I grew up with the ZX Spectrum +3, which was my dad’s “officially”, but I was allowed 2 hours on a Saturday and Sunday to play it. That’s where my introduction to video games began, and so I have a personal fondness for the Speccy aesthetic. That black-shaded pixel art that feels a bit grubby yet retro-futuristic. This is where Space Warpster comes in. It’s a horizontal space shooter that is a love letter to mid-to-late 80s space shooters, and it nails the ZX Spectrum look perfectly.
Space Warpster is a game designed firmly for the retro crowd, and it leads with the visuals. There are eight uniquely themed stages, dressed up in that grubby shaded ZX Spectrum pixel art that the Your Sinclair tapes promoted so well. Everything moves more smoothly with modern-day computing, so we get the best of both worlds, and that includes your spaceship. Movement is consistent and solid, although the collision detection with the level’s corridor walls is overzealous. All too often, I thought I’d moved alongside a wall and would blow up! You quickly get used to the fuzzy wall detection, though, and thankfully, this problem doesn’t affect bullet or enemy collision detection. Just stay slightly away from the level edge at all times, and that’s largely doable unless you tackle the game on its hardest of its three difficulties.
You’ll only be able to shoot forwards with your main weapon, but as you destroy groups of similar enemies, a power-up may randomly spawn, upgrading your shot to a double-barreled one. Alongside that, your upgrade may swap your weapon out for mines or missiles instead. I found it tricky to know what an upgrade was going to give me, and so sometimes I’d actively avoid power-ups if I had the one I wanted for the specific level I was in. Enemies are either flying from right to left on screen, or they are attached to the floor or ceiling. The wall-attached enemies often arrive in clumps, so having mines or missiles helps to clear those without needing to get near those pesky walls! Enemies are nicely drawn, but most of them are easy cannon fodder to kill. They are more potent in sheer volume as you increase the difficulty, and learning when you should duck out from the enemy firing line and not being too brave is the key to success. That might not help your online leaderboard position, though!
Each stage has a boss, but I often found the bosses to be a little underwhelming. Only the final boss has some tricky attack patterns and tricks up its sleeve, and the player has to hide in corridor nooks to avoid homing attacks. Aside from that battle, which caught me out a few times, most other bosses can be slowly worn down by moving up and down the screen with them as they spray bullets back at you. I wasn’t expecting bullet hell, but I’d have loved bosses to feel more epic, or have more than two attack patterns.
I enjoyed my time playing Space Warpster. It is a simple throwback to the 80s, but I must emphasise the word simple. Perhaps purist is a better word to use. It doesn’t throw waves of bullets at you. Instead, the challenge is trying to stop a few enemies slipping past you, as it’ll impact your leaderboard score. I think there is a strong blueprint of ideas here for a fabulous sequel. Space Warpster feels like it’s warming the oven as a tasty entree. Retro fans will dig in happily, but it may leave you peckish for something more.
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