Null Drifter (Playstation 4)

Arena
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
10 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Panda Indie Studio / eastasiasoft
Published by Red Art Games in 2022

Regardless of its perceived quality, every video game is a different entity in itself. It's a visual software designed to offer a challenge to players, if possible with some sense of fun and fulfillment derived from gameplay, visuals, story, you name it. Sometimes mindset also comes into play. When you think about a platform like the Playstation 4 and come across a game like Null Drifter, for example, it's difficult not to be amazed by the discrepancy between the system capabilities and the actual design of this little game, which according to the developer is a "1-bit lo-fi shooter".

Whatever that's supposed to mean, in practical terms what we have here is an endless confined twin-stick shooter with extremely minimalistic graphics. However, it actually uses the same stage structure of Void Gore (keep reading), another simplistic romp from Panda Indie Studio, and ties into a particular "universe" that also includes Red Death, Project Starship and Project Starship X. The idea behind the game is that the four characters from Project Starship X are using Null Drifter as a simulation environment before embarking in their mission to destroy the army of Cthulhu.

Trailer for the retail release of Null Drifter on the Plàystation 4
(courtesy of YouTube user and publisher RED ART GAMES)

Levels start out really short, with just a few scattered enemies with very little health. Your firepower comes out in powerful bursts that are initially able to dispatch incoming threats, but as the game progresses every level increases in length and difficulty. And eventually you'll notice that to be able to quickly gain control of the action you'll need to also use the dash movement, which makes the ship invincible for a short time and kills pretty much anything in its path except bosses and a single enemy that appears later on. All shoulder and trigger buttons can be used to dash, and the sooner you get used to it the better. Hints: you can dash in any direction (not only forwards), and in order to escape an expanding arch or a fast bullet (bosses) dashing against the border of the screen is sometimes a better option than dashing forward.

Even though power-ups are randomly given during the game, in line with the roguelite enemy spawning routine, permanent upgrades can and must be acquired with the cash earned credit after credit. Fortunately, this grinding phase doesn't take too long and is atcually good to get used to enemy routines and behavior, as well as boss patterns. You can upgrade starting lives, movement speed, dash cooldown time, stronger firing rate / bullets / damage and, for the very next credit, the ability to grab more items, more cash or to activate a "level 10 error", which actually corresponds to the right of fighting the game's ultimate boss at the end of level/wave 10.

The upgrade mechanics described above are very similar to that of another game of the same developer, Void Gore. And just like Void Gore, Null Drifter goes on forever after the boss in level 10 is beaten. The difference is that Null Drifter has a difficulty progression that's a little more aggressive. It pretty much maxes out after entering the loop (getting past stage 10), so doing whatever you can to preserve lives is a must to reach higher levels. This is important for scoring because the game tracks your points in a very unique way: your best score is the highest level you were able to reach × 1.000.000 + your cash inventory. Simply put, it's all down to the level reached, and also the fact that if you want to see your highest score you need to be online (connected to the Playstation Network). Unfortunately there isn't any offline high score table.

Once you've maxed out the shop upgrades coins become irrelevant, but purchasing "next game, more bonuses" is mandatory to generate more power-up icons as you get through the next credit. In order of likelihood to appear, the item gallery consists of: life up (L), bullets (B), fire rate up (R), damage up (D), shotgun (S), temporary overload (!), shop sales ($) and homing bullets (H). Shop sales probably refers to small discounts in the game shop. As for homing, it's very rare and pretty much absent for most of the runs.

Where do I go from here, captain???

Surviving the onslaught of later levels comes down to one single strategy aim, and that is crowd control. Dispatch every single enemy fast, and by all means avoid allowing them to overlap attacks. This is when Null Drifter tends to become a messy chaos where lives will soon be drained in a snap.  Beware of the happy face that cruises the screen slowly. Even though it is certain to release an extra life, it has a humongous amount of health and won't die with one or two dashes, a situation that often leads you into losing a life in the process.

Chances are most people will be thrown off by the rudimentary graphics, but if you're one who enjoys actual gameplay the good news is that once everything is maxed out the rush provided by Null Drifter is real, and definitely has the potential to pull players back for that one extra try. Sure it's hard to justify a blu-ray disc being home to such a simple piece of software since, frankly, it's like having an Atari 2600 game at hand. An Atari 2600 game on steroids, but still.

Most of the color palettes unlocked while you play are a strain on the eyes, but the AI-generated music is strangely soothing and, why not, relatively relaxing. I left all video tweaks disabled (invasive effects, screen shade, chromatic aberration and shaking/vibrating when firing) and played mostly with palette #22 (Seaweed). My final result is below, having reached level 23.