PEGBRJE: Jupitron Game Collection Vol.1

Page 17 starting out hefty.

I’m just in spaaace

Jupitron Game Collection Vol.1 is a 13 game anthology of unreleased titles by Jupitron themselves, an indie dev based out of Argentina with a knack for arcade titles. This of course is an entire set of arcade games, ranging from ‘ ‘ — so we’re going to cover them all in a slightly unconventional way. Do note that these are all traditionally styled arcade games, meaning they have more than just the aesthetic. Each title doesn’t actually have an ending, and is designed to be infinite with the only length of time being gauged by the number of pointed gained.

• Ashigaru: timing based game in which an ashigaru (foot soldier) is trying to destroy the opposing forces. Players will aim either left or right in order to slice off their heads, while being wary of attacks from swords or kunai. Each attack that connects gives a point, so it’s all about seeing how long players can last.
• Cingularity: a curious title reminiscent of Asteroid and Space Invaders will have players shooting meteorites as they plummet towards the ground. Shooting the incoming rocks will turn them into small colourful ones instead, which are to be collected for points instead of shot. They can also interact with the meteorites, bouncing them and blocking them to allow for more time to shoot them. Creates a chaotic mess of decision making in which grabbing the bouncing coloured rocks will give the points, but will remove that possible safety measure.
• Don’t Code: truly bizarre game of reflexes in which the player needs to be perpetually ‘coding’ — typing random letters works — until the backdrop becomes red and tells the player to stop. Press another key, and the game resets. Each letter gains a point. Not typing fast enough can also reset the game as well, so be on guard.
• Iron Defender: point and click shooty where the turret is constantly moving back and forth without control. The red enemies fly across the screen constantly, waiting to be shot; except that causes them to drop a bomb which is the actual threat.
• MESS: Can’t lie, it confused me and still does. Players are a flashing cube attempting to cross the mess that is the level around them, yet can only land on top of platforms that are actually full of colour. However, these platforms also flow in tune with the chaotic music that flows, so jumping to one’s doom is very easy.
• NEO Guardian: Protect the planet in this twist on Space invaders, where players are now in a circular area fighting off aliens coming through a portal in the centre. The city is on the outskirts of the map, and every alien that escapes can blow up a chunk of the city. If there is nothing to destroy, they bounce around until they find something that can be. Failure to save the city will cause the true lord of this plan (I immediately said ‘Galactus?’ upon seeing him) to reveal himself, mocking the player. This is the last ditch effort to win, but his laser is the only thing that can destroy the players ship, and it only takes one hit. Good luck dodging that one.
• Psychobruce: Bruce needs glasses, and the only way to help this poor happy fellow is to orient his face the correct way to apply the glasses as they are flying towards him. Nothing strange about this, except for the constantly increasing speed of the music, the fact I swear his eyes changed colour and the general psychedelic noise backdrop. Yes sir, nothing strange here.
• Reverse: Pong is a fantastic game, so here in Reverse we decided that the protagonist was no longer the paddle, but the ball. Yes, players now are controlling the ball in Pong to accurately connect with the two paddles as they move. It’s actually way harder than I make it sound, for I want full freedom and instead only got up and down. Thankfully the paddle’s have an afterimage that they leave behind upon moving for a short duration, allowing for players that ‘mess up’ to still keep in play. Do be careful of the power ups, however, as speed isn’t what I needed during my 5 minute run.
• Sk3letroll: Similar to NEO Guardian, players will be rotating around the centre pivot in order to stop something from escaping the circle. In this case, the head in the centre is attempting to be free, and it is up to the four zombie fists to ensure that it doesn’t. Players don’t have to press any other buttons, only have the fist in the way to bounce it back in. The pace increase was shockingly fast.
• Ten: Also known as Diez in the .exe, this is a soccer penalty kick simulator, where players will shoot at a goalie and hope to gain as many goals. This kicker, as it were, is that players cannot control the angle and the power at the same time — by holding down the Z button, the power bar and oscillating angle arrow will keep moving back and forth until released. Timing is extremely crucial, as there were many shots that the angle was fantastic but I missed having any actual power due to not releasing time. It takes a bit to get used to, and there will be a bunch of shots that go nowhere — just like real soccer.
• Survival of the Undead: An open arena, a cowboy with a rifle and a horde of zombies. Name something as iconic. Yes, players are in an infinitely spawning horde and need to destroy as many zombies before they get taken out with the rest. The interesting aspect is that bullets are regained per kill, so making sure ever shot counts is important. Right up until one realizes that hitting multiple zombies with a single shot spawns a bullet for each zombie, and the bullets begin to pile on. They’ll be needed though, the horde gets thick once the player reaches the hundreds.
• Telepulse: Space autoshooter in which red squares are attempting to bypass our cute white square. Every shot that hits a red square gives more points, but it also causes more to spawn at set locations behind it as if to constantly split and grow the horde. Red squares that get by lower the score, but through the basic method this is impossible to stop. Thankfully, upon maxing out the bar will give a zoomed in perspective, which allows players to draw a large green line that will absorb the red squares and continue adding to the score. If only those were the only enemies, because there are a bunch more to discover.
• Void.Exe: The final title, oddly named ‘noid.exe’ in the launcher menu, is an infinite avoidance game as our pitiful protagonist has found themselves stuck near a black hole. All of these miscellaneous objects are flying towards it, and the player needs to avoid them to keep alive. Each item that reaches the black hole is a single point for the player, but that same black hole will also kill the attempted run in touched. It also will begin to expand as items fill its maw, so dodging becomes even more dangerous. Tread carefully.

There’s honestly something for everyone within this collection. While it is geared mostly for arcade fans, certain titles such as Survival of the Undead can appeal to a wider audience outside of the traditional scope. They’re small and fast unless you’re good at them, so try them out for yourself — you can’t find them anywhere else outside this collection.

Again another single upload, just really not my day huh. Granted I wasn’t expecting another anthology-style title, so that ain’t helping. Alas. Let’s see if we can fix that tomorrow.

Link

Jupitron Game Collection Vol.1