The Gamer Social Club UK team recently attended London Games Fest and played some excellent indies that will see full or early access releases in the near future. One that really stood out to us was ‘cute-em-up’ (a play on shoot-em-up), Astro Burn.
Featuring in our top games of the show, Astro Burn is a side-scrolling shooter with a pixel art style and plenty of cats. Taking feedback from the shmup community in development of the game, studio Beyond the Pixels doubled down on cats and other zany animals for their new debut title. Astro Burn is influenced heavily by some of the genre’s greatest.
If you’ve not heard of the game before and would like to see more, we were lucky enough to have a full interview with passionate Creator, Haz:
Is Astro Burn worth the price of admission in early access? Our early access review.
Early Access Impressions
Astro Burn’s early access release offers the game’s first 7 stages, with 4 more to be added when the game reaches it’s 1.0 release. There are four difficulty levels, from easy to extreme which is a real challenge.
During my time with the game, I completed those 7 on normal difficulty in roughly 30-minutes and completed the first couple of stages on extreme. As someone who is not skilled at shmups, I was quite proud to have reached that point. But I expect for the very passionate shmup community, extreme is a solid challenge here. Any guesses for how many lives you have?*
I had played the first stage at London Games Fest so knew what to expect, but was very pleased to see how much variety there is in the currently available stages. With a variety of enemy types on different, varying appearances and idiosyncratic bosses, each roughly 5-minute stage always presented me with something new. One thing I did really like, was that one of the game’s stages changed from being vertical to horizontal. This gave a whole different dynamic to the way enemies were reaching the play space, thus the way I needed to move around the screen.
I particularly enjoyed the game’s early boss battles as they threw different obstacles and items towards me. Though unfortunately I felt the final two bosses – a cat/mermaid hybrid, ‘Puuurrr-maid’ and a giant pink octopus – need some work as they were basic and dull fights compared to those that came before.
Fundamentally, shooting is very satisfying in Astro Burn – even if a little too loud and I did turn the effects down. There’s a fun array of weapons and items to collect for your arsenal that drop in such abundance that you’re constantly firing something new at your foes.
The game also has a unique ‘catnip’ meter that builds as you destroy enemies. Once the meter has been filled you can press B to unleash your anime ‘meodoooken’ attack that essentially screen wipes all non-boss enemies, allowing you to get out of jail free when things get busy. As feedback for the full release, I would say that the meter fills a little too easily on lower difficulties and does too much damage to bosses. It is, however, very fun to use.
Visually, Astro Burn is delightful to play. Colourful, quirky and as bananas as the developers could make it, there is so much to look at whilst you’re blasting your way. There is never too much going on that you can’t see what you’re doing and the anime / pixel art design is adorable.
In Story Mode, our hero Astro and her robot companion offer some fun dialogue with bosses before they’re taken on. It’s dumb, it’s silly but it’s entertaining and there are some fun cat puns in there too that got a chuckle and eye roll out of me. If you want to, the game is fully playable in couch co-op.
My time with Astro Burn’s early access was entirely on Steam Deck where the game performed and looked excellent.
*9, of course!
What’s to Come
The studio are hard at work in adding the final four stages to the game, which are planned to arrive later this year. That’s not all though, there are many other gameplay updates and quality of life improvements to come.
In the game’s roadmap which can be found on the Steam page, the studio are working on an upgrade system for Asto, enabling them to be more powerful including regen abilities.
Another gameplay enhancement is combo streaks that will be useful for players looking to ace the leaderboards. Scores can be shared to Discord leaderboards meaning there’ll be the opportunity for intense high-score attempts with more bonus points.
A few other updates include an ASMR mode and ‘Cat TV mode’ which “is designed specifically for your cats to watch while you take a break”.
Thankfully, Beyond the Pixels will be working on audio enhancements too. I did find the game’s audio levels to be a little off, with weapons drowning out the satisfying soundtrack.
Physical Release
Beyond the Pixels are offering something incredibly rare with the launch of Astro Burn. The developers love physical media and the ownership that brings. When the game is complete, they will offer a PC physical release with a difference. The game will be shipped as a USB which can be plugged into any computer DRM-free, and it’ll be housed in what looks like a SNES cart. Glorious:
Final Thoughts
There’s a few rough edges for now, but the core ‘cute-em-up’ action is good old fashioned shmup fun. Chaotic and gorgeous to look at, Astro Burn is a shooter that is worth playing in early access and keeping an eye on for the full release.
I very much look forward to seeing the full Astro Burn 1.0 later this year, in particular to see what Beyond the Pixels have created for the remaining bosses.
From speaking to the developer at London Games Fest, they’re very passionate about community feedback so I’m confident a more polished final game is coming. If you’re playing Astro Burn in early access, keep sharing all your feedback in their Discord.
Astro Burn is now available on Steam via early access with an introductory discount. A PC physical release is planned for the future alongside the game’s 1.0 release.
GSC would like to thank publisher and developer for a code provided for review. This review was played on Steam Deck.
