(Review)
I'm not one who usually has indie games on my radar. Most of the time they just kinda slip by, skipped over in favor for higher-end, polished, AAA titles. Recently, however, indie developers have been able to raise money for higher production values through Kickstarter, and some dedicated people with creative minds are at the helms of these fundraisers. Among games like FLT: Faster Than Light and A Hat In Time, one particular game that caught my attention through Kickstarter was one called Power Up.
At first glance, Power Up seems to be a classic bullet hell game, and, at its core, it is. You're the last remaining human fighting the alien resistance, and while humanity may be completely and utterly screwed, you're not going down without a fight. You board a spaceship called "Weapon-F" and take off into space to take down whatever stands in your way. In accordance to the bullet hell genre, Weapon-F is somewhat of a glass cannon; one hit and it goes down in smoke. You have extra lives, but as far as I know, there's no way to regain lives. The "cannon" part of that phrase is shown off in Weapon-F's wide array of weaponry, and here's where the game gets its title.
Weapon-F is equipped with five different types of weapons: a standard front-shooting laser, a spreadshot, a "Backshot" (which shoots behind the ship), a "Sideshot" (which shoots above and below the ship), and a rapid-fire plasma cannon; using the Left and Right Bumbers (or X), you can cycle through any of the five weapons at will. All these weapons have their own unique benifits, but they start off a little weak. However, you can power up your weapons (see the wordplay?) by picking up spheres with a P on them that are randomly-generated within a level. Each weapon has multiple power stages, and whichever weapon is active at the time is the one that gets the power boost. Each stage raises stuff like firing speed, range, strength, and so on. This adds an almost RPG-esque quality to the game, allowing you to upgrade Weapon-F to your playstyle; whether you prefer clearing multiple enemy fighters at once with the Spreadshot or evading and clearing the space around you with the Sideshot, you can adapt to your own needs. Other upgrades also increase the ship's movement speed and force field charge, and massive screen-clearing Blast Bombs can be aquired and used when you're in a pinch or to annihilate a boss.
Power Up is very visually impressive. Normally I'd say there's too much going on on-screen, but in this case, it works exceptionally well. It adds to the tension of the bullet hell gameplay and keeps you on your toes. Every environment is unique, vibrant, and colorful, and every enemy you see has some great art direction behind it. There's even visual polish that I don't normally come across in low-budget games, and it's quite impressive. Speaking of impressive, the soundtrack is a mix of atmospheric techno tracks, tacking on more tension and just making you want to tap your foot along to the beat.
There are five levels (or "chapters") in Power Up, each taking the story further and being set in different locations throughout the galaxy. This sounds short and easy on paper, but as lives aren't replenishable and the difficulty rises all the way through, it almost takes on the vibe of a classic NES or SNES game; it's hard, sure, but it's the kind of hard where you want to keep pressing on and eventually beat the game just so you can brag to your friends about how you made the game your bitch. It's a fantastic experience, and the weapon customization, four difficulty levels, and unlockable paint jobs for Weapon-F (made available through total playtime or game completion) make for a game that you'll want to continue playing, even if there are only five chapters. Power Up does all it can to keep you involved and wanting to keep playing, and it does it very well.
Alongside all these things, there's one last factor that impressed me the most about Power Up, and it's this: the creator, Psychotic Psoftware, is one person. The founder and sole employee of Psypsoft, Mike Hanson, set out to raise the money and get the programs to use his incredible talents to make something for everyone to enjoy, and that to me is enough to warrant anyone's attention. The fact that this game was made by a one-man team makes me enjoy it that much more, and I recommend that anyone else even remotely interested in this little gem try it out.
Power Up is currently available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade Marketplace for $1, and a PC version is slated for a late December 2013 release. It doesn't stop there, though - Mike has stated that Power Up will eventually reach iOS, Android, and OUYA platforms sometime in 2014.
(I'd like to write a quick thank you to Mike for providing me with a copy of this game. This is a momentous occassion as this is my first review copy of a game I have ever gotten. Thank you so much for giving me the opprotunity to play and review such a great shoot-em-up and I look forward to whatever projects you have in store for the future!)
