As a shoot ’em up fan, I’m always looking for the next challenge. I see that on the Nintendo Switch there are a plethora of games in the genre, so I am a happy camper. Now, let me tell you that I have never played something as weird and fun as Q-Yo Blaster because when I started the game and saw the title and the intro I thought, “This looks kind of like Cho Aniki,” but I was completely shocked to see that it also reminded me of Parodius with weird bosses and areas. The animation for the characters and enemies gives me a feeling of old cartoons (like the style used in Cuphead). I know you might think: “Ramon, you must be high,” and perhaps you are right I may be high….but high in Q-Yo Blaster.
What captured my attention first was the story. Yeah, it’s crazy. Some alien bugs are trying to invade the earth, and the last line of defense is…a rowdy bunch of unlikely heroes, and you know it’s going to be crazy when among the characters you can choose there is a hamster with guns, the head of a dog, or a plane with eyes and teeth. There are three different teams to choose from: Blood Pressure, Boom, and Microwave. In each team, you have certain bonuses in BP, and the characters deal more damage. In Microwave, they get more endurance, and Boom adds a mix of previous teams’ bonuses. Once you choose one from the total of fifteen wacky characters, you can choose a special weapon–either a Laser or Shield (I prefer the shield since it also damages enemies). After a quick tutorial, you are good to go. The game offers ten different stages to shoot everything in sight with a boss fight at the end. It’s nothing new, but even so, it’s enjoyable. The game offers several interesting mechanics to give you an edge against the hordes of alien bugs. There are two in specific the pulse mechanic, and the mechanic based on the team you chose at the beginning.
Pulse is a special ability you can use to”erase” the enemy bullets on the screen to turn them into Gems. Those gems are used to fill your superweapon gauge (either the Laser or the Shield) and power up said weapon. This is particularly useful in the bullet hell areas and boss fights. The other mechanic is the team-specific skill. This is activated when you attack continuously a gauge starts to fil. Once it’s full, you hold down the attack button, and it activates and the gauge depletes to zero again, depending on the team the effects vary. So far, I like the Missiles and the Force Field that the Boom and Microwave teams add.
Content-wise, the game offers three difficulty settings: the beginner mode (Tiny Butterfly), the normal mode (El Macho), and the Arcade Extreme mode. These modes offer a different amount of continues, and the Extreme mode offers unlimited continues (it is that hard). The game is well detailed and colorful, and the different types of enemies are something else.
The music is good and sometimes even funny.
The fact that you can play in co-op mode with another player gives the feel of the old coin up shmups.
Bottom Line: Q-YO Blaster is an overall silly and fun shoot em up. I like the way it plays, and it’s a blast to enjoy cooperatively with another friend. I would have liked to have online leader boards, but even so, the game is a really fun parody shmup. I definitely recommend it.
A Review code was provided for this review.