PEGBRJE: Self.destroy(), Sonar Smash and Space Mayhem
Pixelated way to finish 20.
Self.destroy() is a roguelike adventure created by Maxine Red, a solo indie dev based out of Germany with a specialty in retro-stylized games focusing primarily on the Atari era. Within this title specifically, players are an AI trapped within a dangerous place, needing to escape to save the organics lest they become doomed due to the failures of this little AI.
The goal of Self.destroy() is to reach the final boss and return control to the AI by maneuvering through many levels of this place and reaching a certain percentile to move on. This is acquired via various sized golden tokens littering the map, each ‘worth’ an amount that is linked to their size that may not always give a full percentage. The truly important ones are the large diamonds, which give a massive boost in comparison while also acting as the gateways to the next level; when the percentage is pulsing at the top, these diamonds will as well and the next acquired will swiftly transport the AI onwards. Now each level is full of these golden point-creators, but there is an always increasing variety of enemies to contend with as well, which can do some serious damage in one of two ways. While players do have a health bar — which was routinely abused by myself, sorry health bar — this isn’t the true limiter to player’s safety; it’s their timer. Players only have twenty-five minutes to find their to the boss, but the timer can be damaged by every enemy encountered and nearly every action outside of movement. Want to remove that eyeball that is staring at the AI and somehow making the timer recede due to its scary vision? Well, each bullet is fifteen seconds, and so is the shield.
It’s a deceptively challenging game thanks to this mechanic, for players need to suddenly make critical decisions centered around their ability to maneuver throughout each landscape. Making the location safe for collecting the tokens will take time off of the clock, but running in and hoping to dodge everything can lead to sticky situations that can ruin both the health bar and the timer. Portals can take players to different enclosed regions as well to find even more tokens, but can also completely destroy the AI thanks to the new layout. Exploration then becomes much more dangerous because the less time players are finding the diamond tokens, the more time is shaved from the clock. Being able to balance out aggressive exploration and calculated risks is imperative to reach the boss. I know I was unable to figure it out properly, for even after half a dozen attempts the closest I made was 75%, which is a shame seeing how excited Maxine Red was discussing the boss fight itself.
I will continue to persevere however, because Self.destroy() is such an interesting title enclosed within itself. It gives you exactly 25 minutes to finish the title, with no way of acquiring more time (that I could find in my speedy attempts) so you’ll know how long the game will be and what is the defining constraint. Let’s also not ignore that the Atari-art style is clean and atmospheric, especially with the constantly shifting light source on our little AI friend, and the music is just utterly fantastic. My only gripe was the amount of times I pressed escape thinking I would pause, only to reset my progress entirely. Can’t win them all I guess. Regardless, if you love Atari-aesthetics and want a title that focuses on the importance of time, this is definitely one you should check out.
Sonar Smash is an arcade shoot ’em up made by Pixel Pajama Studios, a duo indie dev team out of the United States. Pursuing their love for pixel artwork, this title features a cute dolphin attempting to survive waves upon waves of angsty fish attempting to stop them.
Utilizing the superpower of sonar, our dolphin friend will fire sonar waves at the incoming enemies, limited only by the meter at the bottom right that refills over time. At first this will appear as infinite ammo as the refill is faster than players can fire, but with enough upgrades this can become a limiting factor. Now these enemies all have their own unique ways of trying to deal with the dolphin, from rushing head-on, reflecting the sonar back or causing other status ailments like confusion. Each round will give a new set of enemies regardless of restarts, with each of them giving a chance to drop these sweet rings. The rings are used when this entity that I swear is a submarine (I’m not actually sure) arrives and players can then trade for upgrades such as stat increases, sonar perks to make the shots super spicy and more to discover. This helps keep the fun times rolling, because the farther the levels go the more likely that a puffer fish will accidentally clip the dolphin when exploding. Happens to the best of us.
What I found the most interesting is how Sonar Smash approaches these upgrades outside of the core gameplay itself. The ones that players can purchase are utilized within the round that they are playing, but these can help to unlock achievements which can be used prior to a run started. This screen portrays six icons to be selected, which open a page of tokens that can be slotted for each. These are permanent upgrades to certain areas, building off of the ones found in game such as three stat increases, sonar abilities, unpredictable hidden relics and a token to skip a set amount of waves. Since they are unlocked by achievements, players can simply acquire them by playing with even daily logins acquiring some of these rewards. Yes, this is also a mobile game meaning that some of the mobile gaming practices make their way in to the title which works quite well with the general vibe of relaxation yet excitement.
Sonar Smash is definitely a shmup with a flair for the more cute and approachable, with even the enemies adorable to the point of causing myself to question if I wanted to win in the first place. The gameplay encourages constantly trying again and again thanks to the upgrades being tied to achievements, and since it’s on mobile players can grab all of them while commuting. I’d also like to give a special shoutout to the composer for this game Abstraction Music, who has been featured before in titles of the bundle, but this completely blew me out of the water. It’s just so funky at times, and some of the songs combined with their transitions made me feel as if the game was actually streaming music from the internet; and yet it matched the aesthetic in such a way that kept me coming back (it’s still playing in the background).
If you love shoot em ups with a cute aesthetic with a fresh approach to upgrades, then this might be what you’ve been looking for.
Space Mayhem is an arcade space shooty shooty made by Chronic Vagrant, an indie team also based out of the United States. In this style of arcade shooter, players will be venturing into space to survive the countless hazards of asteroids, weird looking ships, and (quite possibly) forgetting how to not run in to the edges of the map.
As with many space shooters Space Mayhem has players within an area surviving against infinite enemies while keeping their health above zero and their ammo always topped up. Upon starting, players will choose a ship to pilot and set off from the dock to begin the game, where the darkness of space will be the only constant. Asteroids will fly across the screen and new ships will appear with unique moves in order to destroy the player’s attempts at achieving a high score. Power ups are usually found floating through space after destroying an enemy or just randomly spawn and usually upgrade the weaponry to something with a bit more power than the default laser. Unlike said weapon, each upgraded firearm will not regain ammo over time so there’s a limit to how many homing missiles players can throw out there. Since they can’t be swapped between, there’s no harm in simply blasting away, but being wasteful can lead to players being stuck with only a default laser against tougher opponents.
As with today’s unintentional theme, Space Mayhem is a bitesized game that has the possibility to continue seemingly forever thanks to its infinite waves and replayability. There are unique ships to unlock as well as a global leaderboard, although I wasn’t certain how it worked without Steam. The backdrops are also stellar, shifting across the universe and even bearing witness to some fantastic star constellations to look at before getting blown up. There’s not much else for me to say unfortunately, but many will enjoy a new style and approach to this genre and if you fall in to that category then you’ll probably want to jump right in.
