A SHORT (ASTEROID) BREAK TIME
Part II of this Xitilon "Double Feature". This time is Space Scavengers.
Things are gonna get better or we'll be facing more trash?, Time to figure that out.
It's the classic vintage Asteroids gameplay with a twist.
Despite its "explore and recollect" implying title, Space Scavengers (not to be confused with Space Scavenger) is actually a clone of Atari's Asteroids, but without the vector graphics that made it unique. One of the main aspects of the game are the controls. You can accelerate forward and backwards with the L2 and R2 buttons but you can also throttle with the left analog stick and D-Pad, but it is not recommended to do that since makes the ship uncontrollable as you try to move and end up going diagonally or moving in circles. Having a reverse speed helps when you don't want to turn and accelerate like you did in Asteroids, making this a simple, but wise move that enhances the controls of a basic game. Also, you can "warp" by going up and reappearing on the bottom of the screen. But the fun part of the game is that you are given a vast weapon array and you can switch them on the fly in order to adapt your asteroid destruction strategy. From the basic regular machine gun to rapid lasers, fireballs, spread lasers and missiles to screen clearing pulses are some of the weapons at your disposal and you'll surely be using all not just for the sake of experimenting but also to eliminate all the rocks quickly. While Asteroids only gave you 3 lives, you have 3 lives and a life bar, giving newcomers more "room for error" since they might need some time to get used to the controls.
Buy 'em up.
To obtain the weapons and improvements you have to buy them in the store. This time, the prices are balanced despite the price increase on each upgrade, so this means you can buy 1 or 2 upgrades on the next stage removing the need of grinding. As asteroids are broken apart by your weaponry, the fragments also count as money. Although you have to destroy a few ones to clear the stage, you are given the option of clearing the screen for the sake of getting more money.
Final Boss: The Toxic Asteroid.
While the 9 stages of the game are the arena-based Asteroids clone, stage 10 is the boss fight, the only boss of the whole game which takes a good amount of hits before going down. Right after that the game will end with fireworks in space. Simple and cliché, but more rewarding than the majority of the trash shooters you can find.
Like all the indie and shovelware shmups that plague our PlayStation nowadays, it has its ration of trophies and the Platinum for those who are looking for a short-yet-fun trophy hunt.
Graphically, it looks much better than SoulFrost as we have sprites in 16-bit like colors. Despite looking "Home made" they're quite vintage enough for the arcade atmosphere this game tries to recreate, it also uses sprite rotation for the asteroids, while is not on the same level as Assault, it is nice to see how Xitilion makes an effort with the pixel art and definitely looks way better than the horrendous Alienzix. The music on the other side is a quite repetitive, but catchy electronic beat that loops but at least fulfills its purpose of providing music to this short game.
Short, but entertaining for a while.
For a Xitilon shmup, this might be a short game, but at least is fun enough to play while waiting for the fast food to arrive home and manages to recreate the fun elements of Atari's classic Asteroids with some modern features and vintage-like graphics.
My conclusion: If you're up for a quick trophy boost, go ahead, pick it and have fun with the game.
Xitilon finally gets a good result.