Ok let’s get into Nebulon and I have to say up front I like twin stick shooters, that said poor twin stick shooters really piss me off. What is the point in releasing a game that has been done many times before and much better.

So I was pleasantly surprised after my first play. It uses the standard background grid to denote the playing area and the space fabric, but has some neat warping effects after explosions. The basic premise of the game is that the enemy ships start off as singular little blue spheres and before long they merge to create larger more powerful enemies. This process continues as the game goes on with them becoming larger and more powerful. Each enemy has it’s own skills, the largest being the Pentoids which spin so fast that they rip the space fabric opening up a wormhole, releasing a giant worm(what else). After killing the enemies some drop orbs that you then collect to upgrade your weapons, add missile and increase your weapons energy.

The game is refreshing and adds to the genre, something that I have not seen in a while. What Nebulon adds is fantastic graphics and explosions plus the ability to choose how to upgrade your weapons. There are three types available to you, the Blaster/Plasma gun or Laser, each with three different power settings. Deciding in what order to upgrade your weapons becomes critical as the more powerful they are the more energy they use up, so you find your self having to limit the amount of shots you take, even after you have collected the blue orbs to increase you energy bar.

The gameplay is smooth and enjoyable, the graphics are excellent and explosions are immensely satisfying, I really enjoyed my time with Nebulon, but, yes there is a but.

There are a couple of things holding the game back from being great. Firstly being that there is some slowdown as you get further into the game, I must point out that it does not make the game unplayable. Most importantly to me though was the lack of a high score table. A game like this relies heavily on replay value, without an online highscore table there is not that much reason to come back to the game. Let’s hope that Dark Omen Games address this issue if Nebulon 2 makes an appearance.

So for just 200 MS points, if you like this type of game you should definitely check it out.

Xbox
Hornet

I like this game. A simple concept with quite polished gfx. The combo works for me.

One thing I change is the sounds, though, specially the one for the shot of the primary yellow weapon. Other than that, great game!