The last time I really enjoyed a dual stick shooter was Geometry Wars. Now Assault Android Cactus picks up that same torch with some new mechanics that make it just as interesting to play. First up it does have some minor story bits to get the player into the action. As the take no prisoners android space cop Cactus you must take down a group of rampaging robots that has took over a freighter than Cactus crash lands onto. She then meets a crew of other androids that then decide to help her out. Help in this case means blowing up every robot in the fighter with a machine gun. Yet the story is just a means to an end and the main focus of this game is giving you new arenas to challenge your twin stick shooter skills.
The story mode is level based with the main focus going toward blowing up all the enemies in a level to progress to the next one. Instead of worrying about dying the player needs to worry about running out of battery power. After so many kills enemies will drop one which then needs to be picked up. The more times a android falls and must be picked up by mashing the attack button the more likely the level will end in failure. Other than losing some precious time their gun also gets downgraded to its default state. Enemies drop booster gems that will eventually upgrade the androids gun to maximum along with a few items like Shutdown that disable every enemy in the arena for a few moments. All of these upgrades are limited and none of them last very long.
Boss encounters is where the game kinda turns into a bullet hell shooter in some of the later battles. These moments really challenge your skills and once you get good enough to beat them without getting hit it feels great. That hits on the best thing about what this game. It has near endless replay value if you like going for a high score. Especially once you unlock infinite drive where you can just keep going till you eventually lose. Starting out you most likely won’t get too far but the improvement with more attempts will be obvious.
A few other factors of note is that each Android has different weapons. Cactus uses long range machine gun and a flamethrower. While my favorite Starch uses a laser/missile combo. Since this has 8 playable characters it is likely that a new player will find someone that fits their style of play. The length is a real issue if you don’t like replaying games to improve your score or to see how far you can get in the endless mode. With the story mode only taking me about 2 hours to compete if you aren’t interested in getting a higher score or at least aiming for some of the trickier trophies this isn’t the game for you. Some of the later missions can get quite tough as well. I'm not even sure how someone would make it through those stages without getting knocked over a few times. Even so I’m sure someone has already done that and more. But for a normal player like me the challenge is a bit to high for me to attempt it. In the end if you like playing dual stick shooters this is one worth playing.