Demon's Crystals (Playstation 4 / PSN)

Demon's Crystals

Badland Games
Badland Games, 2017

I'm not a huge fan of digital download games, but while setting up my PSN account on my somewhat newly acquired PS4, I browsed the store before I powered down the console to see what games were available. I ran across Demon's Crystals in the sale category. It was only $2.49 and when I realized it was a twin stick shooter, I decided to give it a try. Having the 1 TB model PS4 I'm not as concerned about downloading games as I am on my Xbox One that has a smaller (already full) hard drive.

The game plays like your average twin stick shooter. Think Smash TV or Robotron 2084...just controlling a demon girl with a graveyard or castle level design. You get the chose from 1 of 4 different characters...

I initially chose to play as Adora, hence her level is much higher than the others. At the time I didn't realize your character would level up as you play the game. I find this to be a nice addition as it'll add to the replayability of the game. I noticed there was a trophy/achievement for getting all 4 girls to at least level 30.

Each "world" consists of 10 levels, with each level having 3 rounds. The first level takes place in a graveyard. The goals for each round vary, from destroying a set amount of enemies to collecting a set amount of diamonds to both requirements.

The left analog stick controls your character, while the right analog stick fires your weapon. If you've played any twin stick shooters, then this control scheme should be familiar to you. During the game, additional weapon icons will appear. I picked up spread guns, homing bullet guns, rocket launchers and a freeze ray. Other items will also randomly appear such as screen clearing attacks like lighting or hellfire as well as hour glasses that give you additional time to meet your objective(s).

The environment on each level is somewhat destructable. I'm not sure the purpose of this, other than each destroyed building, etc. nets you a small amout of experience points. Once you destroy say a tombstone, the rubble is still there and you must navigate your character around this otherwise you will run into it and your motion will halt.

The 10th level was a boss fight. The first boss (and only boss I've fought thus far) was pretty cool. Not overally hard once I figured out his attack pattern.

As you kill your enemies, you are awarded a certain amount of experience. I found as I leveled up my character I was plowing through the enemies in the 1st world. However the difficulty took a big step forward with world 2, a castle.

Demon's Crystals doesn't really bring anything new to the table. However at only $2.49 (normally $4.99) during the month of October (at least on the Playstation Network), the theme fit the month of October. My 6 year old daughter enjoyed playing the game too, though the controls did throw her for a loop a bit.

The game offers co-operative play online, as well as a survival mode where you compete to see who can stay alive the longest and rack up the highest score. I haven't tried those modes yet, but I do plan on checking them out. In the mean time, I'm going to keep coming back to this game - trying to level up the other characters. This is one of those games that is perfect to play when you don't have a lot of time to sit in front of the TV. If you're a fan of twin stick shooters, you may want to give this one a look.