Game EXP: InkSplosion (NS)

Disclaimer: InkSplosion is a game by Petite Games that I received free of charge through Ratalaika Games via IndieGamerGirl's #IndieXmas2018.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review or talking points about the game, only that the game be talked about and posted through social media channels.  My article of the game reflects my own views and experiences playing InkSplosion without any outside influence.

InkSplosion is a twin stick shooter by Petite Games where you take control of a small skull like avatar in a single screen arena, armed with one of a variety of randomly assigned weapons against four opponents who warp into the room, also armed with one of an assortment of weapons, and you have to eliminate all four of the computer controlled opponents in order to continue to the next room.  In the room, there is some kind of randomly assigned barrier that can be crossed, although doing so causes the player to take damage, and in a game where typically three hits from the enemy will kill you and end your game, crossing said barrier is rarely a good idea.  There are a couple of other aspects to this game, such as being able to slow time at the expense of life, that hitting and/or killing enemies grants a small health bonus, and the different types of weapons and how they affect how the player approaches the stage, but that is essentially it as far as the game goes.

Or at least, as much as I was able to experience as I was apparently not good enough to gain access to any of the other modes in the game, which were locked behind a point wall that I was only able to come 33.9% within unlocking.  Evidence of my prowess in the game can be witnessed below:

That being said, I do not want to imply that because I was not very good at the game, that InkSplosion is a bad game.  I can definitely see the appeal that it has for a certain segment of the Switch playing community, I just do not happen to be a part of that community.

My biggest problem, or at least what I felt my biggest problem, had nothing to do with the game either, but with the Joy-Con controllers on the Switch.  Pretty quickly I found my right thumb (which controlled the aiming part of the twin-stick-shootering) would slip along the top of the joystick as I found myself constantly rotating the reticle.  As the stage would progress (as in within a couple of seconds), the area between my thumb and index finger would start to cramp up at the weird angle I was holding the controller, coupled with having to rapidly hit the R-Trigger button in order to fire whatever weapon the game decided to give me that round.  After a while, I found that the most comfortable position, which still was not very comfortable, was to have the middle of my thumb along the inner edge of the joystick which allowed me to have slightly better control.  One thing that would have definitely made the game better is if simply by pointing the reticle with the right joystick would cause your character to fire the weapon as I personally so no reason not to be constantly firing.  There was a difference in points awarded, but I could not for the life of me figure out what the reason for distributing 200 points versus 400 points was.

Ultimately, I put in 38:10 in the game and still never beat my top score of 33,900.  100,000 points were needed to unlock the Arena Mode, and while I felt that I was able to get a little better at the game, usually able to make it to the 5th screen, it felt more like luck than real skill.  The randomness of the moving (and damaging) barriers coupled with the random weapon loadout made the game more difficult than I was willing to invest in it.


The thing that made me most sad, was that by around stage 5-6, the music (composed by Levi Bond) would start to get interesting, but I rarely survived long enough to actually enjoy what I was hearing.  It did add a bit of an incentive to do better, but my thumb/finger joints were able to override that part of my brain.

So take this all as you will in your own decision with InkSplosion.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental