Showing posts with label kFunction Limited. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kFunction Limited. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Scintillatron 4096 (PS4)

Scintillate. To throw off sparks or flash. That is the dictionary meaning of the aforementioned word. Looking back at my playthrough of kFunction Limited's debut shoot'em up it's quite the fitting title piece if I do say so myself. When I first began playing "Scintillatron 4096" I could see with little effort what the title and game were inspired by. The neon particle effects, and neon colored details of the tunnel-like environment in which the waves you shoot through are displayed really pushed that point home. It was something akin to the futuristic neon lit Noir setting of Bladerunner, While I understood the theme, and liked the visual presentation along with the pulse pounding electronic soundtrack I was admittedly a little confused at first with the gameplay before me though, but that confusion came from me being a dufus, and not paying full attention to the clear directions I was given from the initial onscreen tutorial. It turns out this retro-future inspired take on the shmup genre has it's own unique combo and power-up mechanics. Nothing revolutionary, mind you, but definitely something different.

Unlike most combo based twin stick shooters "Scintillatron 4096" has you achieving combos by shooting a sequence of two different colored particles in the most efficient way possible. I did say "particles", btw. The underlying theme is that of an atomic or sub-atomic one, and has you banking the big point values by shooting, in order, all the yellow or pink glowing atomic particles. All while dodging various spark sapping sub-atomic hazards, and the constantly pursuing particles themselves. Wave after wave you will basically move your tiny aiming target in front of, beside or behind the main particles, and enemy targets for targeting advantage while they follow your lead as you shoot them into pixel dust with various power-up oriented shot types. As you do so additional power-ups will appear randomly on the given board that will either complicate or aid in your high scoring goal to some degree.