Jets n’ Guns is Throwback Fun

You know, it’s been quite a while since I’ve played a side-scroller. In a world where games are now defined by the strengths and complexities of their 3-D engines, their devious and lifelike enemy AI, and the balance and depth of the multiplayer component, the fact that there are game studios out there still making single-player 2-D side-scrollers, reminiscent of the games that we used to plop down our quarters for down at the local arcade, seems almost quaint. As such, I admit that, when I was assigned to review Rake In Grass’s newest offering, Jets n’ Guns, I did not expect to be impressed.

I was wrong.

Installation was dead-simple and I was up and running in less than 2 minutes. The game opens with a pulsing, hard-rock soundtrack, delivered by Machinae Supremacy. I’ve never heard of these guys before, but whoever they are they know how to write game music; within the first thirty seconds, the soundtrack had me bopping in my seat, ready to blast some baddies.

Launching the game on “Normal” difficulty, I immediately realized that this was a hard game – break-your-keyboard-out-of-frustration hard. Waves and waves of enemy ships flooded my way from the right side of my screen, launching a variety of missiles, plasma balls, bullets and flames at my fighter. It was like Choplifter on crystal meth and a caseload of Jolt cola. I cursed. I laughed. I was having fun.

Following multiple deaths and restarts, I finished the first level, and was taken to an upgrade screen. Jets n’ Guns uses a system that allows you to collect money from captured weapons caches, bounties and gold drops and convert that cold hard cash into hot, hot weapons. This adds a refreshing element of complexity to an otherwise straightforward shooter. Everything on your fighter can be modified and upgraded: engines, armor, cooling, guns, bombs, missiles, even the paint scheme are represented by customizable slots. Purchased gear can also be further upgraded to more powerful versions, adding additional firepower as the difficulty ramps upwards later in the game.

And you’ll need the extra firepower. While the game’s innovations are limited strictly to the upgrades you can purchase for your ship, the otherwise standard shooter gameplay is devilishly difficult. Combat follows the tried-and-true “waves of enemies, scattered with tougher mini-bosses and stationary guns, ending with a massive Boss battle” formula, but thanks to the game’s combination of lush graphics and over-the-top weapons, I generally never felt that I had “been here and done that” already.

While some strategy is necessary when selecting which guns, missiles and bombs to purchase for your ship, generally the most powerful weapon is the “best” one if you get stuck on a level that seems un-winnable. I was occasionally faced with a wall of enemies, or a particular environmental challenge or Boss that seemed unkillable, but switching to a more powerful gun (sometimes by selling less powerful weapons that had lost their effectiveness) always got me through. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the game gives you the same amount of cash when selling a weapon as when you bought it, which makes those inevitable times when you buy a weapon that you end up hating (or worse, buying the wrong one by mistake) completely painless. Different load-outs can be tested on a firing range before launching the next mission, which was a great touch.

The only complaint this reviewer had about this aspect of the game is that there is a single weapon, acquired in the last third of the game, that’s basically so “uber” that after receiving it, you really don’t need to ever use another gun, except for novelty reasons. While the game has a wealth of different guns that shoot everything from super-hot plasma to “a stream of limited duration universes,” (and I purchased and played with nearly every one of them) I always found myself running back to my trusty “Old Sparky” uber-weapon when the going got tough.

It is important to note that the omnipotent gun I mention is given to the player every time they clear and re-clear a particular level and can in fact be equipped in every one of your ship’s three forward weapons slots, leading to a fairly boring-looking-yet-ludicrously-powerful build. If the designers had provided a bit more variety in the high-end weapons, or had even only allowed you to slot this particular weapon in a single weapons slot, it would have been a better choice.

As it was, my third play-through was very easy since my multiple upgraded cannons of incomparable power were complete and instant death came for almost anything that came towards me. Minions, mini-bosses, gun emplacements, even much of the incoming missile and projectile fire all evaporated like dew in the path of a blowtorch as I bored my way through level after level of suddenly impotent bad guys. This, combined with the relatively low amount of different missions (about a dozen altogether) hurt the game’s Value score. Hopefully, Rake in Grass will have enough success with Jets n’ Guns that they will publish an “add-on pack” of additional missions and more compelling weapons.

