Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender

 
Developer: Dugan, Gabor, Electric Cafe
Steam Release: Feb 2014
Hours Played: 10.3
Similar To: Astro Tripper / Enemy Mind / Graceful Explosion Machine / Syder Arcade 
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
The oddly entitled Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender is a 16-bit style whimsical homage to the 1980s Williams' arcade classic, Defender. The fundamental gameplay is the same: move left and right, up and down in the not-so-typical 2D side-scrolling fashion (you can't usually move left) while shooting at enemies. At the same time ensure your cats are not plucked from the sea bed by the enemy and raised up to the surface to be destroyed. Constant glances at your scanner, at the top of the screen, is vital in order to anticipate and quell the dangers that await. Fluidity of movement is largely the same as Defender and apart from the obvious change of setting (from outer-space to under the sea), AK:MMD makes the main gameplay changes to do with those cats you need to protect.

  

BALANCE & PACE
These vulnerable cats (or humanoids in old money) sit on the sea bed and must be protected at all costs: (1) you cannot shoot and killl your own cats; (2) you do not have to swoop down and rescue them as they fall and (3) you only have three to keep track of. Add the fact that the landscape doesn't explode and throw you into a frenzied world of insanity if you lose all your kittens (it just marks the end of your game) and that's the basic tweaks covered. Other minor gameplay tweaks include the fact that you have a secondary weapon that loses its charge as you fire but which fires a more powerful salvo of bullets plus the addition of a multiplier (based on destroying enemies in as quick succession as possible) vital when going for a high score.
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
As opposed to the dark and foreboding world of Defender, AK:MMD is a bright and sparkling place with cool aqua blues and interesting coral formations. Add a sprinkling of brilliant sunshine and a glowing full moon surrounding an exotic and tropical underwater location and you get the idea. Explosions disturb this peace and are particularly well-done in this game. It is presented with a pixel-art aesthetic to give it a vintage flavour. The controls are very responsive and as you need to zip around and change direction with split-second timing it is definitely best played with an Xbox controller. You have plenty of information in the top left: lives left, power-up charge, score per enemy as well as the total score and wave on your scanner. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
AK:MMD comes with a campaign of 25 levels that you can play on either easy or normal setting. These levels are represented by little boxes that form a path and get unlocked as you play. A red box shows the level has been unlocked, blue shows that it's been completed and a golden brown box indicates that you've completed a clean level with all kittens safe and none destroyed. The campaign also has an Infinite Espresso level on both easy and normal setting which is essentially playing the game on endless mode where you have no breaks but go for a high-score. With the multiplier fluctuating as you go for quick kills this mode actually works really well and is a great addition. There is also an Arcade mode which has you completing the campaign level by level but which ends if you lose all lives.
 

CONCLUSION

On top of all this, you get leaderboards for each and every level (including Infinite Expresso) which shows your score and rank in relation to the rest of the world. For all these reasons, the progress system in this game is superb. I would even go so far as to say it is one of the most comprehensive, user-friendly and, hence, one of the best in a 2D shooter. If only other games took a leaf out of this book. Regardless of this, with the huge variety in modes, the ease with which you can navigate the menus and jump into a level, along with the easy and normal difficulties make AK:MMD a versatile and enjoyable casual game to leap into on a regular basis.