Dev: TikiPod
Players: 2
Aqua Kitty UDX is an update to a great PlayStation Vita game (via Xbox) that gets its inspiration from the legendary Defender with a canine and lactose twist. And what's more natural than deep-sea diving cats mining for milk? The Ultra Edition gets co-op mode, a new Dreadnought gameplay mode and graphical updates, looking bright and breezy on the Switch's screen with brilliant clarity for every pixel.
The premise is simple and a well-trodden one for Defender fans, scoot left or right around the level, protecting your milk-mining kitty buddies from the nasty robo-enemies. Some enemies fire bullets, others homing torpedoes, while the nasty red droids aim straight to kidnap your milk-mining feline friends. Protect these at all costs to maintain any chance of a high score.
There are three main modes, Classic with easy and normal difficulty levels, Arcade with a different power up mechanism and Dreadnought set in the Miowiana Trench. The new mode sees you take on huge ships, having to break them down section by section through concentrated firepower while dodging the usual enemies and waves of falling mines and other nasties. As a extra bonus, Expresso mode plays like an endless stripped-down version of the game, and there are a range of in-game achievements to beat for extra challenge.
In Classic mode, your ship can get a range of upgrades (rear fire, vertical shots, always useful if an alien has taking a cat out of the water, and angled fire) to boost its power. Also, the more damage you do, the more powerful your limited extra weapon boost to hose down enemies.
Through careful dodging and shooting, and often bit of good luck with a well-timed bonus, you nimbly take on wave after wave of robots. They get bigger, nastier and the screen gets busier as you dodge, weave and try to protect your mining buddies with a chunky armoured boss at the end of each section.
Your ship can take five hits in all modes, with the occasional extra heart appearing as a power-up to top them up. Each level has some gorgeous pixel backgrounds and little details that make this crazed concept look pretty normal, almost begging for an anime.
Packed with brilliant chiptune music, ferocious gameplay that's great for kids to play on Easy mode, and lots of options and the challenge of online high scores, it is great fun. The addition of two-player mode is excellent and this is a great game for the odd burst of blasting among all the Switch's big hitters.
Score: 4/5
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