Assault Android Cactus – developed by Witch Beam – is an arcade style twin stick shooter. Think games like Dead Nation, Binding of Isaac, and many others. You use one control stick to move and the other controls where you shoot. For Assault Android Cactus you have two weapons, your standard gun and a special weapon that operates on a cooldown.
I wouldn’t say there’s anything close to a story in Assault Android Cactus. Instead there’s more of a framing device. You initially play as Cactus, a security android that responds to a distress call aboard a nearby ship. You quickly find that something has turned all of the ship’s AI systems against the crew. Beyond that, there’s little story in the game except for the occasional dialogue bosses give you before the fight begins.
The art style of Assault Android Cactus is akin to the chibi style. The characters are squished, with wide cartoon eyes, and intense expressions. All in all, it’s rather unappealing. Thankfully you can earn a mode that gives the characters more natural proportions and that makes things much easier on the eyes.
But at its core, Assault Android Cactus is about the gameplay and in that area it excels. The levels operate in unofficial waves and the goal is to simply survive until you’ve destroyed every enemy in the level. The best part is that you’re never restricted to just one character. There are four characters to start with, each with their own weapon load out. Each time you beat a boss, you gain a new character.
This helps break up the monotony of the gameplay and prevents things from getting stale. It’s especially useful in boss battles when one type of weapon might be better used against them over another. Some of them make for better combos in the level. Especially when combined with some of the game’s power ups.
The only problem I have with the overall gameplay is that it divides health into two different systems. There’s your actual HP, which you lose when you get damaged. Lose it all and you collapse and have to regenerate. This costs time, makes you lose your combo counter, and costs you battery energy.
The battery energy is your actual health. When that runs out, you lose the level and have to restart. The problem is that the battery energy is essentially a timer. It decreases at a set rate and can only be recharged by finding the battery power up. It’s never clear which enemy has that power up though so you can find yourself in situation where you’re scrambling to find that battery just to keep going. It’s a bit confusing and occasionally doesn’t make for the most fun experience.
After completing each level you’re rewarded with a set of credits depending on your grade. These credits can be used to unlock little fun things like a big head mode, the human proportions I mentioned above, and so on. Little things like these helps add a bit of replay value to the game. There’s also an endless mode and a challenge mode.
Overall Assault Android Cactus is a really fun game with an unfortunate art style and a frustrating health management system. But if you love twin stick shooters, there’s no reason not to pick up this game.
This review was written with material provided by the publisher on the Playstation 4 console. For more on our review process, please read here.
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