Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘Those Spacecrafts’ and ‘My Haunted Doll’
Retro continues.
Those Spacecrafts is an arcade space shooter by DaGammla, a solo indie developer based in Germany. Players must survive waves upon waves of enemies, hoping to collect as many items as possible to make their ship even more powerful.
Players are tasked with fighting off waves of enemies by dodging their bullets and shooting them down. Once every enemy in a wave is defeated, the next wave will begin, which can introduce new enemies to worry about. Thankfully they can drop power-ups, like shields and speed bursts, but the general survival is up to the player. There are meteors floating about, but oddly enough these do not damage the player. Instead they give cover to oncoming fire, and can be destroyed to give loot and items.
This loot is crucial to the secondary aspect of the game: customizing the spaceship. Some items do not appear to have any immediate effects, but upon completion they can be seen in the player’s inventory. These are used in the ship building menu, where the player can buy new ship parts and customize the ship to their liking. Examples include more defense, faster rotational speed, and even more attack damage. It can take a while to get enough parts to buy an upgrade, but these are crucial to surviving longer so they can get even more parts.
The simplicity is the draw for Those Spacecrafts, as it keeps the same loop. You’ll survive as long as possible, get items, and then upgrade the ship to do it all over again. It has a roguelike feeling to it, although there is no ‘end’ objective to look for. There is only survival. If you loved Asteroids and wanted more customization in your space shooting arcade titles, this is the game for you.
My Haunted Doll is a 2D horror adventure created by AMAXANG GAMES, a solo indie dev based in India who was featured back on page 26 of the bundle with The Valley of Super Flowers. This time, players will not get any guns, for they are trying to escape the evil machinations of a cursed killer doll.
Players will follow Mary, the owner of a museum, as she picks up a strange doll for her collection. Suddenly the building that was previously empty is eerily full of ‘life’, and Mary has no idea how to escape this turn of events. Everything is extremely dark, so players must navigate through flickering lights and dim hallways to find each objective in the hopes of dispelling the curse that is causing the building to hunt for her.
Each objective is highlighted at the bottom. Since no buttons are necessary, the player only needs to make their way to each location to interact with the clue. This does not mean that the objectives are easy to find, though. The building is large and has many floors. Wandering around will be necessary to find that one room that evades sight.
It’s a short experience, clocking in at about 30 minutes, but that is enough for My Haunted Doll to get its spooks in. As an avoider of horror games due to how jumpy I can be, this was a bit on the tamer side (thankfully). I was able to navigate with only a few moments of panicked inability to move. Since there is no need to worry about button interactions, you can get through every area with no worry about ‘missing’ something due to a lack of pressing.
It’s a good horror adventure for anyone wanting something scary but not ‘too’ scary, if that makes any sense. Good luck dispelling the curse!
