What flavour of bullet-hell shoot ‘em-up do you tend to go for? A horizontal shooter, like the Gradius and R-Type classics? Or do you find the vertical shooter, like Xevious or Raiden, a touch more refined? Habroxia kicks all those comparisons into touch as it gives you the chance to play both. Habroxia is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S after previously dropping on PS4, Vita and Switch.
At first glance, Habroxia is your traditional shooter, with an eye firmly on some of the best examples from the past. There’s nothing unusual or particularly impressive about the visual stylings, and it seems to play like you’d expect.
Scratch the surface a little, and there are some interesting approaches. As we’ve mentioned, there’s the ability to switch between vertical and horizontal views, which is probably the unit-seller. There’s also a progression system that lets you buy improvements to your ship that carry over to the next run.
That last one will make for an interesting review (one is incoming), as it makes for an increasingly easy game, as your perks turn you into a fighting machine. That might mean that the game is impenetrably hard at the start, or boringly easy towards the end, so we’re eager to see if the balance comes off.
Other than that, it’s at least stacked with the things you’d want from the genre. There are ten screen-sized bosses to overcome, fifteen levels, plenty of weapons and power-ups, and several game modes.
We’re still bemused that this started life as a Vita game. That doesn’t mean that Habroxia is old – this has only been out for a year on other systems like PS4 and Nintendo Switch – but we can’t recall another Xbox game that took that path. Whatever though, Habroxia 2 looks set to fast follow this one with release in early 2021.
Habroxia is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and starts at £6.69 from the Xbox Store – currently discounted to £5.35 for two weeks. It’s also out on PS4, PS5, Vita and Switch.
Game Description:
Save the galaxy in this classic shoot’em up game! Blast your way through a myriad of extra terrestrial incursions in this arcade-style scrolling shooter! Pilot the ship Habroxia through 15 levels featuring intense boss fights, rescue missions, shifting perspectives and untold surprises. Customize your ship to enhance your abilities, unlock the three endless side modes, and save the galaxy from a series of sinister invaders.
