Astro Aqua Kitty (XB1 - X|S - PS4 - Switch) UPDATED

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Astro Aqua Kitty (XB1 - X|S - PS4 - Switch) UPDATED

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

This one is a surprise, Tikipod is back, and that means a new Aqua Kitty title to review
I'm talking Astro Aqua Kitty.



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Maple Town: Space Adventures

The first thing to do in your new mission across the galaxy is to select a Pilot and an Engineer. All pilots are basically "All-Rounders" since they have balanced status but they concentrate a little on a specific one while leaving the rest in 100% or 90%. The same could be said on the Engineers. This gives some room for experimentation on team combinations without complexities for those who are new on videogames, but if you ask me, the best choices for beginners are the Heavy-Gadget Engineer and Scout-Gadget Engineer team ups.
You can select your starting difficulty and even the option of enabling Permadeath if you're looking for a real big dose of videogame pain. Difficulty doesn't affect achievement/trophy progression, so you can select Easy or Normal or ask for toughness with the Expert-Permadeath combination.



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And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket cat, A rocket cat.


If you've played Aqua Kitty, you'll immediately notice a twist on the game's lore and plotline as it ditches the kid-friendly "Milk reservoir mining" premise and brings the game to space as the kittens are now looking for water in the far away reaches of the universe, starting with the Asteroid Belt.



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Welcome to "No Cat's Sky".

The new space-water mining operation will take place in large asteroids fill with water, and guess know who will send? Not Curly Stamper and Bobtail Rockmew as if this was a Meowchael Bay film. Your selected submarine crew are the chosen individuals for this mission, and you are under control of the submarine.



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The Underwater exploration-shoot out in Space.

Time to finally talk about the gameplay. Unlike the original Aqua Kitty, the game is no longer that Defender clone where you had to protect the milk mining machines and the kittens operating them, Astro Aqua Kitty changes that in favor of a Super Metroid-like exploration based adventure, and it really takes notes from that game in terms of exploration. With a considerable total of 8 stages, it will take you a game session or two to find out everything on each stage. Basically, the game itself is exploring an entire underwater world rather than segmented stages comprising each world. As you leave the starting point, you'll find Supply Beacons where you can save your data and buy weapons and upgrades. But what's more important is to level up and rack up credits by picking gems, and the second thing is not just limited to simply getting them from killed enemies. You start the game with two weapon types which can be later replaced with newer or stronger ones, from lasers to Round Vulcan-like weapons which require some mastering since their firing requires you to move back to aim like the Dual Cannon. Keep in mind that some of the weapons can also utilize an "Overheat" like gauge and can drain faster than the weapon energy bar, nodding Contra Rogue Corps' infamous issue. One last advice; like in any other Metroid/Metroidvania/Shmuptroid out there, if you die once, its Game Over and you'll have to start from the last Supply Beacon you've used to save your game. Relying on these will be a very necessary part of the game since they are also the Health/Weapon Energy recharging station and there will be times where you'll have to leave the enemy-infested sector for a fast recovery since the game pulls the infamous Turridamage issue that plagues most indie shmups. I can understand continous, non-stop damage in Metroid and its clones like the lava/acid damage and the overheated rooms exposure in Super Metroid (cold rooms in Metroid Fusion) and Alucard's underwater damage in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night when you don't have the Holy Symbol (Snorkel) equipped, there should be damage tolerance when you take one hit, in the previous two games that I've mentioned before, if you get hit by a monster or projectile, you'll lose some HP, but you'll blink with invincibility for a few seconds, something that Tikipod didn't put in practice in Astro Aqua Kitty.



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Graphic description of "Leave no stone unturned".

