Super Galaxy Squadron Review (PC)

Vertical shooters, bullet hell, and shoot'em up games were all the rage back in the 1990s, giving fighting titles a run for their money in actual arcades. However, in recent years they've become quite rare, with only a few developers opting to take a risk and invest in such experiences.

Psyche Studios, however, decided to bite the virtual bullet and bring forth Super Galaxy Squadron, which promises to blend together all the different genres and deliver an old-school experience that can delight both veterans and newcomers.

Does Super Galaxy Squadron manage to pull off its experiment or should it be shot to its bullet hell? Let's find out.

Story

Even if Psyche Studios could have easily skipped the plot, especially since other games in the genre didn't exactly excel in terms of their story, it still includes a tiny bit of narrative. The action takes place in a future in which an alien race called the Ceti makes contact with Earth.

While at first relations between humanity and the aliens were good, things quickly turned sour as extremists on both sides started causing wide-scale conflicts. The plot is relayed through sequences between the six stages of the story mode and are pretty interesting, although they don't really have time to shine.

Even so, they at least provide a bit of background and maybe even set things up for a more fleshed-out universe for Super Galaxy Squadron.

Battle powerful enemies in Super Galaxy Squadron

Gameplay

While Psyche Studios emphasizes the shoot'em up nature of the game, it quickly turns into a bullet hell experience in which you try to dodge virtual projectiles while aiming to take out as many enemies on the screen as possible.

There are a whopping 14 different ships available to test out, each with different stats and Hyper abilities. Of course, some are better than others, but in case you feel burned out, you can easily swap your ship and give yourself a bigger challenge.

In terms of actual gameplay, you can choose between the six-stage campaign and the Endless mode. Each of the campaign's chapters ends with a dramatic boss fight, and the difficulty ramps up at a steady pace. The endless mode is also quite fun and acts, more or less, as a test drive for new ships, where you can see how their power increases and how their Hyper abilities work.

Enemy design is quite varied, but besides shooting, they don't usually have varied behavior patterns, as only some try to move around and present a bigger challenge. Boss ships in particular are rather passive, opting just to fire in repetitive patterns and soak up bullets. Their health bars are a bit too big for comfort and you'll often get bored while you try to whittle them down until they explode.

Bullets are crucial in the game but they sometimes don't stand out that much in the actual level, especially since each ship comes with a different color for its projectiles. Some stages also transform the asteroids into projectiles and it's very tough to notice them against the background.

You can play the game in normal or hardcore mode, depending on your skills and desire for punishment. Enemies drop different upgrades periodically, which improve your main weapon, add new projectiles that can be fired, or replenish health. They also constantly drop credits, so to say, which fuel your Hyper meter, allowing you to fire it off more often.

However, if you get hit several times, you lose some of those upgrades, which start flying through the level. Depending on your luck, they may float to the side, and you can easily recover them, or they can float right into a pack of enemies, which more or less means that you'll lose them. This back and forth sometimes feels more punishing than losing health does, so try to not get hit as much as possible.

The controls are pretty tight, as you can use both a controller and the keyboard to fly your ship around the battlefield. Of course, a gamepad is the preferred choice as the analog stick provides easier movement options.

Dodge attacks in Super Galaxy Squadron

Visuals and sound

Super Galaxy Squadron uses retro-styled pixelated graphics and it pulls them off rather well, managing to feature bright colors, pretty rich visual effects, and a solid 60fps framerate no matter how hectic the action on the screen becomes. As mentioned above, it becomes a bit tough to notice bullets or asteroids in some situations, so the game does become a bit unfair.

The soundtrack, as well as the audio effects, is really good, evoking classic chiptune music that accompanied similar games many years ago.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion

Super Galaxy Squadron is a solid shoot'em up/bullet hell hybrid that manages to feel welcoming to newcomers but also challenging to veterans. The variety of ships, the great endless mode, and the interesting story campaign make its downsides fade away. What's more, all the proceeds go to the Child's Play charity, so you'll also do a good deed by buying it.

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