Hydorah is here! If you’ve been following the game’s development, I think that’s all you need to hear. It’s great – go download it.
If you’ve never heard of Locomalito, they’re a Spanish indie game crew that has a very well-defined philosophy of creating freeware games that try to redefine arcade gaming for today. Their influences are very clear. In Hydorah’s case, it’s a horizontal shoot ’em up that, at first glance, seems most inspired by Konami’s 1985 arcade hit Gradius.
Aside from some superficial similarities, however, Hydorah is actually fairly different. The game employs three types of weapons: primary, secondary, and “bomb”. The primary and secondary weapons can be upgraded by separate power-ups (red and green). However, a red power-up will turn into green and back if you leave it, giving you some choice about how you want to upgrade. Bomb weapons (yellow) and speed power-ups (blue) are similarly flipped during the game. There’s one other power-up, a purple shield that allows you to take one hit.
Hydorah has 16 levels, but since there are branching paths you needn’t play every one to complete the game. The levels vary in size, from one segment to three or more. Each segment is short but challenging, and ends with a big boss battle. At the end of each level you’re rewarded with a new weapon, either primary, secondary, or bomb, which you can select at the beginning of the next level. There’s some strategy to the weapons that you pick, although they generally seem to get better as you progress. I haven’t collected all the weapons, but it seems like pretty standard fair (wide shot, laser, missiles, etc.).
One of Hydorah’s biggest innovations is its save system. Now, having a save system at all is pretty unique for a shoot ’em up, and might be a turn-off for arcade purists (especially since highscore is also saved), but in my opinion it works pretty well in practice, and is much preferable to having even limited continues. In Hydorah you start with just three saves, and there’s only one save slot. This limited save system forces you to get pretty good at the game but gives you some choice about how you practice. While it may not necessarily redefine the arcade genre, I think it’s a step in the right direction, and a nice concession to more casual players who want to see the game.
The graphics and music are fantastic. Gryzor87’s soundtrack, in particular, deserves mention, especially since it never loops – each track was composed specifically to last as long as the segment of the level it’s played over. The levels themselves are extremely varied, and take you from deep space to planetary surfaces to underground caves, each with a unique backdrops, enemies, and bosses. Some levels even have unique weather that affect your movement. If I have one complaint, it’s that a technical issue with the game causes the graphics to be a bit blurry on my computer (there are some suggestions on how to fix this in the readme, but they didn’t work perfectly).
Hydorah comes highly recommended. It’s a challenging game with an incredible amount of polish and enough new content and features to make it stand-out from the old games it’s based on. Between this and 8-bit Killer Locomalito is definitely a developer to watch. Can’t wait to see what comes out of them next.
TIGdb: Entry for Hydorah