Super Cyborg [Xbox]
Artur Games’ Super Cyborg is a retro-inspired 2D platform-shooter where you take on the role of a powerful cyborg deployed to an island filled with all kinds of strange and dangerous creatures. Able to be played as single player or co-op, with a couple of cyborg models available, and customisable colour options across your suit, suit details, visor and gun, it’s well worth trying out both modes.
It’s a mega challenging game right off the bat, even on the lower difficulties, but after replaying the same level a few times, you’ll start to learn the patterns and directions from which enemies appear, giving you the upper hand (slightly). Playing with a friend further helps to get you through the levels, as you can try to focus on one direction each, preventing too many enemies from being able to catch you off guard.
The old-school pixel look works perfectly in Super Cyborg, delivering the overall vibe of games of years past, such as Contra - one of the developers’ main influences - and matched with an equally retro soundtrack, composed by Darkman007, that makes you feel like you’ve been transported to a 1980s arcade. As you progress, levels may switch between a side scrolling platformer to more free movement, as levels extend deeper into a top-down viewpoint. Enemy designs are grotesque, with bulging eyes and creepy, malformed plant and bug-like appearances, and the levels themselves are interestingly detailed too across the lab environments and eyeball filled areas.
The controls are pretty standard, though there were a couple of things we did find to be quite frustrating - aiming diagonally upwards will force you to move forwards and backwards, which led to me dying plenty of times, though Allan didn’t find this to be quite as risky - however there is a way to make this a little easier. Dropping down from platforms after moving up to a new segment of the level was one thing that had both of us cursing however, as it will frequently cause you to die, despite knowing that the ground is right there, just below you - but it has now progressed into a sort of dead-zone. There are power-ups that you can gain throughout the levels, and these will change the ammo type of your weapon leading to some particularly powerful attacks - though some are definitely better (and more satisfying to use) than others!
You can unlock a Hard Difficulty, and there’s also an achievement to complete Hard with zero deaths, which almost seems like an impossible task - but given that most of the game comes down to learning the patterns and muscle-memory, I’ll hopefully get there at some point! How long it takes you to beat the game will come down to how good you are at this type of game; for me, I found it very easy… to die that is - and Allan found it to be a challenge, but a manageable one at that. Thankfully, dying during a level just puts you back to the beginning of that level, which is something I was initially worried about - I had a feeling it was gonna toss me all the way back to the start of the game, and if that was the case, I don’t think I’d have managed very far!
Overall, Super Cyborg is highly compelling with its challenging gameplay and enjoyable co-op. There’s a few ‘cheats’ that you can utilise within the start menu, which is a cool addition, harking back to the era that inspired it. Priced at £5.79 on the Xbox Store, Super Cyborg is a fantastic price, and we’d highly recommend players to try it out - especially if games like Contra are your jam. It’s a lot of fun, even with how challenging it is, and will tick a lot of the boxes for big Contra fans.
In the end, we decided to give Super Cyborg the Collecting Asylum rating of 9/10.
Are you interested in Super Cyborg? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Drageus Games for the Super Cyborg Xbox review code!
