If you fancy a little trip down memory lane to the bygone era of twin-stick shooters, then the good folks at Witch Beam have you covered. Assault Android Cactus brings the nostalgia straight to you, featuring solid mechanics, accurate controls and the ever welcome mantra of easy to learn, yet hard to master gameplay. Can it hold its own in the modern arena of gaming, or is a few steps back considered a few steps too far?
Assault Android Cactus, for all intents and purposes, is a fairly weird name; it refers to the titular android character, ‘Cactus’ who, I guess, assaults things. In true 90’s, Saturday morning anime fashion, the overly cheesy, tongue in cheek humour plays towards the theme of the game. A welcome early cutscene sets the tone well, with the headstrong Cactus crashing her ship into an unexpectedly armed mining craft, hopefully before being berated by her superior.
It’s at this point that you’ll be briefly introduced to a few other members of your rag tag band of cutesy androids. Instead of being able to customise guns or abilities, you’ll pick a character that has a primary and a heavy weapon, with the heavy doing significantly more damage, but overheating quickly. The green-haired protagonist Cactus for example, wields an accurate machine gun as her primary weapon, and can switch to her heavy flamethrower to take out the larger foes. With each playable character having their own individual weapons, quips and appearances, it’s a good idea to give each of them a quick test as soon as you unlock them, especially seeing as some are more suited to different levels than others.
As is tradition in a thumbstick shooter, you’ll be using the left stick to move about the place, whilst using the right stick to aim your weapon. The right shoulder buttons are used to fire and the left ones switch to your heavy weapon. Granting a few frames of invincibility in the process, it becomes largely something you may come to utilise in the later levels. A minor gripe being that seeing as 99% of the time you’ll be firing your weapon anyway; it would be nice to have the option to just have your gun shoot upon aiming with the right thumbstick, instead of also having to hold either R1 or R2.
Whilst this might all be sounding a little familiar to anyone who’s tinkered in this genre before, Assault Android Cactus does have a few sneaky tricks up its sleeve in order to set it aside from the pack. Most other games such as this rely upon precision movement during ‘bullet hell’ stages to succeed; AAC on the other hand, relies upon its battery system for uniqueness. During the game, your battery will constantly drain at a fixed rate (unless you die, then it’ll also lose a small amount) with the game ending if your battery runs dry. Acting as a pseudo time limit, you’ll have to chew through the enemy waves as fast as android-ly possibly, hoping for enemies to drop re-charging packs. It’s not as strict as it could’ve been, but it does constantly keep you on your toes and pushes you to clear enemies quickly.
One thing the game does exceptionally well, is making you feel extremely powerful upon picking up one of the three, randomly dropped, power ups. One will drastically increase your movement speed whilst also increasing your pickup radius, helping you hoover all the upgrade tokens up. Another will freeze all onscreen enemies, letting you have a seconds respite whilst prioritising your damage; whilst the third will summon two drones to your side that fire alongside you.
The arenas themselves can pose just as much a headache as the enemies at times too, some will have conveyer belts around the outside that can affect your (and the enemies) movement speed and others will turn the lights off, leaving you panicky with a torch. Some will actively change the playable area mid-fight, making you constantly wonder where the battle will flow to next. Yet as difficult as this might sound, they’re nothing on the games’ boss battles however. With each distinct boss having their attack patterns change as you whittle down segments of their health, each encounter must be memorised and practised. Different characters also excel at certain bosses too; some occasions require a shotgun, whereas others might benefit from homing bullets, if you’re struggling, swapping to a different android can often help.
Getting your money’s worth out of AAC will largely depend on the player. A run through of the campaign mode’s 25 levels won’t take an eternity, but if you’re into leaderboards, personal rankings and generally improving at the game, you can sink a lot of time into trying to get those fabled S+ ranks. There’s also a daily challenge, an endless survival type mode and a boss run that are each worth a shot if you’re up to it. Game modifiers, concept art and music from within the game can also be unlocked by spending your earned points too; it’s a nice touch that gives you a little something extra to work towards. Sadly there’s no online multiplayer however, so to get your co-op fix, you’ll be restricted to the couch. I’m sure there are reasons behind this, but it is a little disappointing in this age of consoles to be stuck without it.
As for the look and feel of the game, most importantly it runs smoothly, the frames never drop when the action heats up, leaving you no excuse when you fail miserably. The art style matches well with the theme and the constant gunfire never really gets to a grating point. Each character having their own little quips and responses is a welcome touch too.
Assault Android Cactus is a fantastic foray into the past, and Witch Beam’s take on the twin thumbstick shooter feels as fresh now as it once did years ago. It’s easy for newcomers to get into, whilst also giving the hardcore something to sink their voracious fangs into upon completion. After all, those S+ ranks aren’t going to earn themselves.
