Shmups. For those of you that have never heard of them before, shmups is gaming short form for ‘shoot ’em ups’ and refers to a very specific sub-genre of gaming. These games started with classics like Asteroids and Galaga way back in the glory days of Atari and have become a tenacious niche genre in gaming since. Around 15 years ago, gamers were forced to distinguish between FPS games and shmups, as both were called ‘shooters’ at the time. The term ‘shmups’ slowly gained traction over the internet and in 2005, the shmups forums started up on the classic pppHb bulletin board systems of the time. It’s still active today (I’m a member and have been since then) and the term shmup has become relatively common parlance amongst gamers to refer to any game where you fly a ship (or robot or whatever) and bullets rain down on you. Everything from 1942 to Raiden to DoDonPachi falls into the category.
But enough of the history lesson. In short, Defenders of Ekron is a shmup. Released for Steam and the PS4 by In Vitro Games of Santiago, Chile, Defenders of Ekron takes many of the classic parts of the shmup model and attempts to form them into a new style of cohesive gaming experience. With Defenders, In Vitro has tried to create a story-based shmup where you can build up your ship and feel like you’re on more of an adventure. It’s an excellent concept. It definitely has a few flaws though, and in many ways, Defenders of Ekron is not just a diamond in the rough but a diamond still being formed in the earth.
I won’t get into the storyline but suffice it to say it’s thin but not terrible. It reminded me vaguely of Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars for the Game Boy Advance, but with less flair and substance. I’m not sure if that’s due to translation to English or the skill of the writer. Don’t expect this one to be turned into a major motion picture or anything anytime soon. The artwork also leaves something to be desired. Again, it’s not bad, but simply somewhat amateur-ish. I’ve seen much more polished work from other indie studios, notably games like Crimzon Clover: World Ignition from Yotsubane or RefleX from Siter Skain, but I expect a different level of product from the doujin circles of Comiket. This is the first offering from In Vitro, and it’s not bad. The color palettes are solid, the designs are good, and the music is decent, but they’re just not spectacular.
Let’s look at how the game actually plays though. I love the concept of taking the shmup format and fusing onto the back of an RPG-Lite engine. Building up your ship, taking the revised model out into combat, it’s an appealing mix. I can tell that Defenders of Ekron really makes an effort to try to make it work, too. But the problem is that in many ways, it fails. And due to those failures, the overall gameplay ends up weak. Much of this is due to both the controls and the design of your ship. In playing Defenders, I felt like this was a game that was designed for a mouse and keyboard and then forced into a controller instead. Your ship moves slowly, and unlike traditional shmups, you don’t receive any powerups. What you have is what you have on a given level. The enemy fire moves slowly as well, but it’s targeted and the whole interface feels like you’re trying to run through waist deep water. It should be faster, but it just isn’t as responsive as I’ve come to expect from most shmups. And then there’s the hitbox. In most shmups, the hitbox is the core of your ship, which makes sense, since you’re looking at a top-down or side view of a ship and the bullets could theoretically slide under and around your ship outside of visual range. But in Defenders of Ekron, you’re using a top-down viewpoint, and your entire ship is the hitbox, making near misses no longer near misses. Grazing bullets is risky at best, and even with a life bar, I found myself taking far more hits than I should have. I love the viewpoint and the way enemies come from all around the screen however. It’s reminiscent of Granada (Sega Genesis), Guardian Force (Sega Saturn, Jp), and the top-down levels in Thunderforce II (Sega Genesis), but it’s significantly less responsive than any of those titles.
Once you make your way through the game’s opening level, you find yourself playing through a maze of levels that 
you can complete in any order to progress the storyline. These cleverly replace a standard walkthrough of the techniques required to progress in the game. The levels are challenging but not outrageous, though you’ll definitely be fighting the interface a bit and are certain to become frustrated with the lock-on system. Upon finishing this section, you’re treated to some more storyline and introduced to the main game hub, consisting of your bedroom, the hangar, the simulation room, and the headquarters. The hangar is for upgrading your ship once you acquire the necessary resources, the simulation room is for strengthening your ship and skills and earning resources for upgrades.
Unfortunately, the simulation room is gruelingly difficult and I never managed to earn the required points and upgrade my ship. Consequently, when I went to the headquarters to play my first level, I got absolutely slaughtered. Speaking of the first level, I didn’t manage to beat it. And I tried. For hours. I play shmups for fun. I’m decent at them and fairly tenacious, but I couldn’t get past the main boss of the first level. I found his pattern, but I simply couldn’t manage the kill. The first level enemy patterns were by and large uninspired and as I’d found with the rest of the game, fairly light and tedious. All you’re really looking forward to is the bosses, and they just aren’t fun.
The first main level boss (not the one above) consists of a tedious pummeling that you and your friends shoot at until it breaks apart in three sections. You then face one of those sections yourself. This is where it gets tricky. That part of the boss is weak against your lock-on weapon, but the only way to fire the lock-on is to use the left stick to target it, leaving your ship defenseless while you lock and fire, making it virtually impossible to dodge the bullets it’s firing. Once you manage to get its life halfway down (which was quite a feat in and of itself), it shifts patterns and lock-on is ineffectual. You simply have to pummel it with your weak main gun until it dies. I never managed it. I got damned close…but i failed. For hours. Possibly, I suck. But I like to think it’s equal parts me and Defenders of Ekron that suck, since I can play Cave games and make it through levels. Oh, and did I mention that you run out of ammo and have to stop firing, dodge bullets and wait for your gun to recharge while you wait? Or that since your ship is so slow, you get a shield that you can activate, but it also drains your ammunition? Well, those things are also true. They don’t make the game any better though.
I played Defenders of Ekron on the PS4 Pro and I did have one other issue. The game crashes like crazy! I had at least 6 fatal errors in the approximately 6 hours I put into the game, which is insane for a final build of anything. This simply shouldn’t happen and I can only attribute it to bad programming. I’ve never encountered this before on the PS4 on any game, indie or not, and I was pretty stunned.
Ultimately, Defenders of Ekron is a fairly flawed attempt to create what I think could be an absolutely spectacular game, one that has real potential. But with weak controls, a bad hitbox, slow speed, and only passable graphics, sound, and storyline, it just doesn’t cut it. The slower pacing and slightly too long load times also make it easy to slip out of the groove when you’re playing heavily. If you’re a glutton for punishing levels and repetition, this one is your game, and there are a few glimmers of brilliance here and there, but for the average person, I’d simply keep looking instead of giving Defenders of Ekron a whirl.
Disclaimer: A review code was provided