NavyBlue & The Spectrum Killers

Review

Welcome to Navyblue and the Spectrum Killers: you will take control of Navyblue, the hero of this adventure, through the vibrant, technologically advanced city of Metromega. Your job is to take on the last villain of Metromega and his army of thugs and robots and save the city! Using the power of the BlueForce, you will shoot and dash to get past all 7 levels, battling through a variety of traps along the way, and fighting through each level’s menacing enemies. Once you battle through everything that stands before you, a boss awaits you at the end of every level. Play with care; lose all of your lives and it’s game over.

Navyblue and the Spectrum Killers is the first title releases by developer, Hyper Comb Studio, and is self-published. Released in Sept 2018, it is a 2D side scroller with a vibrant, simplistic art style.

It also features a modern pop/rock style soundtrack and sound effects to give it that old school feel. You will receive powerful weapons by defeating the super villains at the end of the levels. Additionally, collect clothing skins throughout the game to pimp out your character the way you want. Each level has its own distinct theme through all 7 levels of the game to keep the feeling of fresh gameplay. The game also features full controller support, and a controller is recommended (but you can use keyboard and mouse also).

You can play the levels of the game in any order you wish. Having trouble with a level? Skip it for the time being and go to a different level! The game is casual but difficult; you will perish often as you master each level. The game has no difficulty settings and would be served well by the addition of them to attract more casual and hardcore gamers. It is a fun game, but for a casual player it may be a bit too hard, and for a hardcore gamer it is a bit too easy. Would love to see an update to add this feature. The permadeath feature does add a level of difficulty; lose all your lives, it’s time to restart! Maybe having a continue mode, like in an arcade game, would help to open the game to a broader spectrum of players.

The game worlds are done extremely well for visual effect, due to the great art-style. I was very pleased with the quality of the graphics and gameplay. The controls are solid and responsive and may be remapped to your liking. The variety of enemies and animations are all well-made, the traps planned out for maximum discomfort :p. Using your Bluepower gives your weapons a burst energy shot that requires recharging after every use. It’s high impact charges are devastating to your opponent. In between charges, use your primary fire and your dashing ability to avoid and extinguish your enemies’ life.

I did find making it through some of the levels and past the bosses without using my last life difficult. With only one difficulty setting it can be frustrating; I would rather have seen this feature be capable of being disabled, as restarting levels repeatedly gets to be a bit unnerving. And with only 7 levels available, your choices become very limited very fast. I am a keyboard and mouse-player, and do believe the game would be better suited to using a controller for sure. But I am set in my ways and still  played it my way, which is good :D.  It was still a lot of fun to play; I just had to rinse and repeat a bit till I could master the levels. I also feel the current asking price of $10.00 USD is a bit high for a title with only 7 levels.  When it is all said and done, a very fine job on their first release; I look forward to seeing where this developer future goes.

Are you prepared for the battle to come? Then Let’s Go!

Review written by DamageInc.for Zeepond.com!