One of the basis of an exploration-themed game is that you can find secrets hidden in specific places. Just like the block-hidden items in the Metroid series, Astro Aqua Kitty does something similar with the crammed boulders which can be destroyed and you can get even more gems for the sake of item grinding. Grinding is an essential factor in this game. Not just for money, but also for leveling up. You can kill enemies in order to get experience points to level up your ship and increase its default status, and sometimes to pick items they drop like weapons. However, the experience given will decrease as you level up, for instance, in Stage 01 you can level up to level 4, because the "popcorn" enemies will no longer give you experience points after reaching level 4, and in level 3 they will drop 1 experience point. It kinda reminds me of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which had a similar problem as Alucard leveled up, the enemies experience given dropped from 300 to 1. However, while the enemies no longer give you experience, they will still drop gems, so you might consider some money grinding before advancing to the next level. For an RPG element, the game's maximum level is of 24, which you'll be reaching in time for the final stage.

There's also treasure boxes where you can get weapons too. The only complaint about them is that they take too much hits (16 with the Plasma Gun to be exact) to open which is absurd for a loot box.



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Mission Objective: "Do me a favor"

There's plenty of activities to do before reaching the boss at the end of the stage. From the basic "Please eliminate the crabs in the construction hangar", picking batteries to open the door and finding a mechanic to fix and open a gate to more complex objectives like retrieving materials and find missing kittens. All of them become the top priority in order to open doors and make your way to the stage boss just like in Metroid Fusion, so there's no "Sequence Breaking" to get things earlier.
In some of the assigned tasks you'll get support from the kittens like backup fire, but if they take too much hits they won't die, instead they'll be paralyzed for a while before resuming their backup duties. Speaking of backup, there's tasks where you'll have to move along with a vehicle as you work as the power battery for it (example, the drill in Stage 1) and if you move away, the vehicle will stop.



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Water filled rocks are guarded by evil threats.

Once the objectives are done, its time to face the boss, and they take the concept of using large rooms since they're no longer the traditional hit the weakpoints infront of you. Sometimes you'll need to turn left or right, find the "back switch" to expose their core and predict their paths, adding much more challenge to the game without being difficult at the same time.



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Welcome to TikiShop™: The 1# Stop for Submariners.
Buy 5 upgrades and get a free pin-up poster of Meowgaret Cattail.


No RPG-packed game is complete without the Shops. In Astro Aqua Kitty, you can buy weapons and upgrade your ship's stats of Health, Armor and Energy. You can upgrade these three each time you level up. But keep in mind, the price will gradually increase on each level. While you can consider to find those same weapons and upgrades for free by destroying enemies and opening loot boxes, they might feature different additional effects than the ones in stores. Also, there's a "Recycle" option that turns an unwanted item into gems, working as the item/weapon sell function. Unlike the upgrading, you can recycle weapons anytime without needing to dock with a Beacon.

In case you're wondering how much it will increase the price per-level, here it is the complete price chart.

100 > 140 > 190 > 260 > 350 > 490 > 670 > 920 > 1300 > 1700 > 2400 > 3300 > 4500 > 6100 > 8400 > 12000 > 16000 > 22000 > 30000 > 41000 > 56000 > 77000 > 110000
That's a total of 394,820 gems. Multiply that x3 gives you a total of 1,184,460 gems to be spent for max that up. The number, while it looks way too much, you'll be racking that up with the Gem Boost Drop skill of the Engineer and the Gem Cutter item that increases their value.

Now, let's talk about the weapons. While in most RPG's the weapon's default strength and armor's resistance increases with the player's status as he/she levels up, in Astro Aqua Kitty, you have to buy a "Leveled Up" version of the weapon and even armor you've got equipped. Also, there's identical weapons of the same level so you have to decide which Level 5 weapon is more convenient for you to equip and keep. For instance, a Plasma Gun that adds more critical damage or one that gives you fast repair and more weapon energy.



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There is no knowledge that is not power.

Leveling up also grants you a Skill Point, which allows you to unlock a special skill for your Pilot and Engineer. While the game gives you a total of 10 points, you can only equip 4 of them. Skills can be used to unleash offensive powers, or activate bonus effects like increasing the drop rate of gems from destroyed rocks and enemies or generate a hologram that acts as a decoy diverting enemy fire.



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The Maridia-Brinstar intersection most be on the north.
No, that's the Maridia-Crateria exit.


