Twin-stick shooter developer 10tons sets the genre back 15 years

Games
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10tons Ltd., an indie developer in Finland, has been making twin-stick shooters since 2003, when they released Crimsonland. Since then, they’ve done various workaday projects — anyone for a round of Sparkle 2 on the iPad? — but their heart is clearly in the the top-down wholesale slaughter of innumerable dumb enemies. With Tesla vs Lovecraft, they’ve gone back to their first love.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/01/29/twin-stick-shooter-developer-10tons-sets-genre-back-15-years/
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And here’s a livestream of some gameplay:

-Tom

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Great review – I was all ready to go buy it until I got to the last few paragraphs. I totally agree on the misgivings about games that expect you to do the designer’s job by balancing them. I want an explicitly designed yardstick to measure myself against.

A couple corrections:

  • Since Crimsonland, they’ve reigned it in a bit,
  • This is where Nikola vs Tesla shows its smarts again
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Crimsonland. Wow, blast from the past. I paid for it but that was many comp builds ago.

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Crimsonland is also on Switch, btw.

So, if I loved Neon Chrome but didn’t like Jydge, how do I figure out whether I will like this one?

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Such a great game. I loved Neon Chrome and JYDGE, but this one feels so right.

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Did you like Crimsonland? Are you okay with just figuring out whatever difficulty level you feel like using? Then you should dig Tesla vs Lovecraft.

Also, I’m convinced anyone who didn’t like Jydge just didn’t play it enough! Yep, I went there with that old canard! Play moar, haterz!1!! The later stuff in Jydge is pretty darn epic for how satisfying it is to set up a loadout and push through some of those challenges.

-Tom

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This correction is … not correct, “rein” is to pull something in, like a horse, whereas “reign” is something kings and queens do.

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He’s not posting the correction. He’s posting the mistake. I had “reign” and have since fixed it.

-Tom

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My bad, @thraeg is 100% correct then.

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REIN IN BLOOD

image

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INCORRECT IT IS NOT REIGNING BLOOD OR REINING BLOOD IT IS RAINING BLOOD

(Yes, I know they’ve a record called Reign in Blood. But I wanted to post a third variation and also a heavy metal music video)

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For the first time in history, it’s gonna start rainin’ men.

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A couple of months after I met the woman who is now my wife, I met her parents for the first time at the horse races. Being nervous and also because it’s the horse races, I drank a little too much. On the way home, Tiff drove and I demanded she let me choose the music.

I’m a pretty straight-laced fella pretty much all the time. But on that ride home, I was BELTING Raining Men at the top of my lungs. Also Danger Zone and the Eiffel 65 song. I’m embarrassed thinking back on it, but we’re married now so I guess it worked out or whatever.

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Sadly, Bradley, I hear you sang pretty badly, and the humor, while quite dadly, did not come across very radly.

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A drunk that belts out bad 80s hits is much better than a drunk that belts his wife.

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I boughtened this game off the livestream alone.

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It might be their best game since Crimsonland. I’ve played their other stuff, and while I love their games, Crimsonland had this…this energy, this momentum that their later games lacked. This game brings it back but with more upgrade options and persistence. It’s great.

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Well, actually, it’s spelled “boughtenated”