Galaxy Champions TV (Review)

Galaxy Champions TV is an intense top-down arcade style arena shooter inspired by the classic arcade game Smash TV. Developed and published by aQuadiun. You are a contestant on the most violent TV show of all time and your ultimate goal (other than surviving the arenas) is to conquer every enemy thrown your way and become the champion of the arenas.

I'll start off by saying the game (while it does have some replay value) is very short, it can be completed in as little as twenty to twenty-five minutes on the sdifficulty as well as your skill. There are three planets/arenas each has five waves of enemies and end with a boss fight (boss fights are simple and don't speed up or have multiple stages), totaling at fifteen waves and three bosses there isn't much in the way of victory (as long as you know what you're doing). The replay value comes in the form of trying harder difficulties, the daily challenge, (which is just the normal gameplay stuff but scored on an online leaderboard) and the co-op mode which like many other similar games balances out the difficulty by making you share lives like it or not. With each playthrough you are given a starting amount of three hearts (can be upgraded to four) and three lives (retries/self revives) if you die three times you're sent all the way back to the first arena, starting the onslaught all the way from the start.

When it comes to how the game plays and feels, movement is smooth and responsive, the gunplay is punchy and satisfying, the soundtrack is catchy, and the overall gameplay is fast, intense, and addictive. Every wave has hordes of enemies swarming the arena most of which will just run or charge at you, while some shoot projectiles as well as poisonous clouds and other things. You can try to avoid them by veering off around or just brute forcing it if you have a good gun near by, but the best option is just using your dash to dodge through them. Shooting is dual-stick based but sadly you're limited to 8-directional aiming, instead of the much preferred full 360 free aiming. This is my main issue with the game, it may be preferred to some but I'm not a fan. besides dealing with mass amounts of enraged monsters, you will need to watch out for the randomly placed land mines, (which are impossible to keep track of when things get crazy) mines are the only trap in the entirety of the game so they just feel like an irritation rather than a deadly obstacle.

during each wave loot bots will come in and drop utilities and weapons when destroyed, these weapons along with your stats and abilities can be upgraded at the end of each wave, as long as you've leveled up. These upgrades are presented in a random set of three, sometimes you are given healing options as well, after choosing the one you like most the others disappear. although it is fairly randomized, you can technically create a build, which is a fun thing to mess around with. Your primary gun has unlimited ammo, but pickups don't though this isn't much of a problem since there's pretty much always a gun to pickup at all times. Be sure to constantly upgrade all the weapons cause if you stick to one, the others won't be very useful towards the end of the game.

I've pretty much explained every aspect to full extent but the co-op mode, playing co-op can either be a breeze or a very difficult challenge (depending on how skilled your buddy is). Life pools are shared, so if your teammate is terrible they're most likely going to quickly go through your lives and leave you to carry them the rest of the game, if you die after running out of lives your buddy can revive you by standing on your lifeless body for about five seconds which is nice. Upgrades are also shared, so you'll both have to agree on what to choose, this won't be hard as most upgrades are just as good as any other. Other than the fact that everything is shared, there are no other differences playing co-op. If you don't have anyone around to play with, don't worry playing single player is just as much fun, even more so if you're not a huge fan of insane amounts of mayhem and madness (Also known as a sickening amount of screen-shake if you forgot to turn it off... like me).

Galaxy Champions TV doesn't bring anything new or original to the table and it's pretty short for an arcade style arena shooter, but at its core it's a well made arena survival game with satisfying gunplay and intense combat. Galaxy Champions TV is available for $6.99 on PC/Steam