Galacticon

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Stevens
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Galacticon

Post by Stevens »

This came out of nowhere and needs to be played.

Cross between Defender, Joust, and maybe a few others I'm missing.

You play as the Galacticon. You can move left, right, up, and down. You can also shoot. Duh!

In each stage there are three transporters that can hold four survivors each. Your goal is to fill each transport, and escape to your ship. The survivors come in three colors - red, blue, and grey. The more survivors you drop at a time the more points you get. This is increased if the survivors are the same color. Drop four of the same for a huge bonus.

The trick is red and blue are enemies and grey is neutral. Grey will join the majority. If you have a grey, 2 blues and a red the blues will kill the red. No bonus. You can drop two red and two blue and they will play nice and you get points. You are made aware of the next color to appear to help you plan.

After you fill the three transports you have to escape the planet and make your way back to your ship. You have to make your way through a an end stage obstacle course of sorts. It plays sort of like a bonus stage, but you can die.

I've only made stage four, but it's addicting. If it came out in 1984 it would be compared to the greats.

It's a whopping $3.99 on Steam and so incredibly worth it. A hidden gem indeed.
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sunnshiner
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Re: Galacticon

Post by sunnshiner »

Stevens wrote:Cross between Defender, Joust, and maybe a few others I'm missing...
Looks like it might have a vague whiff of Jetpac about it too which is A Good Thing 8)
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Stevens
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Re: Galacticon

Post by Stevens »

Wasn't familiar with Jetpac, but after watching a short video - yes. 100%.

So I've discovered the game loops after stage eight complete with a boss fight. After eight you start over and naturally the stages are harder. My high is about 780,000.

One other interesting thing - the gameplay actually changes a little whether you're playing in 16:9 or 4:3. I actually prefer the smaller field.
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sunnshiner
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Re: Galacticon

Post by sunnshiner »

Ok, this game is brilliant. I got as far as the level 8 bonus stage and scored a little over 500,000 (16:9).

Why are you still reading? Go and buy this game.
FunktionJCB
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Re: Galacticon

Post by FunktionJCB »

Thanks for posting about it. :wink:

Here's the link for the Steam page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1737980/Galacticon/


I picked it up when it launched a couple of days ago, and I look forward to spend some proper time with it.
I already enjoyed the developer's previous game Eternum EX, and it seems he has made yet another title that provides some great, retro fun.

For a guy like me, who frequently struggles to find time (and sometimes patience :mrgreen:) for extended game sessions, I find it harder and harder to play, say, lengthy RPGs (since when I get back to it, I forget what the hell I was doing), so these arcade-style games, with pick-up-and-play gameplay, are perfect for me.

On that front, it really has been a great month for "arcade" titles on PC/Steam, since a few days ago, I bought another title that I can't recommend enough, Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle + Hell.
It's not a shmup, so I won't delve further OT here, but I posted about it elsewhere on the forums:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=70110

I can't recommend it enough, and it's well worth a look, for those who enjoy the genre.
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Stevens
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Re: Galacticon

Post by Stevens »

Love the difficulty on loop 2. Two enemy types per stage (they all behave a little different) and a third new enemy that really shakes things up.

It gets awesomely hectic.

Also +1 for auto fire. Thanks devs.
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FunktionJCB
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Re: Galacticon

Post by FunktionJCB »

I was watching the (now ended) INDIE Live Expo 2022 - Day 2 stream, and they showed gameplay footage of the game, while announcing the game is now out not only on PC/Steam, but also on the Switch.
So, if any Switch users who don't use PC want to check out the game, it's now available:

https://www.nintendo.com/store/products ... on-switch/
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guigui
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Re: Galacticon

Post by guigui »

Well, just 4€ on the Switch and beloved by shmup buddies, just bought it.
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Stevens
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Re: Galacticon

Post by Stevens »

Also worth noting - the dev is running a contest between now and 12/1

https://radingames.com/index.php/contest-rules/

1st prize is $500.

My current high is good for 9th overall. About 1.38 million.

Currently 5th. Game gets insane by the start of the 4th loop. Need to improve my scoring eariler.
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guigui
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Re: Galacticon

Post by guigui »

Oh well, game is fun for sure. Could not clear loop 1 yet, got to stage 8 and died to boss.

Also having some trouble with the whole gravity stuff control though. Which control method do you find the best ? Any tips for easier control over gravity ?
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
sunnshiner
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Re: Galacticon

Post by sunnshiner »

guigui wrote:Oh well, game is fun for sure. Could not clear loop 1 yet, got to stage 8 and died to boss.

Also having some trouble with the whole gravity stuff control though. Which control method do you find the best ? Any tips for easier control over gravity ?
You can press down on the dpad or stick to move down faster which gives some control but gravity's just part of the game. Stay away from any analog sticks though, this is digital (dpad or stick) all the way.

Has anyone filled all 12 spots with all the same species yet? Is there a massive bonus for doing that?

As for the scoring competition, well, I might get a 'aww, bless, plucky effort' badge but I'm not troubling the high scorers :lol:
sunnshiner
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Re: Galacticon

Post by sunnshiner »

Cleared the first loop, boss was a PITA but I got to level 3 on the second loop. The extra enemies make life much harder! Scored 899,925- good enough for 30th :shock:
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Stevens
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Re: Galacticon

Post by Stevens »

Nice. I was 4th. Currently 8th.
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PC Engine Fan X!
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Re: Galacticon

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

How do you enable 4:3 mode on the Switch port of Galacticon? It'd look ace being played on an old-school low-res arcade cab indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
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it290
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Re: Galacticon

Post by it290 »

Eh, so I gave this game a shake and had a decent amount of fun, but my gosh the difficulty ramp is so slow. I apprecaite the idea of maximizing your score within the first several levels and getting all the secrets and stuff, and that is legitimately fun, but it seems like you have to clear at least 5 or so levels of the main loop before any real challenge starts to happen, which means you're just spending 10-15 minutes doing rote stuff before you actually play the game. My preference would be either go full Defender style and start killing you immediately, or just make it so that any fuckup puts you out of the running in the first 3 minutes. Maybe it's the latter and I just haven't sussed it out yet, but so far this game seems really Euro in its approach to scoring. It's still fun but not something I'd find myself addicted to necessarily.
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