Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: game revie, Next Jump, Post Mortem Pixels, Steam, w

Love Shoot 'Em Up Style Games But Suck At Them? Next Jump Is Here To Save You

Post Mortem Pixels has recently released Next Jump, the "turn-based, tactics Shoot 'em up for people who are bad at SHMUPs (but love them)" on Steam and Itch.io for Windows, Mac, and Linux. What that tagline doesn't tell you, however, is that Next Jump isn't just a shoot 'em up style game, oh no, it looks and feels like a retro arcade classic. Next Jump isn't the prettiest game out there, but it'll only set you back $4.99.

The game is pretty easy to navigate, even without sitting through the tutorial. But you just might want to sit through the tutorial slides, as they've got that satisfying projector sound each time you click through to another. Depends on how nostalgic you get for slide projectors, I suppose.

The game's combat is pretty simple. You avoid just about everything that isn't an obvious scrap or energy drop, and kill enemy ships in a turn-based strategy style. Depending on your ship's battery, you'll get anywhere from 2-5 (possibly more) moves each turn, so go ahead and fire, then move away from any oncoming attacks and wait out your enemy's turn so you can go collect the scrap.

As you could have guessed, scrap is your way of upgrading the ship and will be looted from taking down enemy ships. You also receive scrap for boosting your pilot's reputation and answering SOS signals on your way.

When you end up dying because your ship's hull ranking hits 0, well, you get a nice old arcade style roundup of your run, including how many jumps you made, enemies you killed, and scrap you picked up.

But before you go thinking that Next Jump is just a cute roguelike arcade game with little substance, let me explain the plot to you. The idea behind all of your jumps and kills in the game is that you are chasing after a dragon mothership, because dragons stole your beer. And you are one determined pilot who just really, really loves beer enough to go hunting it down on an intergalactic journey.

The screen gets a bit chaotic sometimes with things like wind and space storms getting in the way, meteor fields also take up some space, but overall Next Jump is pretty simple. And it definitely delivers on that whole "shoot 'em up for people who aren't good at them" promise. The controls are easy to pick up, the strategy is pretty intuitive, and overall, it's a well crafted little game.

If you need something to kill time or just want a rather light-hearted strategy game, Next Jump is a solid choice.

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