It’s Hip To Be Square

There has never been a better time to be a nerd. Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen and No Man’s Sky are all set to make the next couple of years a truly magical period for anyone who has ever dreamed of exploring the stars.

If you follow either myself or our very own Ugly Geezer on twitter, you will no doubt have seen plenty of mentions of docking, hauling fish and lots of other geeky stuff. We, along with a couple of other Frugal Gamers are fast developing an addiction to Elite, and I’ll be writing a whole lot more about both it and Star Citizen in the coming months.

But for now I thought I’d share a couple of other Space Combat games that might quite easily have gone unnoticed in all the razzmatazz of the bigger hitting titles that seem to be on course to truly resurrect the long dormant genre.

C Moon

First up is Wings of Saint Nazaire. An indie game being developed just a few people, its a modern take on the much loved old school space shooters of yesteryear. Utilising the unity engine, the team have forgone the modern obsession with polygons, tessellation and other techie gobbledygook and gone truly old school, with everything being based on 2D sprites. In action it looks amazing and sounds even better, the current soundtrack is a work of genius. Out of all of the current crop it truly takes me right back to many happy hours spent playing the first X-Wing on my dads PC.

The video above gives you an idea of what the team are aiming for, better still if you want to see the latest build of the game you can head over to the website and try it for yourself right now. Playable on Windows, MAC, Linux or straight in your web browser there is no reason not to try what already is a cracking little game.

Sophisticated Bitch

Enemy Starfighter has been brewing nicely and its playable at this years PAX PRIME. It’s another game that has definitely turned my head. Whilst not looking as showy as Elite or Star Citizen, it has an art direction all of its own. More colourful and clean, as you can see in the trailer below it’s looking like another corker.

Asides from the ship to ship combat, it’s looking like you can expect to take control whole armadas, the only thing better than one ship is lots of ships right? I’ve not been hands on with Enemy Starfighter yet but I’m chomping on the bit and it would be a great idea if they released a development build much like Wings, mentioned above. Oculus support is also being implemented, my resolve of waiting for a consumer release of the rift is getting rather shaky.

Make The Money

Last but by no means least is Galaxy Heist by indie studio Space Bear Development. Currently in an early Alpha stage of production, rather than trying to be all things to all people, Galaxy Heist is focusing on ship to ship combat and fps boarding actions. Multiplayer is clearly the focus here, teaming up with friends, pillaging and marauding though space really does sound like a dream come true and with the possibility of console versions this could be a great pick up and play game.

With Galaxy Heist coming along nicely and a planned Kickstarter launch towards the end of the year, its definitely one to look out for. It they can capture the co-op intensity of games like Payday 2, add some fantastic Space battles they could well be on their way to a sure fire hit!

White And Nerdy

All three of these games are well worth checking out and undoubtedly I’ll be writing a whole lot more about them over the next year. For a genre that has seemingly been MIA for a hell of a long time, its great to be heading back to the final frontier. Short of a full remake of the X-Wing series, I could not more excited about the next couple of years. Forget your Xbox One and PS4’s, your Call of Duty and Battlefields, this is the next generation and long may it reign.

Wings of Saint Nazaire can be found: HERE

Enemy Starfighter: HERE

Galaxy Heist: HERE