Comments (4)

By Sam, August 16, 2009 7:39 am

Nebulon  – Shooter – 200 points - Download

Nebulon is an arcade shooter similar to Geometry Wars. You guide your small ship around a neon filled environment dodging and destroying a variety of enemies.

The first thing you’ll have to do when you start the game is choose between the dual stick or trigger control options. In the dual stick mode the game controls like Geometry Wars where the left stick moves and the right stick shoots. In the trigger mode you use the right trigger to shoot and you can only shoot in the direction you are facing unless you are not moving, in which case you can use the right trigger to aim.

I found the trigger mode extremely difficult and felt much more at home with the familiar dual stick layout, but it is good that the developers tried something new.

The game only has one mode. You fly around destroying enemies similar to Geometry Wars but there are a few key differences. Firstly there is the powerup system. Most different types of enemy drop a different powerup. Collect enough of these and you can upgrade a certain part of your ship (weapons, missiles or energy) or get a new weapon. It’s very satisfying going through the upgrades from a pea shooter to a full on laser beam.

Your health and ammo are both tied to the same bar. When you shoot or get hit your energy depletes, if you stop firing and stay out of trouble your energy refills. It’s a great balance between offense and defence and helps set the game apart from the myriad of other indie game shooters.

The game isn’t perfect though. One of the biggest problems is the framerate. When you first start out the game looks great and runs very smooth, but as things get more hectic and especially when the bigger enemies such as the worms arrive the game really does stutter. This is a real problem in a game that needs to be controlled so accurately and really spoils the game once you get to the most challenging parts.

Another problem is the lack of any leaderboards (including local). I can’t believe the developers haven’t included this (I spent 5 minutes looking for them, please tell me if I have missed them!) as it seems such an integral part of any score based game.

The music and sound design has a lot of Geometry Wars influence. The enemies are mostly just neon shapes and the music is your standard techno shmup soundtrack. Though this isn’t neccessarily a bad thing as fans of Geometry Wars will immediately click with the game.

In the end Nebulon has a lot of good points, it’s a solid shooter with some unique elements. Unfortunately the poor performance and lack of leaderboards means there isn’t much of a reason for Geometry Wars or Biology Battle fans to ditch their game other than to try something a bit different. Though if the developers can fix the two issues I have mentioned it may be able to provide better competition.

Edit: A new patch is coming out for Nebulon later this month that includes Global Leaderboards. If it also improves performance I may do a quick re-review of the game.

Some interesting ideas but the technical performance lets it down.

Comments (1)

By Sam, July 31, 2009 9:19 am

As there have been no releases today I decided to have a look at some of the other games released this week.

Note: These impressions are based off 8 minutes of gameplay and are not an accurate assessment of the full product.

Drop Zone – 80 points – Action & Adventure – Download

A bit like Space Invaders. The presentation is rather nice but the gameplay is one dimensional and a little boring.

Lord Ownage:UnBritish Invasion – 400 points – Shooter – Download

A Space Invaders/Puzzle game hybrid that sees you shoot invading aliens into symbols of Britishness. A bit confusing and not very fun to play.

Nebulon – 200 points – Shooter – Download

A very nice twin-stick shooter (there is also another mode of control) that seems to feature a good powerup system. The presentation is also very nice. Expect a full review soon.