Review: Horizon Shift '81

Price: £7.19 eShop
Developer: Flump Studio
Players: 1

At the dawn of arcade gaming, a handful of pixels and simple line art was the order of the day for entertainment. With such limitations, developers created all kinds of cunning twists and gameplay tweaks to keep people dropping cents and quarters in arcade games.

But for all the clever tricks offered by Moon Cresta, Phoenix, Galaxians and many, many others, I don't recall seeing any game cram quite as few ideas in as Horizon Shift 81, using the power of the Switch to perform all sorts of tricks to the many graphical styles of the original shooters.

An unashamedly nostalgic game paying home to curved screens, raster lines and power-ups, Horizon Shift '81 has your ship in the middle of the firing up or down using a horizontal axis. The rules are simple - shoot everything - but if anything gets to the axis, you can side swipe them to keep your field of fire clear.

Bonuses rain down or up the screen offering shields, power ups and points, get enough of them and you are temporarily invulnerable to the chaos going on around you. That's as a maelstrom of effects - ships warping in, enemies exploding and general weirdness go on in among all the action.

Every few levels, the axis drops down and a level boss appears who takes a great deal of shooting, and into the later levels, there are mixes of genres with nods to Centipede and Asteroids that can tear apart your axis, leaving you stranded in one area, reliant on a friendly power up with the right sort of shot spread to survive.

With many forms of Invaders and power up to collect, keeping an eye up and down is vital and prioritising what to shoot is key to escaping a level. As you plough on, you can unlock side art to tart up the screen, and adjust the various levels of scanline and screen curve, but it looks superbly retro right from install.

Modes include classic and hyper (with one life), modern or true retro graphics, and a range of settings you can unlock through progression. Thanks to the game credits for also showing me where Darryl Still (the poor guy who single-handedly marketed the Atari Jaguar and Tempest 2000 in the UK back in the day) is these days!

So, alongside TxK on the Vita and that whole host of modern-retro shooters,  Horizon Shift '81 is a master of invention and great entertainment in short bursts, throwing a tough challenge at your pixelly form, soundtracked by clanking ammo, explosion effects and a fun, pulsing soundtrack. All of which adds up to a viciously tight blasting experience with the clever twist adding a whole new dimension to traditional arcade games.

4/5