The army is ruthless. Every time I naively get overconfident in the timing of my laser sweeps and think I finally have the upper hand on my enemies, the next wave comes ten times to knock me back in my place. I flatten them, they come back stronger and overtake me, and our little dance begins again.
In , a Playdate game from Pulp creator Shaun Inman, it’s just you and your overheated space laser against the world. From the game description:
The lights in the sky go out. A large shell around an ailing star is the last bastion of civilization witnessing a cosmic extinction-level event. But beyond the darkness lurks an army, maddened by darkness, bent on extinguishing the last of the light.
Your job is to protect the Sphere from incoming attackers by using the crank to control the direction of the laser beam and ‘A’ to fire. You can hold ‘A’ for a continuous laser burst, but this is time-limited — after a few seconds, your laser will overheat and become useless until it cools down, leaving you completely vulnerable. To avoid this, you can take short bursts to save energy. But when small, high-speed enemies come at you in droves, good luck hitting each one of them individually. When all else fails, you can plant a bomb to take out a large number of enemies at once.
There are ways to upgrade the sphere that will give you a better chance at holding the mob. After destroying ships, you can collect their materials and use this currency to buy upgrades and repairs at the end of each level. One attachment will reduce the cooldown of the laser and the other will strengthen your shield.
Thanks to the overheating/cooling element, every decision feels high-stakes and Laser sphere all in all it’s a pretty engaging little action game. (Mike Freude’s music is also pretty solid). There are different sized enemies, each type moves at a different speed, and you really have to stay on your toes to make sure you’re making the best use of your laser for the threat that’s pressing the most at the moment. Otherwise, you will be unarmed when several dozen attackers are on you. you can buy Laser sphere For $6 in the Playdate Catalog.
