Yet another gem discovered from Steam sales

Gravitron 2 is retro style shooter ala Asteroids and Thrust. Developed by indie developer: Dark Castle Software .

Game idea is relatively simple. You are in control of a small spaceship that needs to go through 40 levels. Target on each level is to destroy a building of some sort. Worlds are filled with cannons, tanks and laser's making the opposition harder. Controls are simple with directional and one weapon. As well as a shield that can be used. Each burst of movement also uses fuel which needs to be filled up. A shield can be used to bounce the enemies of. Trick here is that using the shield uses even more fuel. To find target building the spaceship need to be navigated through narrow caves. Which of course is tricky business and the wee ship can not handle much pushing/damage. Spaceship can land on any surface to catch a breather or better angle against enemies. This is also used for rescuing scientist who are scattered in the levels. As a bonus rescuing a scientist a small piece of health is recovered. 

As with many "retro"-like games the difficulty stays loyal how it is used to back in the day. Id Est. Difficult. Game is divided into two map packs, totaling well over 40 challenging maps. Strategically placed checkpoint are placed to ease the action. Steam uses a nice adjective: devious to describe the levels. Which is very fitting. This is game is right there with N+ and Super Meat Boy. 

Graphics are done in very cool vector like way where black backgrounds with simple colors are used. Giving a very Vectrex feel. The fueling and the rocket flame churn out a cool looking particle effects. Overall, a very sleek looking game. On music and sound part there is only simple shooting and explosion sounds as well as few catchy chiptune tracks.

Gravitron 2 is from 2008 but the graphics are timeless, as is the game-play. There is really nothing to complain about this great indie title. Cheap, stylish, and fun. OK maybe too hard for the mainstream.