New stg ,"Operius DX," out on Steam and Switch.....

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Was browsing on the USA region Nintendo Switch eShop portal and came across a new Switch digital game d/l by the name of "Operius DX" from developer, Distant Illusions, which runs at an arcade-spec silky-smooth 60fps framerate with a mere 59.5mb digital d/l. The end-user has the ability to adjust the screen parameters including adding CRT effects, 4:3 aspect ratio screen support (a rarity these days) and even tate in both 90 degree & 270 degree screen orientations as well. It's a mere MSRP of $4.99 usd (or one penny shy of twenty quarters if you will -- which is considered "mere chump change" nowadays).

On a whim, checked to see if Operius DX was on Steam and it is with the same listed MSRP of $4.99 usd as well as a mere 20.8mb digital d/l. The Steam port of O-DX has several more goodies over it's Switch port counterpart including running in either 30hz or 60hz, up to 4X screen sizing (select 4X for full screen if running O-DX on a Steam Deck setup with it's native 1280 x 800 resolution), the ability to turn on or off "V-Sync," online leaderboard support of your scores & high score initials. Plus both Steam & Switch ports of O-DX are color blind friendly also (as the developer has taken that particular issue into serious consideration). Both Steam & Switch ports of O-DX support vibrational haptic effects if implemented from the "get-go." Scanline effects have already been added to the overall screen presentation on both the main title screen & during actual gameplay -- so no worries in that particular department.

The gameplay of O-DX has that "old-school" Atari's Tempest or PSX import title of iS: internal section (from publisher Squaresoft & developer Positron) highly stylish vibe to it. Go through five colored rings while shooting at wire-frame based enemies + battle it out with some certain "end-stage" bosses to advance to the next stage type of gameplay with it's "old-school" low-res wire-frame aesthetic vibe/flair going through out the entire game itself. Since you have only one life, it's best to to strive to get as far as possible on just that one life type of deal -- which lends to that perfect "just one more try/attempt" just to see what's coming up just around the corner deal/situation. Operius DX is quite a cool and new stg worthy of your time indeed!

The developer, Distant Illusions, wanted to go the "self publishing route" with both it's Steam & Switch ports of O-DX but ran into unforeseen obstacles along the way including in dealing with Nintendo's slow way of getting "indie games" approved, listed & finally released on it's Switch eShop portal (which isn't exactly a smooth process these days) and not to mention issues with Valve/Steam as well. It's a learning process "through and through" for sure.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~