Risk System

When we talk about shoot 'em ups, we tend to focus on screens full of bullets, exciting power-ups and massive boss fights. The one thing we rarely talk about is the gameplay. Risk System is a brand-new shooter that puts the focus back on the gameplay, giving us a wild ride that rewards daredevil antics and risky maneuvers. It's a stylish action game where you don't just dodge bullets, but use them to destroy the competition. Risk System is going to make it hard for me to go back to regular shoot 'em ups.

This is a game I've had my eye on for a couple of years now. I was initially blown away by the preview build, thanks in large part to the belief that developer Newt Industries was onto a unique twist on the genre. I'm happy to report that Risk System not only matched my expectations, but exceeded them in every way.

You play fighter pilot Alys Matovia, who has the unenviable task of defeating the parasite forces that have taken control over the good guy's dimensional replication gate. If that wasn't bad enough, a bunch of Alys' squad mates have been flipped by mind control. Thankfully, Alys has the trusty RSK-9, a prototype fighter made from pre-gate technology that can use the enemy's parasite energy against them. It may not be the sexiest ship or carry many weapons, but the RSK-9 is our only shot to push the parasites out of the gate.

You'll know right from the jump that Risk System is not your typical shoot 'em up. For starters, there's no shoot button. The RSK-9 knows to shoot at the enemies every time they are in front of you. This frees you up to paying attention to the bullets and using them to fight back. What makes this game unique is that your ship will absorb energy every time you get close to either an enemy or their bullets. The idea is to skim past them in order to build up a special barrier breaker attack that will kill everything on the screen.

Even more impressive is how the ship can use the parasite energy to power supercharged shots that will kill multiple enemies at the same time. This becomes even more effective when you use the barrel rolls up quickly move up and down the screen. It starts to be as much about risking your safety for power and points as it is about surviving to see the next stage. Once you get the hang of tricking off of bullets, you'll want to do it all the time.

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This is the kind of idea that could have gone wrong in a number of ways, but it's clear that the developers have put a lot of thought into the design and balance. One thing I love is how much extra life is floating around, giving you even more of an incentive to take risks and absorb the energy of everything you run into. Accidentally run into a few bullets while pulling off tricks? That's okay, because it's usually pretty easy to heal up that shield.

The one exception to this is the boss fights. These are intense battles that seem almost impossible at first. These are tough bosses that require fast fingers and a whole lot of memorization. They are also unique, requiring you to handle each of them a little differently. In all cases, the fun is figuring out their predictable patterns and using it against them. But don't get too cocky, because these are tough fights, even with the RSK-9's supercharged attack.

The game is split into six stages, one of which is locked away until you earn high scores on the first five levels. Although not especially long, there's a lot of replay in both the scoring system and the gameplay. This is the kind of game fans will want to master, and I can only imagine the insane stunts that will come from high-level Risk System play. This is one of the few shoot 'em ups where my skills improved over the course of the game, to the point where I was excited to go back to the beginning and try out everything I had learned.

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My only real complaint is that I want more. Not that there isn't enough content in the game, but the mechanics are so much fun that I wanted to see a larger variety of stages to fly the RSK-9 through. A lot of the levels feature the same kind of enemies and obstacles, and it would have been nice to see more enemies that toyed with your expectations. And the same goes for the lack of power-ups and weapons, which could have mixed up things up a bit. The gameplay mechanic is so clever that it sometimes felt like the developers were only giving us the tip of the iceberg.

When it comes to the graphics, Risk System feels like a throwback to some of my favorite shoot 'em ups from the 1990s. The pixel visuals are gorgeous, complete with colorful stages and some great lighting effects. And it's not just the fast-paced action, but also the Metal Gear-style conversations that are all fully voiced. From the tight gameplay to the great presentation to the story bits, there's a level of polish here that we don't normally see in modern shoot 'em ups.

Risk System proves that the shoot 'em up genre still has a lot of life left in it. This is an expertly crafted action game where the goal is to use your enemy's fire against them and trick off of everything you can find. It's an inventive new way to play a 2D shooter that makes the genre about more than just blowing up aliens and earning high scores. Risk System is the rare game that manages to be a tribute to old school shoot 'em ups while also bringing something fresh to the table. This is truly an impressive debut for Newt Industries.