Assault Android Cactus

 
Developer: Witch Beam
Steam Release: Sep 2015
Hours Played: 9.5
Similar To: Forced Showdown / Leap of Fate / Nation Red / Nex Machina
Rating: 5/5 Stars

GAMEPLAY

Fingers at the ready boys and girls for you're in for one hell of a fight when you fire up this baby! Assault Android Cactus may not be the most memorable name to roll off the tongue but its intensely fast-paced action and the extreme killing spree involved will not make you forget it any time soon. This game stars a series of arena-style battles which you confront in twin-stick fashion by taking the role of a chosen mech, armed with her own particular weapon of choice plus a limited use special attack. Begin a level by getting dropped off into the futuristic arena and then it's a case of blasting, shooting and destroying your way through wave upon wave of destructible mechs of the corporation. Bask in the glory of a job well done at the end... and off you go again.
 

BALANCE & PACE

There are 25 unlockable levels to battle through with each lasting around two to five minutes. Your aim is to achieve the best score by making sure your multiplier doesn't reset to zero. This will only happen if you fail to kill something for about three seconds. So you just need to kill quickly and kill again and again very fast. Little white dots drop for you to collect to increase the power of your weapon and a green battery appears at intervals for you to fill your health bar. It's game over if this runs out. You also have a shield (represented by squares in the top left corner) and if these get depleted you'll get knocked out and have to spam the fire button rapidly to get on your feet again. Sessions are gripping and absorbing and always make you feel that you can do better so you'll forever be determinedly getting back on the saddle for another go.
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

Apart from the questionable title, AAC mostly gets things right. You'll eventually get a choice of nine female characters to play, all named after food or plants such as Aubergine, Shiitake and Liquorice. Each is issued with a different weapon: Cactus has her assault rifle; Coral carries a shotgun while Starch weilds a laser etc. There are five progressively difficult stages to unlock with each housing five levels. Action takes place on a futuristic spaceship as galloping tunes keep the energy high and ensures there is an urgent pace to proceedings. The graphics are top-notch but the young female voice-acting of the different robots really steals the show as each one blurts out their own special phrase when selected for action and when successfully beating a level.

PROGRESS SYSTEM

The progress system is excellent with plenty to keep you informed. On hitting Play, you scroll through and choose one mech from a cast of characters. Then, with your chosen character, you walk around one of five stages and stand on one of five portals. A panel is then revealed showing each robot's face, identified by their distinctive hair colour, with their grade for that level below it. These range from S+ and S through to A and B and then all the way down to C and D. Your best score along with how you rank in the world may also be revealed within the panel or on a proficient user-friendly leaderboard. Your grade is revealed after each battle by way of an interesting countdown method while your present score and high-score is also shown for cross-referencing. There is an endless and daily mode as well.      

   

CONCLUSION

It's clear that the developers of Assualt Android Cactus wished to polish their game so that it excelled in every area. Cracking gameplay and glorious graphics is all well and good but you ain't gonna attain greatness if you have a weak UI, crumby high-score chart and shoddily presented leaderboards. Thankfully, this game has it all covered. You get the crisp graphics, the amazing gameplay, the solid score system, the variety of characters, the slick level-select screen and the clear and informative high-score system. Not forgetting those grades beneath each face on the panel at the level-select screen so that you always have something meaningful to aim for on each run. Yep, rest assured, Assault Android Cactus comes at you with plenty to do and certainly the full package.