Super Galaxy Squadron Review
By: Austin (@callBDole)
- Super Galaxy Squadron
- Developer - Psyche Studios
- Publisher - New Blood Interactive
- PC
Super Galaxy Squadron brands itself as a “fast-paced vertical shooter designed for human beings as well as shmup veterans”. Surprisingly that description is about right the game offers a good deal of challenge and is fairly forgiving if you’re not concerned with playing on hardcore mode.
Super Galaxy Squadron does an admirable job of providing all the necessary elements for a good retro style arcade game. The gameplay itself is standard for the genre, maneuver a fancy spaceship with enough weaponry to annihilate a small planet through increasingly elaborate patterns of bullets, all while collecting upgrades and making things explode into pretty colors.
There are two difficulty levels to pick from normal and hardcore, hardcore being more akin to traditional arcade style shooters that is very unforgiving and normal allowing you to, take quite a few hits, collect health packs and continue from the same level you died on indefinitely. There is also an endless mode that lets you see how many points you can rack up before you inevitably die to the increasingly difficult enemies.
There are 14 ships to choose from all with unique backstories offering a wide variety of Hyper weapons from death rays to giant bombs. Aside from the Hyper weapons the ships also all have varying mobility health and basic weapon firepower giving the game some needed variance in the gameplay. Overall the gameplay is really solid, fast paced, and hectic all the things needed in a good arcade shooter. Sadly the main game is only 6 stages and takes roughly an hour to complete barring excessive deaths. Endless mode provides replayability of course and considering the games price it doesn’t seem overly short at all.
The music is fairly catchy and helps get you in the mood for symphony of destruction taking place on the screen. There is also a story in the game, with some exposition coming after every boss fight. It didn’t seem very substantial but this isn’t really the type of game you play for a story. It pretty much boils down to these things on the screen are bad shoot them and collect the shiny bits they drop. There are some space politics going on but I personally ended up skipping through it by the 3rd stage.
Super Galaxy Squadron is a very solid arcade shooter with decent replayability for those interested in high scores and beating games with a single life. It would be hard not to enjoy the game if you are a fan of the genre, and with its forgiving health system even casual players should be able to get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it.