Get ready to go shoot down a lot of things in Astro Port and Nyu Media’s newest game, WOLFLAME, on Steam!
WOLFLAME is the latest 2d shoot ‘em up (shmup) to come to Steam from Astro Port and Nyu Media. You’ll be taking part in Operation WOLFLAME, a desperate resistance to try and fight back against the aliens that have arrived. Step into the Siebold and prepare to shoot down a lot of tanks and ships as you progress through the 10 different levels that this game has to offer!
When you’re actually in the game, the story of WOLFLAME is pretty non-existent. When you start up a new game you’ll be tossed into the level after you choose which difficulty you wish to play on. As is typical for me in shmups, I decided to play on Easy. They game starts out easy enough, but even on Easy you’ll likely see that continue screen come up quite a few times your first time through.
As far as shmups go – at least from the ones I’ve played – this one is fairly straightforward. The controls felt smooth enough with playing on a controller, and there are only really two buttons you need to worry about – the button to shoot and the button to use bombs. There is also a pause key, but I will get back to this one in a bit.
As you play through the levels, you’ll find that specific enemies will sometimes drop powerups. These powerups will give you give you a couple gun buddies to help you get through the level. What colour the powerup is when you pick it up will determine what type of gun buddy it is, and each type definitely has a use. You’ll also find that these powerups come in left and right variations, with this determining which side it will give you (or upgrade if you have one already). I found the most useful one to be the lock-on laser, but I definitely did make use of the homing + spray missiles and then laser beam.
Another thing you’ll find as you play through the levels is that certain enemies will drop star shaped items. These items will grant a point boost at the end of the level, should you continue to the end of the level without dying after getting them. These powerups can also be the key to performing the one major glitch I found in the game.
So if you remember, I mentioned a bit earlier that I would be getting back to talking about the pause key. What’s so special about the pause key, you ask? Well you see, when you complete a level and get to the screen in which you are given points for your collectibles, if you pause it at the right time, you can start getting infinite lives and score. I had triggered this by accident originally, and then once more so that I could properly record it for showcasing. The trick is rather specific in timing, but if you ARE able to time it right, you’ll never need to worry about seeing that Continue screen again.
As a whole, WOLFLAME is extremely solid, and the only glitch I was able to find is fairly frame precise on actually triggering it. With four difficulties to choose from, you’ll be able to get a fair amount of value out of the game in terms of replayability. With that said, if you do only intend to play it once, then you’ll likely want to try and find it on sale. At $6 however, you are looking at getting at least 2 hours of gameplay out of the game. The retro arcade graphics also work wonderfully in it, and the only sound that can get annoying is hearing that life counter go up if you trigger the glitch.
WOLFLAME Review Score
4/5
WOLFLAME is available now on Steam.
I would like to thank Nyu Media for providing me with a code for review purposes.
