Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Futuridium EP Deluxe is a retro space shooting game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4 and PS Vita. Futuridium EP Deluxe is a faithful homage to a retro classic by the name of Uridium which was originally released on the Commodore 64 in 1986 before being ported to the ZX Spectrum.

The story revolves around a spaceship pilot who becomes lost in a dimensional loop prior to a large scale space battle, so the spaceship pilot is now trying to find his way out of the dimensional loop in a bid to find his way back home.

Futuridium EP Deluxe is a much expanded version of the original Futuridium EP which was released a little over a year earlier on iOS with new game modes, levels, game mechanics, enhanced speed, more enemies, a graphical overhaul and more music tracks, amongst other enhancements, therefore forming the definitive version of the game.

There are four game modes: Deluxe, Classic, Demos and Flappyridium; there are five zones in the Deluxe game mode comprising of 10 stages per zone totalling to 50 stages with boss fights with the only save game feature occurring upon the completion of each zone, while the Classic mode is essentially the original version of the game from its iOS release in which the energy depletes quicker, there are less cubes to increase the energy and there are no speed boosts, alongside the demo run and the single levels mode which provides a practice area for single stages, alongside Flappyridium being a play on the game Flappy Bird which is incredibly fast and just as difficult to progress through.

The basics of the game mechanics consist of having to destroy blue cubes to replenish the energy supply and to reveal the white cube which is the final one and represents the core that must be destroyed in order to complete the stage and progress onto the subsequent one, while for every 100 cubes destroyed players earn an extra credit which can be used when all of the lives are gone to help you progress further into the game in comparison to previous attempts.

There are a total of 150 medals awarded between three categories including Deathcheater, lightspeed and chainmaster for each of the 50 stages that are earned for not dying, how quickly a player completes the stage and how many cubes they can chain together by destroying them within a small period of time and in doing so, creating a multiplier to improve the score for as long as they are quickly chaining the destruction of cubes together.

The ship design is angular in a quite charming retro feel with a blue trail and a bubble from the back of the ship to emphasise the effect of the turbo thrust on the speed of the ship, while the enemy design consists of turrets firing lasers and homing missiles as well as mines.

The environment design perfects the illusion of making every surrounding environment feel expansive across each stage; no matter how short or long it is which is certainly due to it being set on the surface of huge opposing spaceships along the backdrop of outer space, while there are unlockable skins which make the stages look different.

There are three camera angles with the first providing a nearby view from the rear of the ship, while the second camera angle is positioned further back and the third angle provides a first-person perspective of the action from the view of the front of the ship, which is a great design choice as it provides more variety to the experience as it appeals to players that do not necessarily want a nearby rear camera or a further back camera or a first-person camera angle; therefore with three camera angles there is a camera angle for everyone to enjoy and provides an intricate touch that may not be expected from such a genre that usually contains a single viewpoint.

The extras menu includes a how to play feature and an animated intro to tell the story of the game as well as statistics covering a varying range of statistical analysis such as the player’s best chain, best chain score, white cubes destroyed, crashes, continues used and the total amount of time played.

A couple of minor criticisms related to the gameplay would be the lack of a rear view mirror or a rear view camera positioned to be able to look back particularly to see if an enemy had launched a missile at the ship or more practically to be able to know if  enough space had been cleared to be able to turn the ship around to begin another attempt at destroying the cubes within that area of the stage, while another issue is the lack of an aiming reticule which would have made aiming the lasers far more accurate.

Futuridium EP Deluxe supports the share feature that allows players to upload a video clip or screen shot to Facebook or Twitter; and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or Ustream as the game is being experienced with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores the most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so players still have the chance to decide if they would like to share something amazing a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that has only improved with the further customisation provided by the Share Factory app that allows commentary, music, themes, stickers, effects, text, picture-in-picture video between game footage and the player’s reaction from the PlayStation Camera and much more besides, which will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation in the future. The Share Play feature provides a platform for a gamer that does not own the game to take control  once started and invited that person to play, although it only lasts for one hour; it is a great service as it effectively presents a one hour demo of the game to anyone who you invite who does not own it, while being an excellent sociable feature too.

Futuridium EP Deluxe supports cross-buy between the PS4 and Vita, although it unfortunately does not support cross-save, so players will not be able to continue from their previous progression on the Vita version when playing the PS4 version and vice versa, however as Futuridium EP Deluxe is also remote play; players can technically continue on playing the PS4 version anywhere they want to with the same save file during remote play. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that players will be purchasing both the PS4 and Vita versions of the game with just a single purchase.