An essential feature for Super Metroid-like games like this one, navigation is more easier with the ever-trusty map. You can also check in the upper right screen a portion of it precisely like in Super Metroid, but indicating nearby objectives that have to be fulfilled before proceeding to the boss.



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AI must be playing the "False Code in a sarcastic comment" trick.

One of the missions involves code breaking, and to make things kinda-complicated the computer says "The code is not" with sarcasm. To figure out the code you need to do something simple: Reverse the order of X's and O's, that means if the password is XOO-OXO-XOO, the solution is OXX-XOX-OXX



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Codebreaking troughout the engine flames.

The next step is to find the Tic-Tac-Toe computer, turn off the engines and input all the digits possible before the engines re-activate.
If the engines re-activate, just press the engine button and continue typing the rest of the code. Once you put the correct code, it will display blue squares confirming it.



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Rewards for everyone!

Once the code is solved, it's time to pick the rewards which are strong weapons for free.
By the way, there will be another instance of password breaking, but this time will be without sarcasm or involving the reverse the code trick as the code is given by a trapped cat.



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Busted?! No way! I've could sworn I disengaged security.

Another turn of events is the use of "Door Hacking" involving picking a card and stay close to the gate while dodging enemy fire. Fortunately, the gauge stops when you leave your position and resumes where you left off, making the whole thing much easier. Having the Decoy skill helps if you want to hack the gate quicker with the guns firing to the false holographic submarine.



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Today, the Kittens had initiated "Operation Spheromancer" with the objective to enter the caves.

The puzzle part from the game makes a turn from code-breaking to pulling a CrossCode-styled puzzle as you have to guide an energy ball to reach its destination and making sure it doesn't hit an enemy or the rising pillars that will try to stop it.



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Sometimes we need some unusual metods to pass through those obstacles.

As the mission progresses you'll be facing unexpected obstacles like "Murder-beams" that will result on instand death. To pass through them you'll need to use those player-following blocks and use them to cut through the beams. You'll be relying this on the Ruin stage.

While most of the game, full exploration is taked for granted, it will make a twist on the stage Cataclysm where you have to decide if you go up or down. Regardless of which route you take, you'll be facing multiple bosses there. My only complaint along with the Turridamage, is the final task in the Cataclysm stage, where in a mistake no one should ever repeat again, the Warp Gate to the final stage is confined in a giant puzzle that has to be aligned correctly. ¿Is the giant puzzle in Cataclysm giving you trouble?, Here's a guide that will definitely help you up.



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Time for a small adventure in a new asteroid.

UPDATE Oct 24th - 2021: The game now includes a second mode called Arcade Mode, which is a single level which you can play on any of the three selectable difficulties and with two objectives: Clear the stage, Save all the Kitties and an optional objective; Clear the level without being hit.


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In The Hunt fans will love this one.

Arcade Mode, like its name says, it ditches the Metroid elements in favor of a more linear, arcade structured gameplay, making it more similar to In The Hunt. One of the main aspects is the removal of the Level Up system and that you can pick a secondary weapon while having the regular shot as your standard weapon rather than the "Pick and equip" of the original game. Picking all the kitties will require some level memorization of both the stage layout and the enemy placements because there's some unfair moments where you can take a cheap hit from an enemy collision or a laser turret. Difficulty levels increases the enemies rate of fire and reduces the total starting hit points for your ship. Normal grants you 5, Hard 4 and Extreme 3. Also, they activate more thruster stage hazards based on the difficulty selected, even on the first boss battle, reducing your navigation space. If you're new on this game, it's better to pick and stay on the Normal difficulty, because you're not gonna get achievements or medals for clearing all the three levels.

Also, it's only one single stage, so there's not too much of an "Arcade Mode" and more of an "Addendum" or expansion of the original game. But there's hope that Tikipod could add another stage through updating.



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Fighting Belsar-like enemies within the asteroids.

Graphically, it ditches the Amiga-like graphics and makes a turn into illustrated graphics that feel sharp like an animated cartoon, but still retaining the Amiga-like colors and shades of the previous game. This whole game plays and feels like an experiment of where the game could go and it does that perfectly well, as it manages to show much more details that pixel art can't do like the lighting effects on the weapons or the toxic clouds of enemy attacks.



