The evil Emperor Zangórax is attacking Earth and there’s only person able to stop him…Nikola Tesla. It is up to you to take control of Tesla’s spaceship, blast your way through numerous classic vertical scrolling shoot-em up gameplay levels and finally rid the universe of the most manic of invaders.
I have to admit to being somewhat wary of Teslapunk. From the outside, the super fast paced gameplay, hardcore musical beat, strange mix of colours and a screen full of bullets, explosions and enemy craft couldn’t be further from my ideal genre. But within two minutes of jumping into Tesla’s ship and starting to blast my way to glory, all that changed.
For all its classical tendencies, Teslapunk comes with a rather unique modern day feel. With two main modes to speak of, whether you decide to go to war with Zangórax in the main Arcade mode, or prefer to partake in some relentless grinding with Survival, then anyone with even a fleeting interest in the old school classics should be taking a look.
The main bread and butter of Teslapunk comes in the form of the Arcade mode. Consisting of six missions, you may initially think that your time spent here will be over before you even start to begin. I certainly went with that thought as I blasted my way through the first three levels, with well placed enemies and end of level bosses all seemingly a breeze to navigate past. But then things got tricky. Teslapunk moved up a notch, ensuring that each and every blink of the eye resulted in near-on death. Screens were full with enemy ships coming from every available angle, bullets flying and madness ensued as all manner of unique craft homed in on my little ship.
If I’m honest, the Arcade mode is just a bit too difficult for my liking and even the initial Novice mode is a bit of a bugger to complete. Five lives and multiple continues don’t really help and I was left begging for a little more than the standard shmup gameplay that was present. You can therefore guess how my foray onto the harder levels turned out; although the addition of a ‘dynamic’ difficulty level, seeing the game get harder as your score multiplier rises is a neat little addition.
Dispatching the enemy has however never been simpler. Tesla’s ship is armed to the teeth with cool gadgets and weapons, with the Arcade mode seeing those limited to a standard spread shot for dealing with the many puny invaders that you’ll come across. That can however be changed with the simple press of a button to a more focused laser shot. This streamlines all the power of your ship into one beam and whilst it slows down the control of your craft no end, the power that it brings is needed to rid the galaxy of anything tougher than the norm. But to compliment both of these weapons comes the Voltage Burst. Each and every enemy you kill drops Voltage Cubes; these are gathered up by your ship and used to good effect. Gather enough and you’ll have enough power to unleash the awesome Voltage Burst, clearing the screen of near on anything and magically turning any enemy bullets into point multipliers.
And we all know what points make – prizes…or at least in Teslapunk’s case, a place higher up on the worldwide leaderboards. You’ll need to go some in order to place well though as the sheer number of opponents and overwhelming power of the end-of-level bosses mean that Teslapunk’s Arcade mode is a solid but none-to-special affair. Initially it is great and there is a hell of a lot going on at once but the need to utilise skills way out of my control ensures that it gets too tricky and too hard on the eyes for any long term gaming sessions.
Thankfully, Survival mode is in place for when the serious action needs pushing to one side and the fun can begin to take control.
Completely separate from the Arcade section, Survival mode sees you flying against an endless stream of enemies, with your ship locked down to left and right movement only and autofire in place. There is no moving forward in an attempt to dodge, there is no putting the brakes on in order to make your way past that last enemy; it’s you and your quick reactions against the ever growing onslaught of bad guys as you attempt to kill enough enemies in order to collect a small fortune of coins.
With enemies starting off with little armour and a smattering of big bosses only coming equipped with a pathetic arsenal, the Survival mode will initially seem easy. But it doesn’t stay that way and once you come up against tougher waves of opponents and bosses that spurt out bullets, rockets and more like their life depends on it, you’ll need to seriously think about upgrading your ship and taking a few special items into battle.
It is here where those collected coins come into play with a store giving you the chance to upgrade your weapon’s power or decrease your hitbox, ensuring that getting just that little bit further into the waves becomes a bit easier. There are a whole ton of weapon and hitbox levels to unlock and buy and you’ll need to go out with some serious grinding ideas in mind should you wish to unlock everything, but Survival mode is great fun, tempting you in with well placed upgrades and leaderboard positions which urge you to beat your friends. Various items to help you progress further are also present but you’ll need to weigh up the pros and cons of spending those precious coins on a simple extra life, or whether it would be better placing it all into the big guns!
I thought I would hate Teslapunk, but it transpires that klutzGames have created something pretty decent. It’s not perfect however and I’m not sure the whole colour clashing screen works as intended with visuals at times just completely merging into one, leaving this gamer at least, unable to distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly. Unless you’re prepared to send your eyes into a whirlwind of spiralling madness, then you may find the main Arcade mode somewhat irritating with a checkpoint system that rarely lets you make a mistake.
Drop into the Survival scene however and whilst it all turns into a bit of a grind, it’s a grind that is as addictive as hell, not allowing you to put it down until you’ve hit that slightly higher score or upgraded your ship just one more time.
Grinding with a classic 80’s feel ain’t all bad you know…even if you do only play it for a weekend!
