🛸🚀 Habroxia 2 | Review | Nintendo Switch | "After a ‘mental reboot’, I realised the subtle genius of the design" 🛸🚀 @LillymoGames #GameDev #IndieGames

Upon initially playing Habroxia 2, the game didn’t quite click with me and it was very much my fault. 

After a ‘mental reboot’, I realised the subtle genius of the design and from that moment onwards, my trousers were very much down.

A pixel-art shooter with saucy, twin-stick controls, the two things that set Habroxia 2 apart from its contemporaries are the ability to shoot in a 360 arc - as opposed to the more traditional ‘straight-on’ style - and the core gameplay loop, which isn’t so much about smashing through levels but instead focuses on incremental progress, learning to twitch your way past unforgiving enemies and snaking, multi-path stages, collecting enough cash to upgrade your ship and weapons so that if (when) you get bested, you can re-try with slightly more of a chance.

Whilst other games can end up feeling a slog with this gameplay mechanic, Lillymo Games, through what I can only assume is alien magic, perfectly pitch everything in a way that feels entirely fair and balanced.

The collision detection is pixel-perfect and everything just feels….right. Each death felt completely justified and was down to me as opposed to any sense of overwhelming odds.

It feels entirely possible to me that there are people in the world that could complete this game without dying, as the game feels like it can be mastered on pure skill alone. I am not one of those men.

Another nice touch is the ability to choose your music. Habroxia 2 has a strong, retro-styled soundtrack that is begging for me to purchase it on vinyl and I often found myself flicking through them to settle on one that could accompany me through what I usually incorrectly assumed would be THE run.

"For the rest though, lock and load!"