Title Battle Planet – Judgement Day
Developer Threaks
Publisher Wild River Games
Release Date Oct 17th, 2018
Genre Shooter
Platform Steam, Switch
Age Rating Teen
Official Website

Since I seem to have a habit of taking on ridiculously hard twin-stick shooters, I figured why buck tradition, so I took on Battle Planet – Judgement Day. I saw it had local co-op so I thought I could rope a friend into playing this with me and if nothing else we’d have some fun hanging out. To my surprise this offered a little more than I was expecting, but was that a good or a bad thing?

There isn’t much story here to speak of. You are one of the three most wanted criminals in the universe. The only way to survive is by blasting your way through hordes of aliens, military, and police units in order gain your freedom. There’s really no more to this than that, but honestly there doesn’t need to be either. This game is a top down shooter with randomly generated worlds, so it doesn’t need a great depth of story.

Battle Planet | Metal

While this isn’t the most visually impressive game in this genre I’ve seen, it’s certainly not the worst either. The enemy models look decent, and character models look nice. Some of the boss monsters and mechanical menaces have a good amount of detail that you will see several times as they destroy your dreams. The ever changing terrain of the randomly generated planets give each level a different feel even if you are doing the same thing over and over.

The music in the game is about as basic as it comes. The standard epic space battle theme plays throughout most stages as you blast away all the baddies in sight. The boss music amps things up a bit so you know something even more dangerous is coming. The characters spout out some one liners and grunts that add a bit of flavor to the mix. The sound effects are the best part. The laser blasts and explosions sound great and really get you into the action!

Battle Planet | Bugs

Battle Planet – Judgement Day may be lacking in some areas, but gameplay is not one of them. This game is very difficult and you will die a lot. Death is not in vain however, as you will earn credits to upgrade various aspects of the three characters you can play as. You will only be able to choose the Raider at first. He is the most balanced character of the three. The Spy is the next character that will be available. She is more of a speed based character with lower health. Last but not least you unlock the Psycho. He moves very slowly but has the best firepower and health.

Upgrades to each character include improvements to health, speed, jetpack upgrades, weapon upgrades, helpful items and even a drone that can help you blast enemies. You will be able to purchase these upgrades when you die or defeat the boss of that level. Defeating bosses will unlock extra perks for your character as well. These include things like faster bomb diffusing, more damage, extra health and more. The player can switch out items in between stages, so if you have explosives and decide a shield would be better, that is the time to switch it out at. This is the only time you can do this, so make sure you take which one you feel is best for your play style.

Battle Planet | Characters

Most levels consist of three to five waves. There are only a few different types of these waves and two of them are basically the same. Diffuse the bombs has the player disarming random numbers of bombs around the planet in a limited amount of time. To do this you just stand near them for a short time, and while that sounds simple, I assure you it’s not. Not only are there hordes of enemies to deal with, but some of these bombs have laser beams floating around them or randomly get placed near a huge lava pool, restricting your movement further. If you fail to diffuse these the planet stability will decrease, and when it hits zero that’s game over. Other waves have you killing a certain amount of enemies or surviving for X amount of time.

Battle Planet – Judgement Day is one of those game that I don’t think is bad a game and is very reasonable at the $14.99 price. I do however think it was made with a particular kind of gamer in mind. Fans of these types of games may think well I won’t need to get upgrades, I can use my luck and skill to wing my way through the 40+ waves the game has to offer. I have serious doubts anyone can do this since the damage you take from a single hit on the higher waves is substantial even after unlocking many perks and upgrades. This makes the game grindy since you will have to run the first waves quite a few times to power up enough to handle the more challenging levels and bosses. I spent around 5 hours with this one. Some of that time was solo and some was co-op with a friend and having two players does make the game a bit easier, but even then it is no cakewalk. I was only able to complete 35 waves for this review. It was just too difficult for me to handle solo past that and I had no one local to help me out. That being said, if you’re into this genre and love a good challenge you’ll like want to give this one a go.

Review Score
Overallwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.com

Game provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Steve Baltimore
Steve started with oprainfall not long after the campaign moved from the IGN forums to Facebook. Ever since, he has been fighting to give all non-mainstream RPGs a fair voice. As the site admin, he will continue to do this and even show there is value in what some would deem "pure ecchi." He loves niche games and anime more than anything... well, except maybe Neptune.