Laser Disco Defenders PC Review

Pew-Pew! Funky Fresh

There are so many different types of games for an incredible number of unique gamers. Everyone wants something different, including those who want an impossible level of difficulty and take real enjoyment out of the almost masochistic challenge provided by some games.  One particular method of challenge is bullet hell, the idea that a game screen is taken up almost fully by projectiles that you must avoid with a criminally small margin of error. Bullet hells don’t normally have any kind of story, save for a few, but I can’t say I’ve ever come across one based on a cartoony 70’s style disco animation that we see here.

The immediate hook for this game is the inviting and cartoony style based on an early 70’s disco style.  It’s fun for all ages, and there’s something to find each time you play when just looking at the trippy backgrounds or the kooky characters. Even hidden gems like playing underground and seeing a dinosaur fossil with a space helmet in the soil is the nice attention to detail that so many people may not notice, but appreciate later. The clothes, environment, font, and even the power ups all scream disco era and even pay homage to those games that came before.

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Every kid growing up pretends he has a laser pistol at some point, and this is just the logical conclusion of those feelings, so much so that even when the character shoots, they are actually just make a gun with their fingers, and not actually firing any kind of sci-fi weapon.  It’s a nice touch that only enhances the cuteness and makes it fun for anyone playing.  That said, it would be tough for most people, let along most children to get into this because of the uncompressing difficulty level. This was not made for children, and that is apparent after only a few minutes playing it as even I was having trouble adapting to what seemed like a kids’ game at first glance.

This increased difficulty is mostly due to your own incompetence though, because unlike in most bullet hells, it only becomes complicated as you make it. When you fire, instead of just hitting an enemy and killing it, it will reflect off of all surfaces, and never stop, so if you just spam the attack button, you’re only digging your own grave.  I don’t see this kind of feature much, and it’s a great addition to a bullet hell game, and it allows someone to learn as they play, and to make it easier or harder on themselves.  However, some of this difficulty comes from a poor control choice of making the player constantly hit the up button to keep afloat, even though they are in space (presumably) so it takes away from the free floating and fluid motion seen in every other bullet hell game, which does make it harder but only to the point of being annoying.

Laser Disco Defenders seems to be an interesting mashup of different styles and gameplay, and with the different characters and procedurally generated levels, it can give you an amazing amount of gameplay variety at a very reasonable cost of time and money. Its colorful, fun, challenging, and whacky to boot so it’s easy to see why many like it.