Preview: Ultra Assault (by Small Rockets)



Company's Name: Small Rockets
Game's Title: Ultra Assault
Game's Release Date: Gold is imminent
Website


If you are not familiar with Small Rockets, then you are not familiar with one of the largest independent game publishers around. Not only does Small Rockets have a very large selection of software titles, they produce some of the best looking games that come from independents.

I recently had the opportunity to play Ultra Assault, a game soon to be released by Small Rockets, that is quite far along in production, here is what I found.

Those of you who are familiar with Small Rockets should also be familiar with a game called Star Monkey. That game was a wonderful shooter with dazzling visual effects. The reason I bring it up is that Ultra Assault acts and looks a lot like that game. In fact I personally think of it as a sequel to Star Monkey though there is nothing on their website that points to it being such.

One of the coolest things about Star Monkey was its visuals. As you fire your bullets, light emanates from your ship. This light becomes a light source that creates some very interesting scenes as this variable light source causes trees and building to cast shadows a number of directions. Explosions have a similar effect on their surroundings.  Ultra Assault has taken those visuals and added a better particle system to them to create much more dazzling explosions.

You pilot a single ship that to begins with fires just a single bullet.  As you progress, you  receive power-ups by destroying some of your enemies.  When you receive a power-up, you have two choices, either to activate or not activate the power-up.  If you choose to activate the power-up, it immediately becomes active, if not, you can save up for more powerful power-ups.  My personal favorite was the "Sentry" that was something along the lines of an anti-missile rocket.  These sentry rockets destroy the closest enemy bullet, giving you another second to catch your breath.

Beyond the wonderfully destructive weapons, the moniker of any good shooter, Ultra Assault features some very interesting end bosses.  Each take well-timed and thought-out attacks to keep you from becoming toasted.  If you are good enough to get through a level on the easiest setting, don't get cocky!  There are multiple levels of difficulty, and Small Rockets famous on-line high score list to keep you challenged.

The beta I played of Ultra Assault seemed awfully close to a final version, so I'll save some of my many thoughts I had while playing for a full-out review once I get a chance to play the final version.  Suffice it to say that this game appears that it will make shooter fans quite happy when it is released.  In fact, Small Rockets is planning for the game to keep gamers entertained for quite some time.  The game features a level editor, that will allow you to create your own levels, nearly from scratch.  Thankfully you'll be able to use the great pre-rendered models created by Small Rockets as you create your levels.  Unfortunately, this feature was not yet available to try out with my beta version of the game, so I cannot give much insight as to how easy it will be to create levels.  The tutorial on the website is quite lengthy, so this feature will likely be something that diehards will enjoy and the rest of us will enjoy the levels that they create!

A beta version that has a time limit is currently available from the Small Rockets website for download, and if you are a fan of shooters, then I definitely recommend checking this one out!

SCREENSHOTS