The swarm is merciless. Every time I naively over-confidently time my laser sweeps and think I finally have the advantage over the enemy, the next wave comes tenfold and puts me back in my place. I break the swarm, the swarm grows stronger and overtakes me, and our little dance begins again.
~ inside Playdate, from Pulp creator Shaun Inman, pits you and an overheated space laser against the world. From the game description:
The light in the sky is fading. The vast shell surrounding the sick star is the last bastion of civilization that has witnessed a cosmic extinction event. But at the edge of the darkness, a group of people lurk, maddened by the darkness, intent on extinguishing the last light.
Your job is to defend your Spear from incoming attackers by using the crank to control the direction of the laser beam and ‘A’ to fire it. You can fire the laser continuously by pressing ‘A’, but this is a time-limited action. After a few seconds, the laser will overheat and become unusable until it cools down, leaving you completely vulnerable. To prevent this, you can instead fire in short bursts to conserve power. However, when small, fast-moving enemies swarm you, good luck trying to snipe them individually. If all else fails, you can deploy bombs to take out a large number of enemies at once.
There are ways to improve the spheres that will give you a better chance of stopping the Legion. After destroying ships, you can collect the ship’s materials and use the currency you get from them at the end of each level to purchase upgrades and repairs. One additional feature reduces the cooldown time of the lasers and another enhances the shields.
Every decision feels like a high-stakes decision thanks to the overheat/cooldown factor. Laser Spear The result is a very charming little action game (and Mike Freuden’s music is pretty good, too). There are enemies of various sizes, each type moves at a different speed, and you have to be on your toes at all times to make the most of your lasers on the most pressing threat at the moment, otherwise you’ll end up without a weapon when dozens of attackers are right above you. Laser Spear It sells for $6 in the Playdate catalog.
