ssault Android Cactus is fully home grown. I've met the developer and he's a cool guy to have a beer with, as most indie developers are. Only a certain type of person can be attracted to the idea of working out of their garage full time and hopefully making a living after a couple of years. And they're always interesting to talk to; it's one of the big reasons why I love PAX, roaming the indie booth and talking to devs.
As for the game itself. In the beginning we're introduced to Cactus, a galaxy space police agent, as she performs a daring manoeuvre to burst into a rogue ship and take down the robots inside. Here she's introduced to the first three characters, all very well voice acted, who join a growing cast of androids you can choose to play as you work your way through the ship. The cutscene is surprisingly well animated and gives me nostalgic Saturday morning cartoons; it's not pretending to be anything more than that and I love it. Each character has their own primary weapon and secondary ultimate that recharges. Cactus has a blaster and a flame thrower. Holly, Lemon and Coral have some variation of this whether it be the blaster splits or a shotgun. Peanut and Liquorice have a cool Drill and Blade slice weapon. Aubergine has a helicopter like robot and Shiitake has a rail gun. My favourite is Starch by far; she looks cool; has a goofy care free smart aleck personality; and her kit includes a laser beam and homing rocket pods. The star of the show is easily the enemy and level design. The enemies have a wide variation from laser grid spawning turrets to robotic bee hives that burst into a swarm; and your classic grunts, fliers and brutes. The level design is awesome and the grids are constantly changing and evolving; the cube shifting into new layouts creating areas for enemies to climb up, new spawn zones and other pitfalls. All in all it stays true to the genre of bullet hells, always keeping you on your toes. At the same time it still feels casual enough that you could enjoy it with a young audience; and they get the hang of it quickly enough. The most wasted opportunity however is the power ups. There are a three kinds like freeze enemies, speed up character or add two droids to blast along side you; but that's it and it get stale after a while. I would have loved to see these augment each Android in some way and see some cool synergies. As a co-op game as well; it would have been interesting to see some difference class variations. Like a support android who can buff or create a shield similar to Medic in TF2. Last but not least is the bosses. Each one is a well designed puzzle; combining environmental hazards and a move kit in a perfect blend. They all have their own character and feel like kill machines in this world of dangerous robots. All in all in an awesome tight experience; perfect in length and incredibly impressive for what is mostly a one man developer.
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