Review: Backfire

It is no secret that I have an affinity for older games. If you happen to catch one of my streams you can sometimes see me struggle through an older game that I have very different memories of. I always thought that Star Wars: Bounty Hunter was an amazingly well done game. Well I played the first couple levels only to find out my memory was rose colored.

The people at Hamco Games however have an affinity for even OLDER games, games that were played on the Atari or ColecoVision. You know, those difficult to look at, very one dimensional games that somehow survived the late 70’s and early 80’s. That’s what you get when you play this, a field trip into the early 80’s where all games were made of squares and the controls were very simple. And that’s NOT a bad thing.

The Story

Seeing as this is an homage to the birthplace of gaming, there really isn’t too much story to get invested in. You can plays as Spike (green) or Sotira (pink) as you fly and shoot through blocky places. Who you pick has no basis on anything, it is just a color swap.

As the pink or green little blob on the screen you fight against space robots and aliens to keep humanity safe. Thankfully you have a friend out there, you can buy upgrades for your little blob with the items that are dropped by defeated enemies.

That’s it, that’s the story.

The Graphics

Seeing as this is a homage to 80’s retro the game’s graphics aren’t that much to look at. However, due to the fact that I grew up on a CRT television and the fact the developers added this feature into the game, I simply love the look. Just look at that screen shot, that is from a flat screen computer monitor and it looks like I’m playing on an old Sony Trinitron television. I simply adore it!

The colors pop on your screen and the sounds are simply amazing and very retro. The colors in the game let you know what walls you can go through and who to shoot. I really didn’t expect to get a lot out of this title, but even when I died I wanted to keep going until I finished the level. This is a fun game to play when you only have a few minutes to game.

The Controls

I don’t have a controller for my computer because I rarely PC game. My Editor has be careful what he gives me in case my computer doesn’t handle it. Obviously this game can be handled by my computer, but I had to use the keyboard to control my little blob. ESC is pause and upgrade your little blob and E is switch sub-weapon that is fired by the Right Trigger on the mouse. The mouse points you in the direction that you want to aim. Letters “WASD” turn you around so that you can shoot your little square.

The controls are easy to master even for a noob using a keyboard like me. What you really have to understand is angles and ricochets. Every little square you shoot out will bounce around and can cause you damage. So if you shoot too much you can turn your level into a bullet hell. Keep in mind at the beginning you can only take two hits, then dead. So mind your shooting, or get really good with angles.

Verdict

Backfire is an extremely fun game that reminds gamers of their roots. I was too young for my parent to purchase an Atari, but I remember playing Pitfall on it at my friends house, and playing Backfire really brought back some awesome nostalgic feelings. However, it isn’t the nostalgia that made me enjoy the game, it has a perfect amount of challenge, goofiness and overall fun to make you want to come back and beat that level even if you keep failing. I can attest to the fact that I took many a try for some of the levels to be beaten. Once they were beaten though, I felt great!

This review is based on a review copy provided by the developer