Hyper Sentinel is an arcade blaster shoot ’em up game being developed and backed on Kickstarter by brothers Andrew Hewson & Rob Hewson. The game is made as an ode to the shoot ’em up games of old, like Galaga or Gradius, but if you think it will be exactly like those games you would be sorely mistaken. This is 2017, where there are virtually no limits to someone with the drive to make something great. The game itself sounds simple. You fly across a large space ship and shoot at the vulnerable locations placed across the entire vessel. Destroy all of the vulnerable locations and a boss will appear out of the center. Beat the boss and you move on to the next stage and another large spaceship. But there are many enemy vessels that are deployed to take you out or to defend the ship itself, each with their own gimmick in how they will try to take you out. One ship will just fly back and forth across the map, trying to smash into you or shoot you while another ship will chase you around, constantly staying at your back making it difficult to take them down. Only thing you can do is outrun them and make a quick turn to take them out. The bosses themselves are much more complex and have their own rules and tactics.
Your own controls are very simple. You can shoot, turn around, and go faster. Those aren’t the only tools that you have available. Throughout each level, various power-ups are scattered around to help you with your battle. These boosts all have varied effects. One will envelope your ship in an indestructible shield for a set amount a time, another will repair your ship to full if you have taken damage, there was even one that created a giant, spinning blade that circles your ship and cuts down enemy ships. There are a few others that I haven’t mentioned and there is sure to be more in the final product. The music is great and really pumps you up throughout each stage and the ships get bigger and bigger and the bosses get harder and harder. With the game coming out for Steam, Xbox One, Playstation 4, IOs, Android, and even Amazon Play, there are many ways to obtain and enjoy this game.
Download the pre-beta demo on the game’s Kickstarter page.
Played it? We’d love to know what you thought about it.
