- A party game in space with spaceships!
- Only right turns are allowed as you fly around to blast your opponents
- Navigate arena blocks, hazards, and grab power-ups to be the last one flying
Space… the frontier less final than literally most of the ocean. We’ve explored more of space than we have of Earth’s own water, and that’s probably one of the main reasons we keep making stories about it. We have so many adventures that take place on distant planets pulled right from the depths of imagination and, of course, space itself.
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At one point or another, you’ve likely wondered what it’d be like to fly a spaceship past the stars and visit strange worlds. Of course, that’s assuming you don’t run into other spaceship pilots and have to duke it out in a place where gravity is a distant dream. That’s the scenario Rusty Moyher is creating with Astro Party EX, a 2D battle game about spaceships (and their pilots) fighting it out. But we have to know whether it’s a fight we want to join.
What is Astro Party EX?
Whenever you have “party” in the title of anything, regular rules concerning plot and narration are just so much confetti that is appreciated but not the main focus. In Astro Party EX, if there is a story, it’s implied and may be theoretical at best. However, there are pieces, and I’m going to strive to put them together. It’s the future where space travel is commonplace, and anyone has the potential to become a crackerjack pilot… even animals. Yes, this is a future where animals have evolved to the point where they can pilot their own spaceships. Still, with such a large pool of pilots, it’s only natural to want to test your skills, and so these pilots compete in simulated space arenas where they can fly, manoeuvre, attack, defend, and float their way to pilot superiority. Your opponent may be a bunny, but they’ll hop on those blasters in a second.
Astro Party EX to the MAX
Whenever you get into a spaceship, the bar is already set pretty high. While Astro Party EX isn’t trying to send you to the stratosphere, it’s definitely trying to take you to the upper levels. For a party game, the secret is having a core gimmick that’s both simple and capable of causing maximum chaos. This is nailed here with the turning mechanic, or rather, the lack of a turning mechanic. Your ship can only turn right and will only turn as long as you’re holding down one of two select buttons. That means that any time you’re caught out in the open, you’re a spinning duck that needs to keep cool if you want to land in a direction that will take you to safety.
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