Deep Dive: Glorkian Warrior
Glorkian Warrior is a rather straightforward game, but therein lies a lot of its appeal. The game is very clearly inspired by some of the early arcade shoot-em-up hits, with enemies appearing in waves in the skies above the player’s character. The Glorkian Warrior’s Super Backpack constantly fires upwards, so the player’s main concern is in moving the character around to aim the shots and stay out of danger. Apart from that, the character can also jump. It’s useful for avoiding certain enemies and aiming your shots at higher targets.
The enemy waves are procedurally generated, so they’ll always be a little different from game to game. There are many different types of enemies, each with their own quirks, so it’s important to get to know them as soon as possible. Bosses will occasionally appear, taking a great deal more effort to bring down. You also need to be mindful of ground-based enemies. You can’t always defeat them, but you do at the very least need to avoid them. Other random hazards like asteroids will sometimes appear, some of which you can blast and others of which need to be dodged.
Whenever you defeat an enemy, there’s a chance they’ll drop something you can pick up. The most basic of these drops is the energy cracker, which is used as a currency of sorts to unlock new features. Once unlocked, these new features and items will be inserted into the rotation for possible appearances in the game. Enemies may also drop weapon power-ups that change your shot type, or boosts that increase your firing rate and laser power. All of these power-ups are temporary, but you can see just how long each of them will last thanks to some handy meters on the screen.
One of the reasons Glorkian Warrior is so fun is because of its system of unlockables. The game is very clear about how far you are from the next unlock, and the description gives just enough information to tease the new arrival without entirely blowing its surprise. Because of this system new features and elements are constantly appearing, which helps the game stay fresh. It takes quite a while to open everything up, at which point you’re really just playing to see how high of a score you can rack up.
The game also has a really strong sense of humor. The character and enemy designs are goofy and delightfully strange, and some of the in-game happenings are so utterly random that you can’t help but laugh. There are mini-skits before and after every game, often involving dialogue between the Glorkian Warrior and Super Backpack. Sometimes other aliens will join in and they may even issue you a challenge to complete. The comedy style here definitely leans into the absurd, but it’s well-written stuff. If it annoys you, there’s a button that lets you skip right through it all and get into the next level more quickly.
Glorkian Warrior’s simple, easy-to-understand gameplay makes it excellent to pick up and play here and there. The challenge level is just right, allowing less skilled players to enjoy shorter sessions and more experienced players to have tough runs. Either way, energy crackers will almost certainly be earned. No matter what skill level you’re at, you’ll make a bit of progress with each game. The system of unlockables contributes to keeping the rather basic gameplay interesting over many sessions, and the game’s charm and humor makes it stand out.