The main limitation of Jets n’ Guns, however is its length. This is a game that even a player without twitch-reflexes can expect to finish in one or two evenings. When the last mission is complete, the game allows you to start over a second time, against tougher opponents, but that’s about all. This is the only way that you can afford some of the more expensive weapons and upgrades, however, so I still found myself having fun the second and even the third time around.

With Jets n’ Guns, Rake in Grass Studios has created an engaging little game, suitable for anyone that enjoys the occasional side-scrolling blast-fest. The game’s fairly low system demands assure that it runs smoothly on any PC made in the last several years, including laptops. The content is pleasingly comic and cartoonish; however parents may want to screen the game before allowing children to play. While the game is, at heart, a light-hearted “blast the aliens” type of affair, certain elements, namely the ability to blast tiny astronauts and soldiers, complete with pixilated jetting blood and explosive, though cartoonish, dismemberment accompanied by screams of pain might be inappropriate for younger players. The game does have an option to turn off the gore, but the tiny infantry still dies with blood-curdling shrieks as they are blown-up, electrocuted, roasted, nuked, spindled, folded and/or mutilated. There is also an occasion where some mild profanity is used in a transition screen.

THE SCORES:

Gameplay: While Jets n’ Guns really brings nothing to the table that hasn’t been done elsewhere, the gameplay that is dished up is fast, furious and fun. The game feels challenging without feeling cheesy; I never once, even when running through a level for the twentieth time, complained that the game felt impossibly difficult, and usually a rethinking of my weapons load-out proved to be the weak link in my strategy.

Graphics: {I]Jets n’ Guns is, despite its fairly sophisticated graphics wizardry, a 2-D experience harkening back to a time when games only needed a few meg of RAM to run effectively. The developers spruced the game environment up with lush particle effects, glowing explosions and outrageous weapons graphics, making it a nonstop visual treat. And best of all, you won’t need a $400 video card upgrade to appreciate them – Jets n’ Guns ran on a variety of systems and looked great on all of them.

Audio: Audio is adequate and gets the job done, with no annoyances or other distracting effects. The hard rocking soundtrack is professionally recorded and feels like a totally appropriate match for the game’s over-the-top visuals. Be on the lookout for an in-game cameo from the soundtrack band, Machinae Supremacy.

Value: Obtaining a copy of Jets n’ Guns is easy. Simply go to the designer’s web site and download either a 19MB demo version, or order the complete game (a 75MB download) for $20 USD. People with fast connections probably won’t even blink at the size of this download, but if you are connecting to the web via a dial-up connection and the size of the download scares you, you can purchase a copy on CD for an additional $5.

$20 for a game that you very well might beat in an evening or two might seem steep, but since the game can be loaded on almost any PC (including laptops) that you might possibly own, Jets n’ Guns might very well become your “time killer” of choice when you have to travel, waste ten minutes between classes or find something to do on a boring conference call. If the developers had included more levels and/or introduced any differences in the game on subsequent replays (beyond a few short Boss battles tossed in here and there) then this score would have been higher. It is to be hoped that Rake in Grass Studios will reap enough benefits from this game to put out an expansion pack, hopefully priced in the $5 range if not for free, for people that previously registered a copy.

Curve: While I hate to give such a solid and fun title such a low score in this area, there’s really nothing innovative to Jets n’ Guns’ presentation or gameplay, and if not for the ability to reconfigure your fighter’s weapons and purchase upgrades, I would have said that this was a completely “retro” game. But, don’t let this score dissuade you from checking it out – anyone that’s either a fan of the side-scroll genre or remembers fondly the days when “computer gaming” meant plunking your quarters into a Defender machine down at the arcade will feel right at home playing Jets n’ Guns.