I'm not one who usually has indie games on my radar. Most of the time they just kinda slip by, skipped over in favor for higher-end, polished, AAA titles. Recently, however, indie developers have been able to raise money for higher production values through Kickstarter, and some dedicated people with creative minds are at the helms of these fundraisers. Among games like FLT: Faster Than Light and A Hat In Time, one particular game that caught my attention through Kickstarter was one called Power Up.
At first glance, Power Up seems to be a classic bullet hell game, and, at its core, it is. You're the last remaining human fighting the alien resistance, and while humanity may be completely and utterly screwed, you're not going down without a fight. You board a spaceship called "Weapon-F" and take off into space to take down whatever stands in your way. In accordance to the bullet hell genre, Weapon-F is somewhat of a glass cannon; one hit and it goes down in smoke. You have extra lives, but as far as I know, there's no way to regain lives. The "cannon" part of that phrase is shown off in Weapon-F's wide array of weaponry, and here's where the game gets its title.
Weapon-F is equipped with five different types of weapons: a standard front-shooting laser, a spreadshot, a "Backshot" (which shoots behind the ship), a "Sideshot" (which shoots above and below the ship), and a rapid-fire plasma cannon; using the Left and Right Bumbers (or X), you can cycle through any of the five weapons at will. All these weapons have their own unique benifits, but they start off a little weak. However, you can power up your weapons (see the wordplay?) by picking up spheres with a P on them that are randomly-generated within a level. Each weapon has multiple power stages, and whichever weapon is active at the time is the one that gets the power boost. Each stage raises stuff like firing speed, range, strength, and so on. This adds an almost RPG-esque quality to the game, allowing you to upgrade Weapon-F to your playstyle; whether you prefer clearing multiple enemy fighters at once with the Spreadshot or evading and clearing the space around you with the Sideshot, you can adapt to your own needs. Other upgrades also increase the ship's movement speed and force field charge, and massive screen-clearing Blast Bombs can be aquired and used when you're in a pinch or to annihilate a boss.
Power Up is very visually impressive. Normally I'd say there's too much going on on-screen, but in this case, it works exceptionally well. It adds to the tension of the bullet hell gameplay and keeps you on your toes. Every environment is unique, vibrant, and colorful, and every enemy you see has some great art direction behind it. There's even visual polish that I don't normally come across in low-budget games, and it's quite impressive. Speaking of impressive, the soundtrack is a mix of atmospheric techno tracks, tacking on more tension and just making you want to tap your foot along to the beat.
There are five levels (or "chapters") in Power Up, each taking the story further and being set in different locations throughout the galaxy. This sounds short and easy on paper, but as lives aren't replenishable and the difficulty rises all the way through, it almost takes on the vibe of a classic NES or SNES game; it's hard, sure, but it's the kind of hard where you want to keep pressing on and eventually beat the game just so you can brag to your friends about how you made the game your bitch. It's a fantastic experience, and the weapon customization, four difficulty levels, and unlockable paint jobs for Weapon-F (made available through total playtime or game completion) make for a game that you'll want to continue playing, even if there are only five chapters. Power Up does all it can to keep you involved and wanting to keep playing, and it does it very well.
Alongside all these things, there's one last factor that impressed me the most about Power Up, and it's this: the creator, Psychotic Psoftware, is one person. The founder and sole employee of Psypsoft, Mike Hanson, set out to raise the money and get the programs to use his incredible talents to make something for everyone to enjoy, and that to me is enough to warrant anyone's attention. The fact that this game was made by a one-man team makes me enjoy it that much more, and I recommend that anyone else even remotely interested in this little gem try it out.
Power Up is currently available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade Marketplace for $1, and a PC version is slated for a late December 2013 release. It doesn't stop there, though - Mike has stated that Power Up will eventually reach iOS, Android, and OUYA platforms sometime in 2014.
(I'd like to write a quick thank you to Mike for providing me with a copy of this game. This is a momentous occassion as this is my first review copy of a game I have ever gotten. Thank you so much for giving me the opprotunity to play and review such a great shoot-em-up and I look forward to whatever projects you have in store for the future!)
GameplayI apologize for the poor quality of this video. This is entirely the fault of my capture card and does not reflect the game's visual quality on a television screen. | Links |
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