A Space Shooter For 2 Bucks!
You may want to keep pressing the fire button.
Posted January 9, 2011
Hilarious descriptive title aside, A Space Shooter for Two Bucks! is pretty much exactly what the title says, designed for the Playstation Minis which are portable for your PSP as well as playable on your PS3. You will be shocked at the level of production in a $2 game, namely the gorgeous art slides and the silly voice acting. The humor in the game can be juvenile at times though, but it’s hard to complain for the cheap price. The narrative details the adventures of Commander P. Jefferson and his ridiculous mission to rid the galaxy of alien life with the USS Eradicator. The Eradicator comes with an English accented computer friend called Edgar IV who helps with navigation. Jefferson also has the hots for the local space shopkeeper Jenna, who spurns the advances of the oblivious commander.
There are two different game modes to try out, campaign and survival. Playing through the campaign will give you access to weaponry and upgrades that will be needed for survival mode, so it’s definitely recommended that you start there. You also have the ability to repeat levels to build up the in-game currency (Remnants), thus allowing you to purchase more expensive upgrades. Remnants earns in survival mode also translate over to the campaign mode as well, so it’s worth playing after spending time in the campaign. In each level, you are in charge of the ships navigation as well as its offensive powers. Enemies fly all over the screen and swarm the ship constantly in an effort to destroy the Eradicator. It’s a bit tough to get through each level without losing your ship on the first few tries without losing some lives. However, there’s a helpful checkpoint system in place to mark your progress on each of the 16 levels.
There are also two types of levels, those that take on the big baddies and supporting levels that should be completed to upgrade your ship. Finishing a supporting level and defeating the boss at the end awards the Eradicator an upgrade that can help you destroy the enemies on the primary levels. Upgrades also can help boost the defensive power of the ship and help the Eradicator last longer during a boss battle. On the PSP, the controls are pretty fantastic and the ship responds to quick changes in direction as well as spamming the guns to annihilate the enemies. Beyond the regular game modes, there are a fat set of achievements to earn. As a Playstation Mini, these aren’t trophies by the way. The Trophy system is exclusive to PS3 titles.
Visually, the graphical style seems a bit dated, but intentionally so. The artwork is comical during the cutscenes and it’s understandable that there’s no motion during the dialogue sections considering the price. The level backgrounds get to be a bit monotonous at times, but the boss designs are fantastic and the effects for the upgrades weaponry are top notch. The game runs very smoothly as well.
The sound effects are definitely passable for this type of game and typical of the space shooter genre. There’s a shocking amount of voice acting in the game, definitely more than some $30 PSP titles. Unfortunately, not all of it is good and the humor only came though (for me) about 50% of the time. There are also some terrible voice actors in the mix for some of the more minor characters, which became grating on my poor ears. Thankfully, dialogue is skipable most of the time and you can jump to the next section of action pretty quickly.
The attractive price is not the only thing that makes this frantic space shooter worth trying out. Looking past the hit or miss humor in the dialogue, the action is absolutely addicting and you will be replaying levels incessantly to build up some space cash to purchase your next upgrade. The game is just over 50 MB in size and the campaign mode alone should last you a solid 4 to 8 hours depending on the difficulty level you play on. Add in the survival mode and a hefty set of achievements to get quite a value for less than you would pay for a similar game on the Apple app store or Xbox Live Marketplace. If you enjoy frantic shooters, A Space Shooter for Two Bucks! is definitely worth your time and probably one of the best values within the Playstation Minis.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum
There are two different game modes to try out, campaign and survival. Playing through the campaign will give you access to weaponry and upgrades that will be needed for survival mode, so it’s definitely recommended that you start there. You also have the ability to repeat levels to build up the in-game currency (Remnants), thus allowing you to purchase more expensive upgrades. Remnants earns in survival mode also translate over to the campaign mode as well, so it’s worth playing after spending time in the campaign. In each level, you are in charge of the ships navigation as well as its offensive powers. Enemies fly all over the screen and swarm the ship constantly in an effort to destroy the Eradicator. It’s a bit tough to get through each level without losing your ship on the first few tries without losing some lives. However, there’s a helpful checkpoint system in place to mark your progress on each of the 16 levels.
There are also two types of levels, those that take on the big baddies and supporting levels that should be completed to upgrade your ship. Finishing a supporting level and defeating the boss at the end awards the Eradicator an upgrade that can help you destroy the enemies on the primary levels. Upgrades also can help boost the defensive power of the ship and help the Eradicator last longer during a boss battle. On the PSP, the controls are pretty fantastic and the ship responds to quick changes in direction as well as spamming the guns to annihilate the enemies. Beyond the regular game modes, there are a fat set of achievements to earn. As a Playstation Mini, these aren’t trophies by the way. The Trophy system is exclusive to PS3 titles.
Graphics
Visually, the graphical style seems a bit dated, but intentionally so. The artwork is comical during the cutscenes and it’s understandable that there’s no motion during the dialogue sections considering the price. The level backgrounds get to be a bit monotonous at times, but the boss designs are fantastic and the effects for the upgrades weaponry are top notch. The game runs very smoothly as well.
Audio
The sound effects are definitely passable for this type of game and typical of the space shooter genre. There’s a shocking amount of voice acting in the game, definitely more than some $30 PSP titles. Unfortunately, not all of it is good and the humor only came though (for me) about 50% of the time. There are also some terrible voice actors in the mix for some of the more minor characters, which became grating on my poor ears. Thankfully, dialogue is skipable most of the time and you can jump to the next section of action pretty quickly.
Conclusion
The attractive price is not the only thing that makes this frantic space shooter worth trying out. Looking past the hit or miss humor in the dialogue, the action is absolutely addicting and you will be replaying levels incessantly to build up some space cash to purchase your next upgrade. The game is just over 50 MB in size and the campaign mode alone should last you a solid 4 to 8 hours depending on the difficulty level you play on. Add in the survival mode and a hefty set of achievements to get quite a value for less than you would pay for a similar game on the Apple app store or Xbox Live Marketplace. If you enjoy frantic shooters, A Space Shooter for Two Bucks! is definitely worth your time and probably one of the best values within the Playstation Minis.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum