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Genre: Action, Indie
Developer: Vertex Pop
Publisher: Vertex Pop
Release Date: Aug 9, 2017
Edited by KnightAvenger
Graceful Explosion Machine (henceforth abbreviated to the rather apt GEM) is a cute and disarmingly cheery shmup (shoot’em up) game from Toronto-based studio Vertex Pop. This marks its second Steam release after the oppositely-named (to the cheery vibe, that is) WE ARE DOOMED; GEM was also released for the Nintendo Switch four months prior in April 2017. I haven’t played WE ARE DOOMED, so I’ll be looking at this game objectively in its own right. It’s immediately clear that this is an incredible, highly polished game and has a really professional feel to it.
GEM is a strictly two-dimensional game. You pilot a fighter ship to explore caverns, destroy enemies, and complete levels. Some caverns are isolated arenas; others loop on themselves horizontally. Enemy variety also gradually increases the more you progress. While, on the surface, there may not be a lot of levels (four main worlds with nine levels each), the fun lies in the high scoring and leaderboards. You start out with nothing but are gradually introduced to your various abilities through the tutorial levels. You get a rudimentary blaster that overheats when fired for too long and gradually three other weapons that cost energy to even use: a sniper beam for the tanky armored enemies, missiles that actively seek out enemies, and an energy sword that destroys enemy bullets and enemies in a radius around your ship. You also get a dash ability that is used either to dodge bullets or quickly get into the range of enemies. These weapons and abilities are such that most of GEM is a do-si-do dance of juggling weapon usage.
Why juggle weapon usage, you ask? Well, GEM’s scoring system is based heavily on the concept of combos. Kill an enemy and you increase your combo multiplier, but get hit or have the combo meter timeout, and you lose it. The higher the combo multiplier goes, the more you score. This is a typical shmup scoring concept, yet used to great effect here, in order to inject a semblance of challenge into the game. Sure, players could just play through the levels and survive, but that is selling the game’s capabilities short. Although frustrating at times, I find it a welcome challenge to get the highest rank possible on a level by playing perfectly and keeping up my combo.
GEM is almost technically perfect that I’d be hard-pressed to find any faults with it, but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist; they’re just minuscule in quantity. A minor one is that the controls are not rebindable. I looked at the keyboard control scheme and “noped” out of it immediately. The scheme feels clunky, awkward and uncomfortable as hell. Thank goodness for the fact that my controller works with it, so I didn’t have to play Twister with my fingers on the keyboard.
The larger con, I feel, is that, arguably, it is not a particularly innovative shmup game. None of the mechanics in particular stand out. While I can’t exactly name other shmup games where you can observe these mechanics in play, I know that they exist in other games in some form. GEM, in that regard, reminds me a LOT of Hollow Knight. Although technically and impressively well-executed, it doesn’t do much, if anything at all, to drive the genre forward. That’s where the similarities end, however. I don’t foresee myself remembering this game much, if at all, a few years down the road. Contrast that to Hollow Knight, which still manages to be incredibly packed with emotion and joy to feel like it really stands out.
Pros:
- Finely tuned game play
- A rather soothing vibe due to choice of graphic style/soundtrack
- Ample challenge for score chasers
Cons:
- Not particularly innovative for the genre
- Controls not rebindable; controller heavily recommended
K3W3L gives Graceful Explosion Machine a Drastik Measure 8.5 out of 10 (85)
GEM retails for $12.99 on Steam, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. While the PC version is technically excellent and worth a purchase for shmup fans looking for a shmup that prizes player skill, be aware that the game’s presence on the Switch represents a means of portability, and you could very well get the game on that platform instead.
