Squishy alien hoards of Vorx are taking over the universe. Only a muscled hero with a big gun, a bigger attitude, and a twitchy trigger finger stands between humanity and total annihilation.
No this is not Metroid, or Turrican, or even Duke Nukem, but Autogun Heroes: Supercharged, a brand new 2D action platformer in the grand tradition, from Finnish game studio Nitro Games.
Making its way to PC and the Steam store soon, Autogun Heroes: Supercharged, which expands on Nitro’s Autogun Heroes universe, is a love letter to Retro gaming, and the players who keep the genre alive. Taking a leap from mobile to the ‘big screen’ (PC that is) the game pitches tough guy Gus and his squad of alien squelchers against a relentless army of mushroomy villains across a number of sideways scrolling worlds and environments.
The demo we played, courtesy of Nitro, felt immediately accessible and familiar, evoking memories of Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bombjack, and more. Playing as Gus (we understand the finished game will allow players to choose from other squad members too), your mission is to shoot, jump, roll, and bounce your way across the screen, blasting all Vorx as you go in classic arcade-style.
However, unlike platformers of yesteryear that rewarded precision and timing, and punished the player for the lack thereof, there is a distinctly modern roguelike element to proceedings here.
For instance, Gus and the gang gain speciality points by completing certain achievements; killing 200 enemies, bouncing on 25 Vorx, etc. Points can then be used to purchase better weapons, armor, gadgets and special moves, such as new jumping, rolling and stomping abilities that you get to hang on to after you die.
In this way, players can experiment with loadouts to enhance damage, fire rate, and defense, adapting to a series of ever-changing alien threats.
You can also choose to sell items for “scrap” — Supercharged’s in-game currency — and use it buy a preferred item later on. Lastly you can level Gus up to add new battle mods: +15 to shot damage, +30 to damage at close range being two examples that vastly improve our hero’s odds in the early game levels.
There is something both immensely satisfying and extremely addictive about having the game remember your hard earned loadout between deaths, so that when you start again after dying at level 4 say, you get to return with the punisher shotgun and a collection of specialities to make mincemeat out of the enemies that dared thwart your plans to save humanity.
Simply put, the more you play Supercharged, the better you get.
With 5 demo missions currently available now on Steam, and the full game coming soon, you may just find yourself losing hours dodging bullets, mastering enemy attack patterns, levelling up your hero, and of course saving the universe in Nitro’s latest shoot ’em up adventure.
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