Hyper Sentinel | Nintendo Switch | Review

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​Space gets a bad rap. For a locale which, in reality, is largely empty space; film, TV and particularly video games have taught us that the great unknown is filled only with baddies who want to fire laser weapons at us (pew pew!)

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by
James
Michael
​Parry

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@James_Parry

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Developer:Four5Six
Pixel/Huey Games
Publisher: Huey Games
Platforms: Xbox One,
​PlayStation 4, Switch, PC
Players: 1

And so we come to Hyper Sentinel. The horrors of space are on full display here, but in a friendly, retro-sci-fi sort of way. You must take on a series of alien dreadnaughts, taking out gun turrets, towers and enemy fighters in your best impression of Luke Skywalker when he first lets loose on the Death Star (before the trench run bit...you know? Oh never mind…)

Once the surface targets are down you’re presented with a boss encounter. For each level these big bads take various forms, but are generally all variations on what you’d expect to see as far as an enemy spaceship is concerned. Since you’re mostly moving left to right, boosting liberally as the smouldering husk of the dreadnaught lingers in the background, there’s limited space to manoeuvre, but a well timed switch of direction will see your ship tease the third dimension for a split-second, as it flips over, avoiding any enemy fire in the process.

The majority of encounters are, in a word, chaotic. Aside from the ground targets, which will shoot fairly liberally if you’re even remotely nearby, there’s also hunter ships to look out for, more determined enemies who will generally follow you if you make a dash off-screen. As well as that there’s often a squadron of more general purposes fighters patrolling left to right, but the difference here is that this group tends to chaperone a tidy prize - powerups.

​These bonuses might just boost your score modifier (up to a strangely attainable x32), or give you toys to play with, including a twin continuous laser cannon, three-chained, flailing mace or a satellite ship which sprays out fire behind you as you make your escape. Unfortunately, without a streaming readout of your alien destruction, the bonuses and points awarded feel quite intangible and scorechasing is easy to forget in-game.

A game steeped in the ever-present nostalgia factor with a few fresh ideas thrown in for good measure.

Such thrills are fairly short-lived on their own, but, if you keep an eye out, you can often string powerups together so your buffs keep the pressure on the enemy.

If it all sounds like a cheerful way to spend some times, particularly on the move with the portable powers of the Switch, then you’re in luck, as the game is fairly easy to pause at almost any point and jump in and out of. If you’re looking for something more however, you may wish there was a little more variety to its gameplay.

There are 12 levels on offer, split into five areas, but you’d be hard pressed to tell each of them apart at first glance, aside from a different vibe from the games authentically 8-bit soundtrack for each. Difficulty builds fairly gradually and increasingly you’ll find you’re taking hits from what you thought was just ship detail below but turned out to be a hull-mounted bomb or gun emplacement. The odd cheap shot here and there is understandable, with so much going on, but at times your health will take a huge hit in seconds when several dangers converge.

Of course, the challenge is part of the appeal, and your squishy health bar remains visible at the bottom of the screen at all times, reminding you of the impending doom. In fact, when your health hits that critical final square there’s even a stylish slowdown effect to alert you to that fact without peppering the screen with ‘helpful’ voiceover from some unseen supervisor back on Earth or a teammate that won’t shut up (we’re looking at you Slippy.)

After the main game’s first run, there’s a few things to go back to. Each level has five optional objectives, some of which you’ll probably stumble across as you play, such as the perpetual “Kill all four alienoids”, but others will require more strategic action.

Then there’s also survive and boss modes for each level, which are exactly what they sound like, but neither really do much to remix and change up gameplay. Speaking of mixing, the game’s Xbox version has a particular tie-in with streaming service Mixer, which sees the audience capable of sabotaging the player by introducing enemies and generally making life difficult, but whether that would be something you’d like to subject yourself to/rise to the challenge of, is for you to decide.

The end result is a game steeped in the ever-present nostalgia factor with a few fresh ideas thrown in for good measure. To really blow us away it would have been nice to see the game break the mould a bit more, but for many a title which makes retro-style games accessible, and slightly more forgiving, to younger audiences and new players is no bad thing.

Pros

• Colourful and chaotic visual presentation
• Nails the technical execution
• Controls don’t get much more straightforward than this

Cons

• Gameplay feels its limited nature a little too soon
• Scores and bonuses don’t feel tangible
• A few too many deaths feel like you’ve been ganged up on

7/10