Nova Drift

I've been playing video games for over 45 years and Nova Drift is darn close to what I consider to be a perfect game. Brilliantly balanced, well paced, and lovingly crafted, every time I see or play another roguelike arena shooter I usually think "that's cool but I'd rather just play Nova Drift again" and I do, then I get sucked into another two, or five, or ten runs. It is a must have, must own game that I have gifted to several people and I regularly point to it as a masterpiece of the genre and a masterclass in design decisions.

[b]In brief:[/b] it’s ancient Asteroids + a genuinely good buildcrafting roguelite with interesting upgrade interactions + the visuals of some Kenta Cho-style score-attack games. You can turn your shield into a weapon, mount it onto a blade drone, and then throw that drone at an asteroid as a weapon-shield-drone-blade, and what else do you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ want?! I think this is the most fun I’ve had with a game in about a year. [b]A couple of criticisms:[/b] The early difficulty levels are a teensy bit too easy. I suspect some players may bounce off before they unlock enough mutators for the game to really show its teeth. The UI also exposes some upgrades before the metaprogression system actually unlocks them or explains how to do so. This confused me during my early runs: “Why am I not getting this super upgrade? Is it bugged?” Nope. It just wasn’t unlocked yet.

played this game since it came out. i come back to it every couple months play it all day and love it everytime