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Whenever I
play a game like this—uh, whether it’s an indie title or just one that’s more hardcore—I
always think of Nicklas Nygren, the developer behind stuff like NightSky. He once gave this
presentation on game design in which he said something that, as a critic, really struck
a chord with me.
“Your game is always harder than you think it is.”
See, I’m not one of these people who think difficulty is something to be proud of in
a game. I think anything that inherently limits the appeal of a game is a bad thing. So for
the sake of both broad accessibility and my average-at-best gaming skill, I always advocate
things like adjustable difficulty levels...especially for something this ridiculous.
So as you may have gathered from my whining...yes, Pester is very hard. And no, it doesn’t
have an easier difficulty. It’s set by default to, “Hey, being really good at video games
is so cool” mode. Nonetheless, if you’re into brutal challenges and/or old space shooters
with a dash of bullet hell, Pester is the punch in the mouth you’re probably looking
for.
You f*cking ***.
A recent release to Xbox Live, Pester comes from the same team that did Super Killer Hornet.
Pester is a lot like that game...only it goes with the pixelated retro aesthetic. An awesome
choice, no question. There’s even an option for having arcade scan lines on the screen.
That’s right, scan lines are an option...but not “easy.”
You know, all I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
Anyway, enemies leave coins behind once you shoot them. Once you collect enough, you go
into this hyper mode, which is cool. The only problem is that the coins are often the same
color as enemy bullets, which means there are some cheap deaths. But the real draw is
that, by combining its modifiers and game modes, there are 96 possible ways to play
Pester. And I suck at all of them.
Aside from the aesthetic, this is a pretty straightforward shooter. But the game does
have this Tempus mode, which is basically...make it as far as you can within the time limit.
Enemies drop additional time in this mode, which is pretty cool. This might be Pester’s
most compelling mode for hardcore players.
With that said, only hardcore players need apply. Pester is a challenging and fun, if
somewhat standard, shooter. But if you’re not a super-skilled gamer, Pester is more
frustrating than anything else. Regardless of how many bits it pretends to have.