Super Space Club Review by Ellery Woods Parker III

The following is a review by Ellery Woods Parker III, who is joining the Complete Xbox Team. Super Space Club is available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.

Bottom Line Up Front

Super Space Club has vibes for days—it is vibrant, subtly geometric, and paired with lo-fi beats.  This recipe provides for a forward thinking take on the retro arcade shooter.  The game is wildly approachable regardless of preferred genre, and therefore, is a perfect addition to anyone’s library.  In a world where it feels like larger studios are approaching games with a rinse and repeat formula, SSC gives us a fresh take on a classic experience.

BLUF: RECOMMENDED

Description: 

The foundation of the game is where the approachability comes into play: Zoom around space, killing enemies and collecting their stardust all while avoiding these baddies doing the same to you.

There are a few ways you can get your space defending on:

The Part-Timer: Dive into space for a run to kill some time…and some enemies.

The Upgrader: Prioritise unlocking characters in The Clubhouse, weapons in The Armory, and ships in The Hangar (this is where that stardust comes into play).

The Mission Crusher: Focus on completing the given missions, each with a handful of objectives to tackle.

And of course, there is always a melding of the above for a wholistic space defending experience.  Additionally, the way the game is set up allows for self-imposed challenges like waves completed or stardust collected.

Character Customisation:

There is no character customisation, rather five pre-determined characters.  Only Xander, the defender, is unlocked at the start.  You can use your spacedust to unlock the others: Roscoe, the stealthy; Sasha, the swift; Olly, the explosive; and Gertie, the charger.  Each character comes with a unique ability that recharges after a set amount of time.

Gameplay Mechanics

Objectives:  You play as a space defender and are given a set of objectives for each mission.  These objectives range from stardust collected, to enemies destroyed, and beyond.  The gameplay loop goes something like this:

destroy all enemies in each wave – collect spacedust—unlock and upgrade

Traversing: Each ship feels different but the controls are smooth as silk AND fun to zip around.  There are five ships options available with the Pyramid accessible at the start.  Using stardust will unlock the Chunker, the Bolt, the Floater, and the Tuner.  You are not given a damage indicator and therefore, most likely, won’t know when you are about to die forcing a somewhat blind strategic approach.  While I can see the merits of this decision, I would have like the option to see or hide a damage indicator.

Combat:  Similar to the characters and ships, you start off with one weapon unlocked with the ability to unlock four others: the Seeker, Doubles, Firework, and Spray.  A thoughtful crinkle to the combat is that you don’t have unlimited access to your ammo.  Ammo costs energy to fire and said energy gets depleted… which segues nicely into an accessibility feature I’d like to highlight.

Accessibility

An accessibility feature I really appreciated has to do with your energy.  When your energy bar is filled, you have the ability to shoot your weapon and when it is completely depleted, you can’t.  Getting damaged and shooting your weapon decrease your energy bar and once it gets to zero, the screen darkens, the music muffles, and an ‘energy critical’ banner blinks at the bottom of the screen to clue you in to the fact that you are out of energy….and to get the heck out of dodge!

Other

• Replayability

This game is the epitome of replayable.  There are objectives for each round if you are a task-driver person.  If you are only looking for a chill gaming sesh, great news, I have not gotten bored of the gameplay loop yet!

• Art Style

This vibrant take on geometric illustration is easy on the eyes.  While your environment never changes, its color palette does, mimicking a new biome.

• Audio
  • Score/OST & Sound Design: All done by Fat Bard—a gem in the video game music and sound design space. Both my wife and 9-year-old immediately commented on the killer music.  It elevates the chill vibes given off by the visuals and I can’t think of a better pairing.
  • I thought this might be a great game to pass the controller around on the couch with my family. Individually, I had my 9 and 12-year-old play the game and tell me what they thought.  As suspected, the kids picked up the mechanics immediately with me only telling them to “shoot the other ships.”  What I wasn’t expecting is that both kids, independently, told me that the game was hard.
• Achievements
  • 27 for the 1k gamerscore

Summary:

Super Space Club is an awesomely crafted game and at only £12.49, a steal for one that has high replay value.  The way the characters, weapons, and ships are set up, there is an opportunity for seamlessly expanding in the future.

And lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t celebrate the developer, Graham Reid, and the sole developer of the game!