Take the skies in this 2D co-op shooter that is all about killing aliens and trying to rank up the highest score while trying to survive the hordes of enemies in Fullblast.
General Gameplay
Fullblast to its core is a SHUMP (Shoot ’em up) game that can be played both solo or in local co-op play. The objective is to go through the 12 stages of fighting waves of enemies and bosses at the end of the level. The Game Visuals are very sharp and vibrant for the game. Everything from your ship, to enemies, background and the enemy bullets are very easy to see on the screen. The game is designed as a top-down shooter; however, it is very easy to see what is going on the screen and act accordingly. The game is designed in which the background is more separated from the sky and you can see what needs to be destroyed so there is no confusion whatsoever. For those that are colorblind or have difficulty seeing certain colors on screen, the colors are bright enough to see without any issues. In our playtesting, none of our gaming family had any issues with the game visuals and were able to play the game without any trouble. The Audio for Fullblast is fine as well. There is background music, the standard gunfire from enemies, and your ships as well explosions that you would expect to hear from a game like this. The game does not have any spoken dialog, but the game is in 5.1 surround sound but also sounds great in 2.0 stereo sound. We did not encounter any issues with the game audio, however there was one complaint from our more seasoned gamers in our gaming family about the game audio (more on this in our Family Friendly Section of our review). Controls for Fullblast are very user friendly and easy to pick up and play the game. This is one of many places that the game shines, the ability for not SHMUP fans to pick up the game and play it without learning all of the buttons. There are the controller triggers to use the fire button and bomb and the thumb stick to move your ship. The controls are simple enough that you or anyone in your gaming family can play the game with little experience in shooters. In our playtesting we did not run into any issues with the controls and everyone from young to old were able to play the game without any trouble. As the game does not need a special controller you are fine to use the default controller for the console that you are playing the game on.
“Take what is best about SHMUP shooter, make it approachable for non-fans and you have a great game that both shooter and non-shooter fans can play and enjoy”
Family Friendly
SHMUP games are a unique style of video games, some are called “bullet hell” style of shooters because of all of the bullets that you have to avoid in the game what makes Fullblast such a great game for non-shooters is that is it the ideal choice to have this in your digital library. First off, the co-op makes it a fun game for parents/guardians and children to play as the game is not to hard or easy but just more of a relaxed style of shooter where both people can play the game. Also, as with most SHUMPs there is where if you get hit, you die, in Fullblast you have an energy bar so your ship can take a couple of hits and still keep going, also there are a lot of power ups and health boosts to help you. Now for more seasoned SHMUPs fans they may find the lax style of gameplay a little too easy, but the game was designed more to be for newer shooter fans to get into and better understand how a game like this works. Another complaint that came from the testing was that with shooters like this that there should be a more guitar rift style of soundtrack that sucks you in, in Fullblast there is just general style of background music that is more just there but does not suck you in, just a minor complaint but in the future we hope that they do incorporate this into future titles. Now what we did love about the game is that the 80’s-90’s style of graphics that they used and how the enemies are not to scary on the screen. This makes the game more approachable for all ages to play without the risk of scaring younger gamers. The game does not contain any language in any of the cut scenes, so this again is a big plus for parents/guardians that are looking for kid friendly shooters. One of the personal things that I and other testers loved is the local co-op in the game. It gave the feeling of sitting with another person and working together to finish the game. This type of teamwork is great for bond building and we were very happy to see that the developer went in this direction, however I personally would have loved to see a online co-op as well. Overall this is a great game to have in your digital library and the cost of the game is very inexpensive in the digital stores for the console that you have. In our special needs game testing, we did not encounter any issues with the game in Game Visuals, Audio, or even Controls. All of our special needs gamers were able to pick up and play the game without any trouble and had fun playing the game.
Closing
Fullblast is a great shooter that should be experience by all games. Whether you are a shooter fan or not this is a great title for the family to have in your digital library.
