Zeroptian Invasion (XB1 - PS4 - PS Vita - Switch - PC)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Zeroptian Invasion (XB1 - PS4 - PS Vita - Switch - PC)

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

Oh my god. Another Ratalaika Games SL review just when i was recovering from the atrocity that was FullBlast, this time is Zeroptian Invasion.


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*Insert reference to Iron Maiden's song "Invaders"*

The game only has a single game mode, and that's the main game. If you're familiarized with Space Invaders, then you know what to do: Move from left to right and shoot down all the enemies before they reach the bottom of the screen. Unlike Taito's shooter, you don't get Game Over if you do, instead you'll lose a life.
Like in Super Destronaut DX, you get power ups to help you to survive as long as possible.

SHIELD: Marked as the "[S]" item, it provies you with a spherical force field. Its only problem is that only resists one shot.
POWER UP: The "[P]" icon. It allows you to fire two bullets in a row instead of one, for additional firepower. Good for enemies that need three or four shots to be killed.
SPEED UP: Its icon is "[->]", increases your ship's speed to keep the pace of the Zeroptians.

Like in Space Invaders, you're provided with barriers to protect you from enemy fire. However, they're a double edge sword as they require to be completely destroyed instead of making a hole so your bullets can pass through, reducing drastically the open space available in the game.
The game includes boss battles as a small, yet fun element of challenge. Also, there's stage hazards like falling rocks, which will make the objective of taking all the enemies down more time consuming.

Unfortunately, all goes down with the easiness of picking all the achievements. If in FullBlast it only needed a few stages to get everything, in Zeroptian Invasion only needs 6 minutes of gaming (from Stage 1 to 6 or 7), and that's it. If you ask me, that's a whole new record on Gamerscore milking. I know i should concentrate on the game rather than the Gamerscore thing, but this problem is the beginning of what i call "Game Trash", which means they only make games with the purpose of increase the Gamerscore without caring of the replay value and challenge factor at expense of your money. Buy, play, take all of the achievements possible and forget about the game once you get them. Just learn from games like Thunder Force V Perfect System, Triggerheart Exelica Enhanced and Otomedius Excellent: You can unlock everything and still you will want to play'em again for more due to the gameplay factor rather than the bonus stuff.


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Moongazing action in pure late 70's style.

Graphically, it aims to the very first arcade games, and that means simple pixel shapes and simple colors: White, Black, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Purple. There's a "CRT" option that enables/disables the screen effect and scanlines to make it look arcade-like and the option of playing it in Tate on either left or right.
In terms of enemy design, the game takes a turn from the usual aliens in the later levels as it switches to insects and shells that open and close, and so it does the scenery as it changes from the moon in the background to cavern walls and spider webs.

The music is quite Gameboy-ish in my opinion, not to mention is quite reminiscent of early Nintendo's in-house games; the "Warning" screen music at the beginning of the game sounds like something out of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening rather than a shmup, while the rest resembles the NES and Gameboy Megaman games if you ask me.

While Ratalaika made a quite acceptable homage to the early 80's and the Space Invaders era of shooting, once again the challenge factor of the Achievement unlocking goes down the trash 'cos it only takes 5:30 minutes to take all of the achievements, making this a whole new record on general gaming. If you're up to old-school shooting then this is the game for you. Still, doesn't take out the fact that the game is more of a "Play and Forget" Gamerscore Milker rather than a common game. Man, even ACA Neogeo Blazing Star was more demanding than this game.

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I hereby declare Ratalaika Games SL as "Developer Non Grata".
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