Space Crüesader

I found this in my attic!

I've been a long time fan of single screen bullet hell games such as Super Stardust and Geometry Wars. Super Stardust in particular I played extensively, as I had in on my PSP and could take it with me where ever I went. So when the recently released Space Crüesader came out, I had to try it out and see if it would cause me to get sucked into the genre once again. For only 80 MSP are you getting you're money's worth?

This is a screen shot of the two player mode. Since I spend most of my time curled
up in the fetal position, friends are a luxury I can't afford.

Space Crüesader is centered around rescuing a certain number of ships each level, and the rest of the time is spent racking up points. You can collect little purple crystals that will increase your ships firepower and gold coins that will increase your multiplier bonus by a maximum of x 20. When you rescue a ship you have to hover over it until a green circle around it fills up. Once it's full, the ship vanishes and another flies onto the screen shortly afterwards until you've rescued enough to pass onto the next level. Each level has a time limit, and if you can't rescue all of the ships in time, it's game over.

In space, everyone can hear you scream. At least until your radio goes out

You don't have a set number of lives, so as long as there's time left you'll keep coming back to life. You'll be penalized at the end of each level for the number of times you die, as well as lose any coins and gems you had collected, forcing you to build up your stock again after each death. The game only has a few enemies, which are easy to defeat on their own, but can quickly become overwhelming in greater numbers. It's very satisfying when you have a maxed out multiplier and weapons and can just sweep across the screen, killing everything in your path.

The graphics of Space Crüesader are very pretty, but they're also a bit distracting. I realize that as I play the game more I'll become more accustomed to everything, but I found the flashes actually prevented me from seeing bullets and being able to tell where I was on the screen. The game does allow you to disabled this for people who may be prone to seizures, and when I turned this option on I found I didn't have that problem anymore. But if you play with the flashes off, your high score won't qualify for the leader board.

YOUR SHIP'S FULL OF ROIDS! PUNCH THOSE BAD GUYS IN THE DICK!
Because it makes you mad that you took steroids and made your own dick tiny.

Graphics issues aside, Space Crüesader is a LOT of fun. Trying to build up your multiplier and weapons while saving the other ships is difficult and satisfying, and this is a game I could easily see myself playing a lot of. Since the game has a leader board, I'm actually going to use it for my Leader Board Challenge for the month of December, but I'll get to that later. If you're a fan of bullet hell games and you're looking for a cheap fix on the Xbox, pick up Space Crüesader for only 80 MSP!

The developer of Space Crüesader, Unfinity Games, has provided me with a download code for the game. I like to give those away, so if you comment on this entry I'll put you in a drawing and pick a winner next Friday on Decemebr 7th. I'm also using Space Crüesader for my December Global High Score Challenge. If you have the number one high score by December 22nd, I'll send you a code for 400 Microsoft Points, just like the Johnny Carnage contest! November's winner was lPayneToTheMaxl, who got an awesome 4.5 million points in Johnny Carnage. Right now when I look at the leader board for Space Crüesader I'm at the top with 14,385,875. I'll keep playing to see how high I can go, but I'm not in the competition. If for some reason my score can't be beat, I'll award the 400 Points to the person with the next highest score. Also, klausterfokken won a copy of Avatar Monster Truck for commenting on my review for that.

Good luck!