A belated retro arcade hat-tip to Radin's Galacticon

Among the terrors of getting-old, wondering what you're missing out on! Take Galacticon - released almost a year ago and I know nothing of it. Perhaps I was busy, or blinked at the wrong time? Anyway, apologies to developer Radin and publisher Flynn's Arcade (signs up for their newsletter) for missing this sweet slice of retro gameplay. 

From the ROM boot screen to the olde voice samples and twitchy gameplay - (found while checking up on how Donut Dodo is doing), this is another classy example of retro arcade dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Available on the Switch (and Steam, the version I grabbed, as my Switch is out of power [again], so I guess it works on SteamDeck), it brings the finest elements of Joust and Defender plus a few other arcade legends to pixelly screens with maniacal arcade gameplay and a touch of puzzling to add some depth. The Galacticon must rescue prisoners being carted off to who-knows-where, defeat the guards and collect bonuses. 

The backdrop is, in an effort to stop mankind's monsters from taking over the galaxy, an interstellar council has invoked the Galacticon to kick us back to our senses - what could possibly go wrong? In between levels, there's some high risk-and-reward bonus levels to keep the gameplay fresh, all great stuff! 

The 8-bit look and gameplay comes with progressive difficulty so we don't keep getting wiped out early on, online high scores (accessed via a clever QR code method, with extra hints and tips for getting involved), secrets and twitch controls across infinite levels and challenge.