Astro Duel 2

It's like Duck Game, IN SPACE! I originally played this at PAX and it was by far my most visited booth. The multiplayer is wild frantic fun kill-eachother-now kinda gameplay, with the singleplayer mode translating that quite competently to a semi-speedrun mission mode. The dynamic of the ship dogfights versus the platformer gunplay is wild, it's such a good concept and it's executed amazingly.

Pros: - Astro Duel 2 is a ultra-fast and precise way to murder your friends - It also allows for hilarious accidental self-kills (it is sillier and therefore more relaxed than a game like Samurai Gunn) - The gameplay has way more depth than is necessary Cons: - I'd like to write something negative here for balance, but honestly this is exactly the game it looks like and you should buy it.

If you like couch-competitive games like Smash Bros, Samurai Gunn, or TowerFall, you absolutely must play Astro Duel 2. The game even supports super-smooth online play with Steam's remote play thingy. I've already had so many exciting matches with plenty of trash-talk and good times had by all!

Played 6 player after a day of pax. We played all night. This is the game you bring to a friend house to make the night. Easy to learn, hard to master.

After having played probably a dozen+ hours through remote play with friends.. I had to pick this up for myself. I can say this game is a perfect blend of high paced competition, and silly fun. The music and sound design are excellent, and the combat is smooth and satisfying. Definitely worth the price. You will get your money's worth of fun. But, as much a I love couch co-op/ PvP, online multiplayer would take this game to the next level.

This is a really slick and kinetic sci-fi combat game which features a fantastic versus mode and a surprisingly cool co-operative 'bounty' mode. The versus has your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch but there's also a 'cash grab' game type which my friend and I didn't get to play because... well, we just got too addicted to deathmatch. Cash grab sounds amazing though. We tried the bounty mode and also got addicted to that. In bounty, you do missions to collect money which allows you to unlock new mission types, ships, levels and a mysterious but very expensive item called 'Revenge' for a cool $1,000,000. We didn't have time to get close to that figure but there was a nice variety of missions and the core loop of doing better to get more money to unlock more stuff kept us going. Some of these missions are tough and the enemies are distinct with certain attacks and behaviour that gives them more personality than I expected. One type hops backwards, shoots and then laughs when they get you. But we loved the versus mode. The ship combat is so satisfying thanks to an assortment of specials like a melee drill dash, reflect, projectile warp (there are more ships to unlock too), while the platforming 'interior' combat is cut from the same cloth as Samurai Gunn and Duck Game. It's lethal. This is NOT twin-stick by the way. With your ship you aim in the direction you're flying, and on foot your character aims in cardinal directions (up, down, left, right). However, the R button allows you to free-aim... using your movement stick. It's strange at first but I came to love the friction between the two because you can't aim while moving; you have to choose when best to go for those skill shots. Do you peek over a lip to aim at an opponent below and risk being completely stationary? Do you dash with your ship and aim while drifting? Do you try jumping and aiming mid-air, or while you're falling? I love twin-stick shooters, but this is just a really interesting and cool limitation. The destructible scenery allows you to create openings using laser beams and rockets which mixes up how you approach the indoor spaces if an opponent has a space 'locked down'. The real magic with the ship combat however, is if you get shot, your ship is destroyed and your pilot is left floating in space. You can still move about and use your weapons, but you're extremely vulnerable in this situation. If you can survive for a few seconds, your ship will rematerialise around you. The panic and frantic escapes are just hilarious and reversals are incredibly satifying. To top all this off, there's a replay function which allows you to export GIFs so you can capture all kinds of awesome little moments like this: https://imgur.com/a/astro-duel-2-KXy8xZH I can only imagine how fun this is with even more players. Oh and there are bots too! What a great package.

goooooood

Played at PAX, got rolled in the tourney but that's only driven me to want to get better. Very fast paced action that forces you to be opportunistic and quick on your feet. Definitely makes for a fun party game!