Kero Blaster

Kero Blaster
Developer(s)	Studio Pixel
Publisher(s)	Playism
Designer(s)	Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	PC May 11, 2014[1][2] iOS May 11, 2014[1][2]
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Kero Blaster (ケロブラスター) is a platform video game created by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. It was released in 2014 for PC and iOS and is the first major project of Pixel since Cave Story in 2004. The game lays a heavy emphasis on shooting and got positive reviews on both platforms. A short, free demo titled Pink Hour has been available since a month before the full game's release.

Gameplay

In Kero Blaster, the player controls a frog working for Cat & Frog, a teleporter company. Armed with a peashooter, he has to clean the teleporters of strange black monsters. The player has to work their way through a series of linear stages, by means of running, gunning and jumping. USGamer described the gameplay as "akin to ... Contra or old-school, pre-Symphony of the Night Castlevanias." Furthermore, the game is controlled by changing direction, jumping, firing your weapon and changing your weapon. Holding down the fire button continues to fire in the direction you were facing when you started shooting.^[3]

Development and release

Kero Blaster was originally supposed to be released in 2013, but Pixel delayed its release at the last second.^[4] The game was re-build from Gero Blaster, which Pixel announced on BitSummit in Japan, early 2013, but never released.^[5] Gero Blaster was a game based on comics that Pixel drew in college, starring himself as a frog and his girlfriend as a cat.^[1] While Pixel developed Cave Story entirely on his own, he worked together with Ms. Kawanaka for Kero Blaster so that he could stay motivated. When Pixel left the level design and production up to her, Pixel "was able to focus on smaller parts while the stages in the game were steadily being created."^[6]

A month before the full release, Pixel released a demo and prologue to Kero Blaster, titled 'Pink Hour. In this demo, you play as an unnamed pink office lady who must find a missing document to avoid the anger of her boss. The short game is rather hard, due to the limited amount of lives the player has to beat it with.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The release date of Kero Blaster, May 11, 2014, coincides with the 3-year anniversary of Japanese digital distributor Playism, on which the game was released.^[5]

Reception

Before the full release, PCGamer called the free Pink Hour demo "too brief and too difficult to really get to grips with," though praised the game's trailer.^[11] After the release of Kero Blaster, Touch Arcade described Pink Hour as a "great way to check out what KeroBlaster is about - or just to get a new level of the game to play."^[12] Destructoid described the demo as "hard as nails," yet also as "very lovable."^[13]

Kero Blaster received positive reviews upon release.^[14][15] Destructoid praised the game's pacing and replay value, stating that it's the perfect way to introduce someone to the genre of 2D action/platformers.^[1] USGamer praised the game's controls, weapons and presentation, calling it an "excellent run-and-gun shooter that plays beautifully," but criticized the short length of the game.^[3] PCGamer states that the game sounds "like it could've come from an NES if a composer had spent the past 25 years mastering its sound chip," and though they criticized the high difficulty of the game, PCGamer said that it was "refreshing to play a game with such mechanical purity."^[16] Eurogamer stated that Kero Blaster is "no less delightful" than Cave Story despite its shot length, and describes it as "a three-hour trip that demands to be finished."^[17]

The game is often compared to Cave Story, the highly successful previous game created by Pixel. According to Touch Arcade, Kero Blaster has the "same sort of off-beat sense of humor, chip music of similar quality and composition, pixel art graphics, and a vaguely similar style of play based heavily on platforming and shooting." However, where Cave Story is known for its non-linear exploration, Kero Blaster features "stage-based run and gun action." Cave Story is cited to be similar to Metroid, while Kero Blaster is more often compared to Contra and Mega Man. Touch Arcade and USGamer specifically wrote that "Kero Blaster is not Cave Story 2," with Touch Arcade adding that "the sooner you put the notion out of your mind, the sooner you can get to enjoying an extremely well-crafted action game."^[3][16][18]

The iOS-version was received even better than the PC-version.^[19][20] USGamer praised the implementation of the control scheme in the iOS-version, stating that Pixel solved common frustrations in mobile games "in an eminently sensible manner without compromising Kero Blaster's depth of gameplay."^[3] GameInformer enjoyed Kero Blaster's toggled firing directions as well, compared to other "clumsy virtual gamepads." Furthermore, GameInformer called the game "one of the best-playing action-platformers the iOS has to offer," though noted that the game wasn't groundbreaking.^[21] IGN Italia called the mobile control scheme of Kero Blaster "precise and intelligent."^[22] Pocket Gamer called the game "fresher and more exciting than much of the content on the App Store" and Gamezebo stated that Kero Blaster's "compelling retro-style graphics, sharp controls, intense shooting action, and charming character designs make it one of the best action games on mobile [devices]."^[23][24]

References