would deem a modern classic in a dying genre. For the incredibly low asking price this is an easy buy that provides more than just a retro throwback but a completely new experience.

Early Access Preview - Tinertia

Tinertia

Now Available on Steam Early Access

Developed by Candescent Games

Surrounded by the metal wastelands of the planet Tinertia you assume the role of a small and scrappy little robot alone and stranded at the Core, armed with nothing but your trusty self-propelling rocket launcher. Only the watchful eye of the rogue A.I. known as A.R.C and his recycled minions stand between you and your freedom.

Tinertia features a simple, effective and intuitive Rocketjump oriented platforming mechanic utilizing only twin-stick controls and no jump button. The game itself however is anything but simple pitting you against a harsh dystopic landscape of the most treacherous of hazards and its maze-like passages each protected by deranged titan-like bosses.

Tinertia is exceedingly easy to pick up and play yet manages to be deceptively difficult to master, keeping the most refined platformer fans retrying stages for hours before things really click and gravity-defying skills are fully employed. Remember the excitement of discovering rocketjumping in Quake or the aerial excitement of concussion maps from Team Fortress Classic?  If you've ever wanted to see those concepts applied to another genre as badly as I did, this is the game for you.

The gameplay itself features a concrete combination of the fiendishly difficult and precise platforming of Super Meat Boy with the over-the-top acrobatics and visually stimulating polish of Trials: Evolution, but most importantly retains the strongest element of both; speed-running and record setting.

The levels are short and sweet and the physics add a lot of variation to the challenge, making it perfect for pushing yourself to learn the workings of each one inside-and-out in order to shoot for a speedrun of an entire stage. The more you fail the more you learn, and the better you become with an end result of blasting through complex stages with style in record time and feeling great.

Although your ammo is infinite and you're free to blast around the stages as you please, getting a good score depends on keeping under the Par number of rocket boosts allowed. This means that to play competitively you'll need to learn to use each rocket to its full effect and place your shots as accurately as possible. These factors lead to a very high skill-ceiling and some ridiculous amounts of replayability, in the same way that Trials would keep you repeating the same track over and over in order to smash that last best time.

The game contains 8 variously themed stages (of which 3 are currently available) all taking place throughout the recycled metal planet, starting you off in the heat of the magma-filled core. These are some of the more simple and enjoyable courses that mostly get you into the motion of placing your rocketjumps accurately and avoiding the burning hot edges of hot obstacles. Ending the first stage is a massive chainsaw-fingered boss, the first of many, pushing from left to right with its threatening arm of blades forcing you to escape at incredible speeds.

The stages are pretty damn difficult at this point, and had me attempting several times before a successful run and never under par time at first. As you delve into the second area, the mines, you're faced with strips of timed lasers which force you to shred through the stages at a consistent speed. This is where things start to take a lot of practice and patience as you learn to cope with the split-second hazards denying you your right to take a moment and breathe.

Tinertia looks and sounds great, with some of sharpest visuals around for a platfomer that are even more eye-popping in combination with the fluid and destructive physics filling your screen with bits of particles after each blast. The electronic and ambient soundtrack is also catchy and fits the scrapped metal planet and its aesthetics more than perfectly. Overall what you have is not only the most explosive and fast-paced action around for a speed-runner, but a complete package with all the audio and visual sugar-coating needed for an awesome experience.

Even with Tinertia in Early Access it's a feature complete game that already includes all of the mechanics and solid gameplay that you can expect on release, with lots of new stages, levels, features and bosses you can look forward to being added during its early period. With an incredibly novel concept and lasting playability this is a game I'll continue to come back to over and over