Boss Rush
Every single time a decent, hard working boss tries to build a monsterous spaceship of superdoom, some hero comes along and ruins everything. I mean, you conquer planets, brainwash your subordinates and build an army (those things aren't cheap, you know) and some cocky little pilot is feeling lucky and wants to take you down because he's gone all crybaby about his planet exploding. Well, let's see how you like it (you will)! Boss Rush turns the shoot 'em up genre around, giving you control of 5 different bosses and 11-13 stages per boss to keep those pesky little ships at bay.
Although the levels aren't very long, the 3 levels of difficulty and the surprising amount of strategy required to survive them give the game quite a bit of replayability, with enemy AI that is hard enough to challenge, but not broken as to infuriate. The levels all take place on an open white background (outer space is white in the future, apparently) with no other obstacles besides you and your enemies. This doesn't give the actual gameplay much variety, but the different bosses vary greatly, from classics like massive motherships or synced battle drones to original creations like a smiling rain cloud of death. The control scheme is just like every other shoot 'em up, but instead of catching your power ups, you start with 5 weapons, one main and 4 special abilities that require amounts of time spent charging that correlates to the power of the attack. There's no real innovation when it comes to the actual mechanics, but that's really the point of it. It all boils down to the same formula we're all used to in these games, but on opposite sides.
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The game doesn't go very far past this, but it doesn't really need to. Although seeing this play with some quality HD rendering would be nice, the simple aesthetics compliment the basic yet challenging gameplay perfectly. With plenty of bonuses, unlockables, cheats and a Survival mode, there is plenty to be had for one player. Thankfully, the inclusion of a multiplayer mode seals the deal, allowing a friend control of the small ship in timed deathmatches played on a single PC. Designed from the ground up by Chris Cornell with music by Justin Mullens, Boss Rush provides a great twitch shmup on par with the greatest in that genre, with an innovative perspective and addictive play. Not so easy being the boss for once, is it?!
Though completed, a price has yet to be officially announced, although the price is expected to be around $10 with a release date this January.
Likes:
- It's nice to find out playing as the boss can require the same amount of skill and strategy
- Satisfyingly simple aesthetic
- Addictive single player and frantic multiplayer
Dislikes:
- Lack of map variants
Review Score
/
The review scale at LevelFortyTwo is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only minor issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.
Looks cool!