ASTROLANCER (Steam) - out now

[FunktionJCB]

For fans of 8-bit era games, ASTROLANCER, a game clearly inspired by The Guardian Legend for the NES, is out now on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2842600/ASTROLANCER/

While not a pure shmup (it appears to alternate between shmup sections and top-down shooter sections), the game looks cool enough to post about it.

Here's the trailer (which showcases the various gameplay sections and catchy soundtrack):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S82Hltk9vC4

And a few screenshots:

[FunktionJCB]

Bumping this, since the 20% launch discount ends in an hour or so, in case anyone is interested.

For those who enjoy the genre, and 8-bit style games, this one is well worth checking out, at the small asking price.
I enjoyed what I played of it, and it's currently sitting at 44 positive reviews (in 44, so 100%) on Steam.

I recommend checking the trailer (which I linked above), to get an idea of how solid the presentation and gameplay is.

[-Fish-]

I've played through on normal and advanced difficulties. Though I had fun it was a bit long winded in length IMO. My real nitpick though was the games modern casualization in regards to the checkpoint system. I believe the dev said he may rectify that with an ironman mode possibly in the future.

For $5 usd it's still worth it. Fans of TGL will definitely find enjoyment.

[Vanguard]

Picked this up last night. Pretty good overall. I don't mind that it isn't a 1CC game where defeat means you restart. The Guardian Legend wasn't really made for that either and there are of course plenty of STGs that do play that way. For better and for worse, this is a more linear, more conservatively balanced take on TGL's ideas. This makes Astrolancer quite a lot better than TGL as a pure test of skill, but it's also less memorable for it. The highest difficulty is a big step up in challenge, not on the level one would expect out of an arcade 1CC but it is much harder than TGL. I agree with Fish that the walking stages go on a bit too long, especially since 90% of the difficulty comes from the shmup segments.

The dev played things really safe with the weapon and upgrade systems and imo that was a mistake. Part of the fun of TGL is that the balancing is really wild. In that game, finding new upgrades is often a huge deal and getting something new to play with is exciting in part because how recklessly Compile balanced their games. If you searched thoroughly and used the best weapons available you were far more powerful than you otherwise would be. The RPG-like aspects are a big part of what makes TGL work. In Astrolancer if you go all in on maxing out the attack power perk which will probably take most of the ECs in the game to do, you get like +25% to damage. Certainly this makes the game easier to balance but it also feels like the upgrades and secrets are barely relevant.

This post is mostly negative but I do think this is a solid game, and it's great to see The Guardian Legend formula revisited after basically nothing like it coming out in more than 35 years. It's easily worth the $6 they ask for it.

B+