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I’ll give you three reasons I love this game. It’s addictive, it uses one button,
it has spaceships.
It’s in 2D.
It has spaceships.
That’s...might be the wrong...numbers. Hey, speaking of numbers...it has those, too. It’s
Big Sky Infinity for the PlayStation 3.
Just released to the PlayStation Network, Big Sky Infinity is a side-scrolling space
shooter straight from the old-school. It’s retro in a way that should definitely appeal
to fans of R-Type and those classic shooters, but it also tries a lot of new things to keep
things fresh. The result is a fantastic mixture of old and new that’s easy to pick up, difficult
to master and impossible to put down.
But you know, the weird thing about Big Sky Infinity is that...it doesn’t seem quite
so awesome, at first. The game starts with a tutorial, which introduces you to mechanics
you’re probably very familiar with already. So you’re excited to get started, and when
things finally get going...you almost immediately get your *** kicked.
And you think, “Did I miss something in the tutorial?” But no, you didn’t. It’s
just the game starts you off very underpowered. That’s a design choice that you soon realize
actually adds to the game’s addictive charm. See, you collect tons of these star bits,
which are actually upgrade points. There’s a slew of ways you can improve your spaceship,
and it’s not long before it’s you who’s kicking the ***.
That’s a big part of the game’s appeal. Upgrading your ship, making it a little further,
seeing just how long you can last before you’re incinerated.
Another neat thing about Big Sky Infinity is that, as the title suggests, it makes outer
space seem massive. For starters, your ship is a tiny speck darting between gigantic meteors
and drones...even planets, which are so big, you have to drill through them. And secondly,
the levels are randomly generated. So no two runs are exactly the same...which also helps
create this illusion of infinite space.
In fact, the only thing bigger than this game’s universe is its amount of content. The game
literally has about ten gameplay modes, from the classic run to boss modes to timed modes
to extra-challenging nightmare and hell modes. Throw in its multiplayer and the insane amount
of stats it tracks, and you have a really addictive shooter.
If there’s a drawback, it’s that discerning enemy lasers from other chunks of space material
can be tough. So sometimes, you die without even knowing why. Otherwise, there’s not
much to complain about. The game looks great, it plays even better, it’s a time suck of
an almost unreasonable magnitude. There’s even a Vita version, and the game is even
better on the go. So if you enjoy space shooters or just retro games in general, Big Sky Infinity
is an easy recommendation.