Mini-Review Orbo on Playdate

 Orbo Mini-Review

When it comes to playing games, one thing I'm always looking for are unique experiences. Most games now take on the challenge of uniqueness in their characters, story, visuals, presentation and more, but a lot of games don't have the opportunity to branch outside of the limitations of their toolset. In video game's case, its the console/computer and controller. As a developer, you don't have the chance to tweak things very often. With the Playdate, it gives developers a new and fun tool to mess around with in the crank on the side of the handheld. A lot of games use the crank well, and one game that I've been enjoying recently that utilizes the crank is a game called Orbo made by thermay.io.

Orbo is a simple, yet addictive shooter and the concept of the game is simple. You control one of the only analog space satellites and proceed to destroy space junk and other AI satellites that are causing issues within Earth's orbit. Your analog satellite is positioned in the center of the screen, and to rotate your satellite and shoot down the opposition you use the Playdate’s crank. Shooting happens automatically as you're turning, so there's no need to worry about pressing any additional buttons. As a game, with a concept and gameplay so easy to understand, you have to nail the basics which thankfully Orbo does. Shooting down the enemy satellites is satisfying, and because you’re in space enemies fly at you in unique ways based on your gravity. It's also easy in arcade style games to feel like death or mistakes are the game's fault, but with the control on offer with the Playdate's crank being so precise, every time I die I know it's my fault. The game offers the option to recalibrate your crank in order to line up with the satellite a little better, but I honestly have never needed to calibrate. The presentation again while simple, really shows well on the Playdate's LCD screen. Another thing you can run the risk of with a game so simple is repetitiveness and lack of replay value. Thankfully the gameplay switches up with pseudo power ups getting introduced as you score higher, and global ranking to see where you stack against other players.

In summary, Orbo is a easy to understand game that takes advantage of being on a unique platform and ends up creating an experience that's both fun, relaxing and satisfying to enjoy. Whether played in ten minute spurts, or longer play sessions to get a high score, Orbo is a great time, and if you have a Playdate its an easy recommendation from me. As I was writing this, I got the urge to play some Orbo and got a new high score which you'll see below. Hopefully I can get another hundred or so points to rank in the top ten globally! As always, the link to the game will be below, and thank you for taking the time to read!

All screenshots are taken from a Playdate handheld

https://play.date/games/orbo/

Devil Blade Reboot Review

Games have never been easier to make in this day and age. With tons of resources and engines available, anyone could create their own game if they set their mind to it. Back in the day, it was a little trickier to create games and experiences, but some companies wanted to change that. I'm sure you've heard of the long running RPG Maker franchise that has been available for people to create their experiences, but have you heard of Dezaemon? Dezaemon was available to people with some 5th generation consoles like the Saturn, PlayStation and N64 to create shmups. One such game created with this engine was the original Devil Blade, featured on Dezaemon Plus as a demo game for you to enjoy. Both versions of the game were created by Shigatake, better known for their illustrations featured in Vanillaware games like Muramasa, Dragon's Crown and Odin Sphere to name a few. Shigitake decided to remake his 90's shmup with a new engine, STGbuilder, and that's what we're taking a look at today. Is this game worth your time? Let's take a deeper look.

Devil Blade is a pretty straight forward shoot em' up with elements of games from the 32-bit era and beyond. The game's visuals have great detail in its pixel art, which is to be expected from Vanillaware staff, but even still it really captures that 5th generation of console vibe. That isn't to say that its all old school, with great lighting effects in the backgrounds, and more bullets on screen than could be on a 5th gen console. Gameplay-wise, Devil Blade takes place over 5 full stages with the final boss having his own 6th stage. This feels just right for a shmup, and you can beat the game in about a half hour. This isn't to say there isn't reason to continue playing, as the scoring system has several unique aspects to it. Starting off, each enemy you kill can have a multiplier added on to them, and that increases the closer you are to the enemy when they die. This encourages a risky gameplay style with a lot of memorization on enemy patterns and spawns in order to maintain that multiplier, because if you stray away from enemies the multiplier will fall. This risky gameplay is even further accentuated by the berserk mode. Once you've killed enough enemies within a close range, you'll enter berserk mode which increases the maximum score multiplier from 5x to 20x. This is the essence of Devil Blade, fly up close and personal with your enemy, and be rewarded with the high-score. That's not all however, as there's another way to activate berserk mode with your bombs. By default you get 3 bombs each life, and when the bomb button is tapped you get a screen clearing attack that can really save your butt in a desperate situation. However, when holding the bomb button, you'll use one of your bombs to go straight into berserk mode, allowing you to rack up hundreds of thousands of points very quickly. If you can maintain your berserk meter throughout the entire stage, you'll be rewarded with heavy bonuses at the end of the stage. With the scoring system laid out, you then have two options for playing Devil Blade, survival or high score?  

Let's say this is your first shmup, and all this scoring talk is nice, but if you can't get past the first boss what's the point? Thankfully, I believe that Devil Blade is the perfect beginner shmup for anyone wanting to get into the genre! Straight from the get-go you have 4 difficulty options; easy, normal, hard and insane, with insane not allowing you to go below a certain multiplier, otherwise you die. Easy difficulty not only gives you easier bullet patterns (that are similar on higher difficulties allowing you to learn if you decide to move up a difficulty) but it also gives you auto-bomb functions, where if a bullet strikes you it will automatically use one of your bombs instead, which will also give you a shield to prevent a hit. The more you play the game as well, you get coins that can be used to unlock extra goodies, as well as continues to use in the main game mode in case you lose all of your lives. The ultimate goal in any shmup though is to beat the game without using a continue, and I believe that with a little time investment anyone could one credit clear the game on easy difficulty. I wouldn't call myself the best shmup player, but I was able to one credit clear both easy and normal difficulties within a few hours of picking the game up. As mentioned earlier, the more you play the game the more coins you'll get to unlock extra goodies, and lets speak on some of those now. 

In addition to extra continues, you'll unlock things like wallpapers and artwork that were used in development of the game. You'll also be able to unlock the games soundtrack to play in the music player, which by itself is enough reward. The soundtrack for this game is electric to put it plainly. The music is composed mainly by Hasu, with some tracks having additional help from Shigitake, and after playing the game it is easily one of my favorite shmup soundtracks period. With rock/metal guitars, and remixes from the original release it really kicks the entire experience up a notch. My favorites are tracks 3, 4 and 11 which are the first stage music, first boss music and the 4th stage boss music I believe. That's not the only thing your coins can get you, as you can also unlock an updated arranged version of the original Devil Blade! This version maintains its older graphics, but carries over some of the scoring systems from the newer reboot such as the berserk mode. You also have the choice of unlocking the older soundtrack as well so you can choose which versions you want to hear during gameplay which is a nice touch. 

With all this being said, it is no doubt in my mind that Devil Blade is a highlight release of 2024, and the game that I didn't know that I wanted. The game itself is a passion project, and it shows in all the greatest ways possible. Shigitake spent the last 5 years remaking the game that got him into the industry, and it really captures everything great about shmups while adding some fresh ideas and goodies for replay value. If you haven't heard or seen this game at all, I've linked the steam page and bandcamp page for the soundtrack below. Please check it out, I can't sing this game's praises high enough. Thank you for reading, and let me know if you play Devil Blade!

Links and picture sources below:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2882440/DEVIL_BLADE_REBOOT/

https://hasu2010.bandcamp.com/album/devil-blade-reboot