Catching Up with Assault Android Cactus

Over the summer a fun little twin stick shooter called Assault Android Cactus appeared on Steam's Early Access service. It features a team of female androids out to stop hordes of robots from running a muck in various locales, each girl with her own pair of unique primary and secondary weapons. The game isn't really setting out to reinvent the genre in any grand way, but it has some little tweaks to the gameplay and a very nice aesthetic, making it a game to watch out for. I did a video on our YouTube channel discussing the game shortly after it became available, but since that time there have been a few updates to it and I feel it's high time I took a moment to revisit the game.

One of the first things to get added to the game since rolling out has been online leader boards. It may sound like a small thing on the surface, but I was surprised how naked the game could feel at times without these. They give a certain degree of context to how well one is playing the game. Sure, there is already a numerical scoring system in place combined with a later graded rank, but what does that mean in the grand scheme of things? While it was satisfying to slowly get better at the various levels and watch my score and grade go up, I became increasingly curious how well I was doing compared to others who were playing the game.

Coral is still a good choice for close quartered fights

Now I can actually see this, as my score is ranked against everyone else who is playing the game. Maybe one day I'll unseat MrSoggyPants217 from 25th spot if I can get my chain kills a little better... That's the sort of thing I like about modern twin stick shooters: getting fiercely competitive on the leader boards against faceless players from around the world. So, as small a detail as this may seem to some, I'm quite pleased that this feature has been added to Cactus.

The big, standout addition to the game so far, though, has been an entirely new level called Assembly. How levels are named in this game is a good hint to what one can expect in them and this one is no different. To a degree, several levels in Assault Android Cactus assemble and disassemble themselves periodically as one plays through it. This stage, though, takes things to new heights with vast areas of it shifting around as floors, pillars, and the like are constantly dropped in, drastically changing the landscape.

What starts of as a fairly small level feels almost sprawling after a time. Assembly eventually grows to be much larger than many other levels in AAC with players really needing to be smart about how they traverse it and destroy enemies such that it makes efficient use of time. This becomes very apparent when trying to get batteries to recharge your androids' power cores. With enemies spread all over the place and a fairly large level to run across it can take a while to kill off waves, and it's not uncommon to cut things close when getting a new battery. Players will need to be fairly aggressive if they want to avoid losing the round due to their android's charge running out.

The Vespula fight has become much more manageable

With that in mind, Coral is rather unsuited to this level unless you're able to maintain a speed boost power-up for much of the session. Her close ranged weapons make things a lot more challenging for killing enemies far away, which will be more and more important as the level wears on. So far, I like Holly best (she's still my go to android for much of the game). Her homing shot and bowling ball attack work quite well here. Lemon and Starch are also pretty good choices for the level since they have decent spreadshots or homing abilities of their own.

Other than that, most of the tweaks I've noticed in the game are a little more subtle. Some levels have had their difficulty adjusted such as the boss fight with Vespula. Early on she was very challenging and, try as I might, scoring higher than a C rank wasn't in the cards. Now, it's much more manageable. Her swarms of tiny robots orbiting her have had their behavior modified so that they are easier to deal with. Early on, you pretty much had to play as Lemon to do this fight effectively as her spreadshot could neutralize the swarm, now the rest of the androids are much more viable here. At the same time, Vespula's final phase has a lot more going on, though it is quite doable once you get a handle on all of the stuff she throws at players during it. Some of the other levels also have a few changes here and there, though Revolution continues to kick my ass.

Starch doing her thing

I've also noticed that power ups now make a little sound effect. It's vaguely reminiscent of grabbing a mushroom in Super Mario Bros., which I'm a-okay with.

On the whole, things appear to be progressing nicely with Assault Android Cactus' development. The new level and leader boards are welcome additions, and the tweaks to existing content are nice. This all leaves me curious as to what will come in future updates. There are still three more androids planned for the game. What they'll be is anyone's guess, but I'm dying to see them. It's also nice to see that the game's developers communicate quite a lot with the players, and there's a good back and forth of ideas which are helping to shape the game. As it stands, AAC is one of my favorite twin stick shooters, and it's not even finished development, so I'm very much looking forward to more updates to this game as it continues to take shape.

Below is gameplay footage from the new level added to the game, Assembly: