Rick Henderson | PS4 Review

EastAsiaSoft, and Fat Pug Studio brings to us, this week, an indie shmup roguelite with endless replay value and two ways to play. Featuring an endless mode that loops around in accordance to two different difficulty settings, and three pilots with their own individual ships. Mechanics-wise it's shmup of borrowed or inspired proportions titled after the game's main, but unrealized protagonist, Rick Henderson. It has a trio of weapons to use on the fly as well as a special attack unique to each pilot. That and a grazing mechanic that will call in the other two pilots for support when filled. As Rick Henderson, Ben x9 or the porcine Zoraxx you will basically be blasting through waves of asteroids, and alien spacecraft before going head to head with an enemy boss ship. All in the name of saving the universe. After each boss is bested you'll have a selection of four different perks that will add to, or improve upon your ship functions. Adding in an additional roguelite element to the shmup part of the game ...

As one of the three main pilots of differing race your time at the helm is limited by how well you maintain your ship's health. There are no health refills to recover that lost damage, and thus it is imperative to avoid getting hit at all costs. This is easier said than done though in a fast paced side-scrolling affair where everything from asteroids, to bullet hell are hurdling your way at breakneck speed. To combat the threat, and rid your flight path of obstacles you have a few weapon alternatives. Weapons that can be changed upon dropped weapon pick-up. This includes a bullet shot, and energy shot, and a missile shot. Each offering up a different way to deal with what needs to be dealt with. The bullets for basic enemy types, the energy shots for shielded enemies, and the rockets for the larger shielded adversaries. In tandem with that is a special screen covering weapon with a cooldown meter. Depending upon the pilot in the ship it could be a clone ship for distraction, an ability to warp a short distance, or even a screen clearing missile barrage. 

Lastly, the use of a grazing meter that fills up by narrow misses with enemy craft or bullet hell will serve to call in back up from the remaining two pilots for a limited amount of time. You can also hide behind them to avoid damage. Of course this means some bonus damage on waves of lesser enemies or bosses. Supposing you get hit though the meter will reset. Aside from all that there is one other ranking mechanic centered around collecting rank drops. There are six different colored rank shields to collect, and collecting them will add a ranking title to your ship pilot while gifting bonus points in the process. There are 10 ranks to get to, and you start off as a Private. 

In the way of modes there are two different endless mode types as well as a boss rush mode. The endless modes come in both standard and hard difficulties. The difference being the scoring, and the enemy encounters. On the harder difficulty there's more onscreen bullet hell, and new transitions to the given selection of boss battles. Speaking of which ... Boss Rush mode is available from the start, and is a timed affair. It's a speedrun type of mode with clearing the collective of bosses in mind. In both the endless and boss rush modes there lies a leaderboard. Both local and online. Dependent wholly on how far you make it, the end tally, and your ability to best maintain the score multiplier without dropping it. You'll find that the scoring system in the game is fairly basic with collectible gem drops of varying rarities for bonus points, and points rewarded for stacked kills without getting hit. Learning how enemies behave, and how best to dodge their bullet hell projectiles is key to a long lived playthrough, and that top leaderboard score.

Visually, and audibly "Rick Henderson" is a throwback to the 80's arcade scene. A colorful pixelated collection of sprites done up in a side-scrolling fashion with eye jarring special effects to add emphasis on the impact of space combat. Included in the mix is an 80's synthwave soundtrack that also pays homage to that era of retro gaming. Both the visuals and soundtrack are complimentary as a whole, and to add icing to the cake there is an added announcer feature to spice things up.

The Verdict ...

While "Rick Henderson" gets a greenlight from me for overall presentation, mechanics, and functionality I can't help but think that fleshing out the main character might have given this shump more umph. Naming a game after a character signifies a level of importance, but here 42 year old rick is lost to a lightly detailed bio about loving coffee, and being the hero of the universe. A cliche in something that should have been more outstanding. Even the alien, and mutant pilots tagging along for the ride get little recognition outside of a laundry list of likes, dislikes, and talents. Adding a little salt to that wound is each ship's similar three signature weapons. They are copy and pasted leaving only the special attack to be unique. That, and the cosmetic appearance of each ship does change along with the character avatar, and textual dialogue that pops-up onscreen briefly before each stage.

Beyond all that there is fun to be had with this minimalist shmup roguelite. It does have replay value, and a functioning online leaderboard for bragging rights. I do have to also mention the slight freeze that happens on menu loading, and before starting each wave. That and the occasional framerate drop. It's not game breaking, but is noticeable. It's something I hope the developer can patch with an update. In the way of recommendation it gets the "okay" from me.