The Witch Beam team from Brisbane, Australia is developing an action-packed twin-stick shooter called Assault Android Cactus. There is a background story but I mainly focused on shooting things. The gameplay is fairly simple: you pick one of the four characters, you see robotic enemies and you shoot them.
The playable characters have different weapon sets. Cactus has an assault gun that shoots rapidly in a straight line. Lemon has a spread gun and can attack many enemies at once. Coral has a shotgun that is great up close but not good for enemies at a distance and Holly shoots homing projectiles that may seem like they would break the game but they don’t. Character specific secondary weapons are also available. Playing solo or perhaps with one other may make you want to consider who you pick more than playing in a four player coop session. I had a tough time beating the first boss by myself but I am sure that difficulty will be scaled when the game is finished.
You will die in this game. Upon death you can revive yourself by tapping the fire button. As long as you have a charge in your battery you will return to the fight. Every so often enemies will drop a power-up that charges your battery. If you don’t obtain it your battery will drain and it’s game over. The gameplay has a nice way of blending twin-stick and shoot ’em up gameplay.  I do wish there was an ability to roll or dodge though. Nevertheless, Assault Android Cactus is a fast and often frantic game that can
be played solo but really shines when 2-3 others join in.
Recommendation*: Worth a buy – if there’s potential for couch coop in your future
Full Disclosure: This game was provided to GameEnthus by the developer.
Genre: twin-stick shooter
Developer: Witch Beam
Publisher: Witch Beam
Platforms: PC
Price: $14.99
http://www.assaultandroidcactus.com/
http://GameEnthus.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gameenthus-podcast-video-games/id286435007?mt=2
Scale:*
Worth a buy – paying full price for fans of the series or genre makes sense – often includes a caveat
Worth a buy on sale – not quite full price worthy but close, – often includes a caveat
Rent – rent before buying
No – borrow it if you must play it
Please no – Don’t waste any time and/or money on it