Watch out for Anubis’s laser staff: RetroBlazer

A frantic first-person shooter in a colorful fusion of sci-fi and Egyptian myth…

Retroblazer

Kickstarter ending 2/22/15

Just a quick and loose look at a video game now on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight. Retroblazer is a frantic old-school first person shooter in the “run-and-gun” style, where you’re firmly planted behind your weapon looking down your muzzle–your gun’s muzzle, that is–at a very hostile world.

The world, in this case, is what caught my eye, as it’s an eye-searingly colorful world loaded with anthro characters, although since you’re sprinting through their territory and probably gunning them down you might miss that fact.

The scenery is a sci-fi re-envisioning of Egyptian motifs, with neon pyramids, brilliant hieroglyphs, day-glo sarcophagi, and the occasional viridian cartouch that leaves an interesting purple aftermirage in your eyes for a good 20 seconds.

I’m a sucker for a good 80s color palette, what can I say.

Story! Probably the least important aspect of this sort of game, but hey.

You play the young warrior Jonas, who, something something gunblazers, something something invaded by the evil Judgment Legion, something something hidden laboratory and mysterious armor, something something Automatrons, something  GunBlazers! It’s all covered in 20% greater detail on the RetroBlazer website, but let’s be honest, if you’re interested in this, it’s probably for the jackals and possibly the giant floating pyramids.

Game play seems kind of standard for this sort of game–weapons can be forged and customized with “crystals,” the internal currency of the RetroBlazer world. You sprint through a combat-intensive environment–very quickly, this is a dash-and-blast sort of experience–with just a bit of problem solving, and a healthy number of exploding barrels, bottomless chasms, and toxic pools. You can pick up the Alpha Demo, but note that it is the alpha, and has evolved somewhat (it sounds like they might have done away with some weapons using your energy crystals as a power source, for one.)

The kickstarter itself: cut and dried, the digital release, upgrade to soundtrack. In the Cadillac levels, get yourself hidden as an easter egg, or as an avatar in the game–personally, I think I’d look great in Future Egypt, grandma was a jackal. There are a few very special, expensive rewards that stand out–design your own secret weapon and hide it somewhere in a secret room, or for a cool grand, your own hidden shrine! Neat! Not free, but neat :)

You can learn more about the game’s features, music, and artists on Kickstarter, there’s a music sample there by soundtrack composer Solatrus (and if you thought RetroBlazer had some jarring colors, click that link…) Funding’s off to a slow start, but the team will be in San Antonio for PAX South this weekend, maybe they’ll be able to share their demo and get a mid-campaign bump!

Follow @Furstarter on Twitter for dailyish updates from the world of furfunding! Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.