Galacticon (Nintendo Switch) – The test

Galacticon was developed by Radin Games & Flying Arcades who also publish the game. Radin Games & Flying Arcades have always worked together, but they don’t have many games under their belt. The games they made are mostly games with a retro vibe.

Story

“Humans are tiny creatures from an outer belt planet who, through their biomechanical monstrosities, have invaded, exploited and enslaved most species in the galaxy.
The Interstellar Council met for the first time in ages and determined that there was only one option left to exterminate this scourge…an option that has always been feared because it could be as powerful as it is dangerous:
Summon the Galacticon, a legendary mortal creature – part god, part machine – and pray for all to go well…”.

The story is only a pretext to give a reason to its player to play, it’s an arcade game and who says arcade game says to obtain the best possible score. At the moment it is impossible to know if this system will be implemented when it is released, but for beta testers a small contest has been set up to see who will be the best before its official release, which is very nice of them.

Attack, Machine God!

It’s an arcade game where you just have to get as many points as possible, each level is quite unique with all the enemies having a specific pattern. To defend yourself against invaders you can shoot and use various bonuses while dodging your enemies by flying through the air. If you touch the edge of the levels with your character or your shots, everything will go to the other side of the screen which makes it possible to kill enemies who are opposite you and no more escape. You will have 5 possible bonuses to collect, get more time, kill all the enemies on the screen, get an extra life, be able to shoot in front and behind at the same time, be invincible for a short time.

You will have to kill everything you see and destroy cages that will let out aliens with 3 different colors. To pass from one level to another you will have to put 4 red, blue and brown aliens in 3 different ships, but you have to be careful since the relations between the aliens are not happy… The red and blue aliens are enemies so it do not put them together, the chestnuts are neutral and will not give points if they are mixed with the others. To fully understand the color alien system, here’s how it works:

4 same colors = 20000 points (maximum obtainable)

3 red/blue + 1 blue/red = 0 points (since it kills blue or red alone)

3 reds/blues + 1 brown = 10000 points (since browns are neutral)

2 red/2 blue + 2 brown = 5000 points

The game explains all these parameters to get maximum points, but it boils down to always putting 4 aliens of the same colors in a ship.

When the ships are filled with multicolored aliens, it’s time to join your ship by going to space. During the phase to join your ship, you will have to destroy, recover and avoid different elements to obtain your well-deserved points. It is also here that you can find secret points by passing a challenge which is not explained, but which will give you a minimum of 30000 points and to find these secrets you will have to go to the Galacticon site.

At the end of each game you get a QR code which allows access to the Galacticon site where a contest is present for beta testers and it will also give clues to secret challenges each time you collect the QR code, 1 death = 1 clue. The site will not only give clues, but also information on the creation of the game such as the evolution of the Galacticon logo.

An arcade game with an Atari vibe

The game clearly has graphics reminiscent of some arcade games, it does it quite well and we understand what we see. Simple graphics that work and that could make those who lived through that era nostalgic. The music is absent most of the time, but it’s always with a view to reminding old games such as Jecpac by Rareware a game with gameplay very similar to Galacticon, fortunately Galacticon is a much more complex and fun version than Jecpac.

The few musics are nice, but it’s a shame to have so few of them and that they only activate during the phase of returning to the ship and obtaining the bonus of the shield.