Quickly drop into the action with this magnificently colorful, fast paced, twin stick shooter developed by Petite Games and published by Ratalaika Games. Fans of the twin stick shooter genre and newcomers alike will enjoy this cyberpunk meets Galaga take on wave based combat. This title is a quick completion by achievement hunter/ trophy hunter standpoint, as all can be obtained within an hour, but offers plenty of replayability to the casual gamer.
The true beauty of this game is the art style. As you fire your weapon, the bullet leaves behind a graffiti trail of ink as it flies across the map, causing a vibrant bouquet of colors. This is also the crux to the game as it becomes increasingly hard to distinguish between your character and enemies as well as incoming projectiles that also leave a similar ink trail.
Inksplosion comes with a choice of three modes, Classic mode, Arena mode, and Hard mode. Classic mode is where you will start your experience. In Classic mode the object of the game is to destroy the four enemies in each level while dodging their return fire and also avoiding the floating dotted lines that cause damage to your ship. As you kill enemies, you gain a multiplier that adds points to your score, if you take damage however, you lose the multiplier.
You have a large health bar that takes up the length of the screen that also doubles as your power gauge. Your power is that of slowing time, which can be incredibly useful at dodging incoming projectiles but must be used sparingly as it depletes your health at the same time. The next mode is Arena mode which is very similar to Classic in that you must destroy waves of 4 enemies at a time with a single health bar. This mode is unlocked by earning 100,000 points in Classic mode. The biggest difference in Arena mode is the lack of laser grids. At the beginning of each round, the announcer says the type of weapon you’ll have for the round. Once you’ve reached 100 enemies killed in a round of Arena mode, you will unlock Hard mode. Hard mode is basically the harder version of Classic mode where the dotted laser lines change faster and enemies seem to have better aim.
Verdict
Overall, the game is fun and easy to get into but after an hour of playing, you have done everything there is to do in the game. A lack of local or online multiplayer leaves something to be desired. The three game modes are unoriginal, better phrased, the two modes offered beside Classic are more of the same with not much difference. The biggest redeeming quality about this game is the visuals of the bullet trails that fill up the screen similar to a Jackson Pollock. From an completionist viewpoint, this game is fantastic as everything trophy/achievement can be obtained in less than 30 minutes.
Overall Score 5/10
Developer: Petite Games
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Release Date: 9th May 2018
Price: £3.99
File Size: 306MB
Xbox One Copy provided for review.
Availabale on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation Vita