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He's from A.K.A.B. (All Kittens Are Bastards)

If the gameplay and the graphics are a testimony of Tikipod testing the bounds of where Aqua Kitty could go, so does the characters, as we have a cast of more anthropomorphic animals, just take a look at your team, there's a duck, a dog, a lizard (I guess) and a rabbit. The enemy is a faction of rabbits, and there's even new mechanical sea creatures that join the cast of robotic fishes of the previous game, and they still retain the Darius reminiscence as they look like extra characters.



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Kittens have discovered warfare purposes for Proton weaponry

There's the usual reminiscence-borrowed things from other franchises or pop culture, and trust me, this rips off more things than Rangok Skies. The Laser weapon which looks like a linear version of the Proton beam stream from Ghostbusters, mostly the Ghostbusters II version, up to the same blue lightning running in spiral around the main beam.



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Anti-Bydo weaponry. 8 of 10 Kittens are using it.

Another pop culture borrowed thing is the Helix Gun which is very similar to the R-9's Air-to-Air Laser from R-Type.



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Pulstar, Rezon and now Astro Aqua Kitty joins the list of R-Type rip-offs.

More R-Type ripoffs. The circular cannon-carrousel is very similar to the one from the first stage of R-Type, there's even a panel background which nods that too.



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Can we win to beings who act on a scale like this? These are beings who control planets.

Now it plagiarizes Raiden V as we have this red crystal which has super-powers, and there's a reference to "Crystal Contamination" in the stage Cataclysm as the bosses in that stage are "infected".



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Destroy the Core.

Ghostbusters, R-Type, Raiden, and now Gradius as the stage Cataclysm has a boss that utilizes the Big Core logic of breaking the defenses in front of the core.



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The final boss and the final rip-off.

To end these nods to other shmups, the final boss pulls the "Fire the laser and rotate" trick of Big Core Rev.2 from Gradius V.

The music was also improved, as it changes its Tim/Geoff Follin, Commodore Amiga-influenced synthesized music in favor of a more Chris Hulsbeck influenced soundtrack that sometimes it feels like the soundtrack of a Turrican game, despite there's hints and nods to Tangerine Dream (the Underwater Sunlight album to be exact) and David Lanz & Paul Speer's New Age-Alternative feeling. The boss battle in Stage 4 changes the style in favor of a 90's break-dance style which feels catchy and worth to listen for a while by pausing the game.


ASTRO AQUA CURIOSITIES
- The game writes Armor as "Armour" and Defense as "Defence" using the UK grammar.
- Apparently, the events of the series take place in a very alternate universe, since the Asteroid Belt is located between the orbits of Earth and Mars rather than Mars and Jupiter like in our Solar System.
- There's a few milk-mining machines in the first stage as a reference to the previous game.
- The name Sargasso comes from the Sargassum, a species of planktonic macroalgae distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, mostly found in the Sargasso Sea.
- The third stage name "Hydrothermal" comes from the term used with things involved with hot water, like the formation of minerals by hot solutions rising from a cooling magma.
- For a volcanic stage, there's a flaw on Hydrothermal as it features hydrothermal vents which are geologically impossible for an asteroid as they lack of magma and tectonic activity on their interior.
- Apparently, the Kittens and Rabbits have racism problems, since calling a rabbit "He looks like a carrot" is like the in-universe equivalent of racial slur.
- The achievement name "Bladerunner" nods the movie Blade Runner.
- "Toasty" nods Dan Forden's quote originated from Mortal Kombat II.




While the game has some interesting ideas and blends some non-shmup elements pretty well and makes navigation and exploration fun and time consuming at the same time, the Turridamage problem just makes things unfair for the beginners. If tough difficulty is your idea of fun or if you like Shmuptroids and Metroid clones, then pick Astro Aqua Kitty, despite the flaw, the game is still good enough to give it a try.


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Lea is happy with this game. I'm sure you'll like it too.
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