Sky Racket

Flawless combination of shmup action with original brick breaking mechanics, vivid colours, crazy bosses and great soundtrack making it fresh addition to the genre, even better in local co-op! #casual For more quick reviews please [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6972871]follow my curator[/url].

Let me paint you a picture. It is fall of 1994 and I am 14. I just got home from school, it's already getting kind of dark, and there's a cardboard box containing a brand new Sega Genesis game waiting on the porch. I'm from a small town, there isn't really a great place to buy games so I usually order new releases, when I can afford them, by mail order, like from the guys in the back of EGM or Gamefan.. it's kind of expensive, but I hadn't figured out I could order games online yet (heck, I didn't have internet at home then anyway). I pop in that game and have a Formative Experience--the kind of game that shapes me as a gamer and sticks with me for the rest of my life, the same way pop music from your teen years sticks with you and you never quite get over it. There are retro-inspired indie games, and then there are much rarer retro-inspired indie games that channel that kind of feeling, and this one is the latter. The feel of this game is spot on, I can absolutely tell it was made by people who truly love games of that era. And it's not like anything I've ever played before, either! Despite being a kind of new experience, it throws new mechanics at you at a surprising rate (still in a forgiving way), despite being a "throwback" there's a huge sense of freshness, like a fresh of breath air for us older gamers. I really, really recommend giving it a go. (And hey, there's a demo!)

Firstly, I must say that this game took me by surprise! At first glance, the game seemed to me your usual retro indie game with simple and basic gameplay features. While it's true that the gameplay is rather simple, it's still so very addictive! The more I played the more I was hooked. The levels of this game are well thought/designed and always makes you yearn for more. Each new level has somehow new gimmicks or enemies and the extra challenges you can do in each level (like completing a level without getting hit, do a certain number of combos or special challenges like evade the spores of a certain enemy, etc) is a joy to complete. Bosses are also very entertaining to beat, with each one having hilarious names and presentations. The difficulty level of this game is very easy if you just want to beat the game without completing the challenges. However, if you do want to 100% the game, it becomes rather difficult to the point of being hardcore. You will have to put extra effort and really learn the layouts of the levels or enemies patterns. As I said earlier, the gameplay while simple, is rather original if you think about it. How many games have you seen that puts you in a position where you play tennis in a bullet hell game genre while also breaking blocks along the way? Also, I think this simplicity works really well with the overall game. You can hit balls, roll to speed up you character for dodging and use different pets (buddies) abilities that you encounter throughout the world. Some couple of issues I would like to see solved are: The fact that you can't turn around and hit eneimies/objects from behind as well as the fact that as soon as you touch a pet laying around on screen, he will instantly join you so if you have already another pet more suitable to that specific level you can say bye-bye to him. You can, however, hit them while they are inside the bubble and they will change into another pet until it turns equal to yours, which will give you a full grown pet with an upgraded abillity or extra points but doing this sometimes is near impossible because there is just to much going on on screen and most likely you will get the wrong pet in the midst of all that chaos. Another negative aspect of the game are the many flashes that occurs throughtout it. This game really makes my eyes tired and now I understand why they have a warning for people with epilepsy. The Devs team sould not have put such bright colors or flashes in the game. You can play local co-op with a friend which is so much fun! The big "no-no" is that there isn't a multiplayer feature so you have to rely on softwares like parsec or the steam remote play to play with a friend that lives far away from you. That isn't really a solution since you will experience a lot of lag (like I did when I played with my friend.) It came to a point when I had to give up playing with my friend, in level 3-1, because the lag was just too unbearable. I think the developers should add this feature in the future if possible. The game looks like a retro game taken from those old machines you could play in coffee shops by putting a coin in, from the 80s-90s. Even the intro has a Japanese girl (I think) saying the name of the developers studio (Double Dash) with that funny accent that makes me delve even more into that era of those arcade machines and Japanese culture. Aside from that, this retro style is mixed well with the cartoonish characters and enemies found in the game. The soundtrack is good, having upbeat tunes throughout the game. Story wise, there's not much to say, at least at first glance! After beating the game I realised how much content is hidden in the Level's background! Level 2-2 is a perfect example of that, with engravings telling the story of it's world. Later in the game you will come to realise something odd is going on and if you search carefully some strange and even bizarre easter eggs might pop up! It's amazing how much story details DD studios have put inside the game. Many mysteries are laying around right in front of you and you may not even realised it! Like a puzzle, you must pay attention and try to figure out what is really going on here, even right at the begining you will see DD studio's logo being glitched which is just one of many clues. I have to thank Double Dash Studios and my friend @Tiago Rocha for receiving this game for free. Thank you very much! It's been really fun! All in all, it's a great, funny and entertaining game to play, especially with a friend! Completing all the challenges is a joy and very addictive! If you like retro gaming give this one a try, you will not be disappointed! PS: I've been making a guide with a friend on how to beat those challenges, please check it out if you need some help beating them! Thanks! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1907454302