You can easily find out if Super Destronaut DX is right for you with only a couple questions! Do you like Space Invaders but want a fresh, frenetic twist on it? Do you want a bitesize game that has an MSRP of only $5? If you said yes to both, go get Super Destronaut DX! If not, maybe don’t.
Super Destronaut DX takes the basic formula of Space Invaders but removes the green shield-like protector things and adds some (optional) screen-shaking awesomeness. You’ll move side-to-side shooting up at the aliens that are invading (probably from space) and dodge their attacks. That sounds simple enough, right? But here’s the thing – you’re not going up against a campaign or a defined set of levels where you can pick up and continue if you die, you’re going up against the scoreboard!
There are three primary modes in Super Destronaut DX: Classic Mode, Time Attack, and Hardcore. Classic Mode is pretty easy and Time Attack is – you guessed it – a race to get as many points as possible within a given amount of time. Hardcore mode has the enemies fire at you more often, and instead of getting three lives you get only one! I’ve played my share of Hardcore games where I play for less than five seconds before I die, Hardcore is not an exaggeration! Finally, if you have a local buddy to play with, you can compete against them in a modified 2-minute time attack mode where you can seemingly die as many times as you want without punishment.
To mix things up a bit, the game also includes Challenges. Here you’ll face 30? challenges that get progressively harder and have you doing things like killing x number of enemies, completing x number of waves of enemies or getting x amount of points. You can be tasked with doing these things on Classic Mode, within a set amount of time or even in Hardcore, and you can do them in any order you want. As someone who always prefers to have an objective of some sort, this is where I spent most of my time. I do wish there were far more challenges, and that more than one could be completed at a time or that they could be completed in one of the actual game modes, but sadly that isn’t possible. For example, one challenge may require you to get a bunch of points, and the next may require beating 5 waves of enemies, but it takes 6 waves to hit the number of points required. This means you’re often doing the same thing repeatedly with a mildly different objective.
Challenges are also a great way to learn how the game works. You get points for each enemy defeated, sure, but you also get a multiplier as you defeat enemies quickly. Naturally you start with a 1.0x multiplier, and defeating an enemy raises it by .1 until you go a few seconds without killing an enemy and the timer resets. You can also a random powerup by killing one specific enemy, although that enemy isn’t in every wave you face off against. Powerups are limited time but VERY powerful, and with the added power you can really ramp up some terrific multiplier bonuses! Finally, to make things even crazier, the game is kinda sorta 3D – as you play the background will come at you, which means that every so often a dead alien will cross your path. If you run into it, you’ll lose a life just as you would from being shot.
My absolutely favorite thing about Super Destronaut DX, though, was the actual feel of the game. Once I realized how awesome the screen shake was, I went into the settings and made it so that every time I killed an alien or was shot the screen shook. The game refers to this as “chromatic aberration”, but hey, it shook the screen and it was awesome (and for those who don’t like it, absolutely all of it can be turned off). When you clear a wave of enemies there’s this terrific explodey animation and the game slows down, allowing you precious seconds to get set up for the next one. The music and sound effects may get a bit repetitive over time, but they’re excellent until then. Everything about the game screams “arcade game turned up to 11” in the best of ways, but aside from the challenges the game is basically just replaying one of the three modes over and over aiming for a high score. For some folks that’ll get old quick, and for others, it’s a heck of a thrill.
Super Destronaut DX is available for PS4 (reviewed), Vita, Switch, Xbox One and Steam (Windows).
I received a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest review.