Never judge a book on its cover, but you can by a title, right? Astrokicker is neither a book nor have I seen the cover, but as for titles? Already love it.
A mash-up of modern and classic shoot ’em ups, Astrokicker is a throwback to classic 80s and 90s arcade games of the same ilk. Let’s say Asteroids to get you started. I was there the first time around, and love this type of game with a modern flair.
You sport the super-duper Astrokicker Mk19 space fighter as you swerve around enemies and their projectiles in a top-down shooter, taking out starbases and the like.
Featuring a classic 16-bit aesthetic with appropriate bezels, players can swap this out for a modern parallax scrolling background with 3D rendered visuals, perhaps like what happened with R-Type Dimensions EX.
Astrokicker key features include:
- Story: Astrokicker features a full story, playing out without forcing the player to sit through cut scenes.
- Modern mode: In modern mode, you fly in any direction, ships are rendered in 3D with a detailed UI.
- Retro Mode: While in Retro mode, ships are limited to 8 directions and the graphics will bring back that hot 80s arcade action feel.
- Visuals: Beautiful parallax scrolling backgrounds in modern mode – we created 100 unique backgrounds for mouthwatering visuals.
- Enemies: Over 25 different enemy fighters attack you in waves, space mines blow up when you near them, and asteroids can be large enough that you’ll need to smash them down as they move across your battlefield.
- Powerups: The action can get intense, so selecting and using the various powerups can make the difference between victory and defeat Multiple firing modes, powerful weapons, and even a stealth clock to confuse your enemies.
- Control: Astrokicker makes full use of your gamepad, with quick selection of your powerups at your fingertips. The player decides when to use powerups – save them for critical moments in battle.
- Steam Achievements: Collect every achievement available for this game on the Steam platform.
It’s recommended to play with a controller (I’d suggest a joystick if you have one) as the ship has full 360º directional movement or eight directions in retro modes.
Seriously, this sounds like absolute bliss for old school shmup fans, such as yours truly. Check out the trailer below:
Astrokicker is available in Early Access for a short time while developer Quadrivo Software takes on players’ feedback. It’ll be available with a 15% discount until on the 5th of February.
