Blasteria

Edit: Dev also was very proactive with fixing the performance issues at wave 40 and the loud piercing shot. I now can comfortably make it to wave 90+ without starting to get performance issues, and this is probably playing the most intensive build (tons of drones and multishots and ricochets) For a little over a dollar, game is definitely worth the pick-up, though it certainly needs improvement. The story mode text kind of felt like a found manifesto, but was fun finding what builds work. Having to think about the negative impact of each upgrade is a fun part of the game, I found that avoid speed upgrades at all costs for the germs worked best even if it was a really good upgrade for me. For the negatives, some sound effects ignore your sound settings (holy cow piercing shot is super loud and drone also ignores but isn't as ear piercing). And the biggest negative is that endless mode has crashed for me twice at wave 40, one time I couldn't move at all from the start, the other time enough germs spawned that it became unresponsive. Regardless, the game is a dollar and if there are some small improvements to performance and changes to sounds to respect settings then there is a really solid game for the price point.

A really fresh take on rouge-lite game systems that actually included a pretty interesting story with its thematic gameplay. Something really clicked for me between rounds of destroying bacteria as I watched them perish to my beams. They only wanted to be free, to explore, expand and grow, yet I am their warden, my job is to hold them back, to crush them down and destroy everything they have ever created. I feel like the game in subtle ways is asking me if the bacteria have the right to want more? Perhaps asking if I have the right as a “higher being” to keep them in check? The story and gameplay were very loose in directly presenting these themes, yet the game and story blended together to make me come to these questions in a masterful way. The gameplay, while on the more simple side I found to have very interesting core mechanics, - The growth of the bacteria at the cost of an upgrade was a really interesting way to scale the enemies depending on how I want to make my own build. Although re-rolls would be nice to have though as I did feel stuck with upgrades that did not suit me at all a few times. - The core movement system of being on a track actually made for some very interesting movement and aiming mechanics, the speed system felt very skill based which I liked a lot. Overall for a sub 5$ indie game I really enjoyed the experience!

Fun, challenging, and weirdly kinda cozy? Worth every penny, all 199 of them.

fun and cheap :p

Simple, but fun. Lots of different upgrade combinations, and a surprising amount of depth when you find different upgrades that complement each other. Good way to burn a couple hours when you're bored.