The controls are rather simplistic as the control scheme consists of pressing X to shoot; pressing square to perform a 180 degree spin; pressing R1 or R2 to engage the turbo thrust or holding either button for a consistent turbo thrust; pressing left or right on the d-pad to change the music track; pressing down on the d-pad to change viewpoint; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move the ship; pressing the share button takes players to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu. The light bar implementation represents the status of energy by producing light blue during high energy conditions, but changes to orange during low energy conditions and changing to red during extremely low energy conditions, while a white flash will be produced when having destroyed a cube and there is subtle vibration as lasers make contact with cubes to destroy them, although there is no touch pad implementation which is surprising as it could have been an alternative to the left analogue stick for steering the ship.

Graphically, Futuridium EP Deluxe is a perfect recreation of what should be expected from retro classics as it has retro stylised graphics with a modern flare to them as the visuals are bright and colourful with a high quality of performance as both the PS4 and Vita output at 1080P resolution and 60 frames per second.

The presentation of the game is good, but is not as accessible as it should be due to the input of the left analogue stick sometimes not being recognised during menus, although it does have a very good user interface across various menus such as the main menu, game modes, extras, online leaderboards, options and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick, directional pad and touch pad. The background of the menus revolves around the player’s ship spinning as stars hurtle towards them as movement is made through space, while the bright blue Futuridium logo looms large.

The audio consists of sound effects and music with the sound effects include shooting at cubes and enemies, enemies shooting at the ship, the destruction of cubes and enemies, engaging the turbo and an alarm when energy starts to run low, while the music is a fusion of dance, bluesy soul and classical genres. The DualShock 4 speaker produces incidental sound effects to represent the destruction of each cube as well as a sound effect to indicate the end of a chain multiplier.

The trophy list includes 13 trophies with 9 bronze, 3 silver and 1 gold trophy. The vast majority of the trophies are hard to earn as they consist of The End bronze trophy for completing the Final Zone; the Classic Smasher silver trophy for completing Classic mode on a single credit; the I’m the Chain Master bronze trophy for performing a 100 cube chain; the All the Secrets silver trophy for finding and destroying all of the NegaCubes; and the You Are the Best gold trophy for earning 150 medals. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 30 to 50 hours to 100% the trophy list.

There are no difficulty levels, although the difficulty curve mostly revolves around the depletion of energy which may not be an issue on the initial stage or two, but will certainly become a problem when there are more cubes to destroy before reaching the core, therefore creating a scenario in which there is more to do within roughly the same amount of time, while the difficulty curve particularly in later stages of the final zone can reach a frustrating level of difficulty.

There is no local or online multiplayer, although perhaps it could have had split-screen or online multiplayer in which both players were vying to complete a set number of stages, an entire zone or multiple zones based upon a limited amount of lives, a time limit or an energy limit to crown the winner of the game or even pass the controller multiplayer to see who could complete the stages and zones the fastest as well as who could complete the stages and zones with the most lives and energy intact.

However, there are online leaderboards which are shared between both versions of the game as they are focused on global rankings, friends rankings and top 10 rankings with each leaderboard containing each player’s rank; name (PSN ID); and their total amount of points accumulated with the positioning of each player based upon their total points for the top 10 of each category including: cubes, deluxe, each of the 5 zones, classic, demos and flappyridium, which totals to 30 leaderboards, while every leaderboard instantaneously displays the position you have achieved.

The replayability of the game stems from the unlockable content including three game modes and a variety of level skins, while the online leaderboards certainly provides a competitive edge to the gameplay and the charming retro inspired visuals will also have players returning even for the nostalgia of the games such as Uridium that has inspired the appropriate direction of Futuridium EP Deluxe.

Overall, Futuridium EP Deluxe is a retro throwback that is certainly worth your time and investment, especially if a fan of retro space shooters; therefore there is more than enough reasons to purchase the game from nostalgia of retro space shooters of yesteryear to its own content that forms a unique take on the genre and there is no reason to hesitate in purchasing when there is such an amazing value added price as £7.99 for a PS4 and Vita cross-buy title consisting of such retro infused charm and quality.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Futuridium EP Deluxe
• Developer: Mixed Bag
• Publisher: Mixed Bag
• System: PS4 and PS Vita
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: Yes (PS4 and PS Vita)
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1 (Online Leaderboards)
• Hard Drive Space Required: 220MB