Cecconoid
Cecconoid is an 8-bit arcade-style, simple twin-stick-shooter which wouldn’t have been out of place in a 1980’s arcade. That is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the Nintendo Switch is perhaps a perfect console for these kinds of games. The developers themselves describe the game perfectly with their introduction, so I included this quote:
Stardate: 15th April 2088The good ship Equinox is under attack from Stormlord and his robotic minions, the Exolons! You’re the crew’s only hope. Take your Samurai-1 fighter, find Captain Solomon’s Key, clear the decks of evil robots, and save the Equinox from certain destruction!
Cecconoid is an 8-bit inspired, flick-screen, twin-stick-shooter, set in an alternate dimension where the pixels are still chunky, and the bad guys are black and white.
Except for their red dangly bits…”.
Cecconoid has two different gamemodes: Cecconoid, and a bonus gamemode called Eugatron. Basically, both game modes are identical in controls, but the intention is different. Cecconoid itself takes you through different levels and areas, in which you navigate and try to defend a spaceship that has been taken over and try to get as far as you can before running out of lives.
Eugatron is basically an all-out shooter, in which you need to survive different waves of many enemies as long as possible to set a high-score.
Controls are simple, as they should be in a twin-stick-shooter. The left stick controls movement, the right stick controls shooting.
The visuals are nothing spectacular, but what can you expect? It’s inspired by the 8-bit games of the past, so they are exactly as they should be. A cool detail is that they put in curvature in the design, as seen in the screenshots, to mimic the old CRT-style screens. That detail definitely earned the game some bonus points.
The music is again very fitting to the style and to the game itself. Shooting noises, lasers, and explosions; everything screams arcade-game; as it should be.
Power-ups and the in-game values are very confusing and aren’t explained. I tried to figure out what every single power-up does, and what the “X”, “W” and “L” mean, but haven’t managed. I would have liked some instructions somewhere.
In conclusion, Cecconoid is a typical arcade game, and boy did I get competitive to score a high score. It’s a fun game to play over and over to see where you can improve, but it can get boring eventually. Don’t expect to get many hours of gameplay out of it, unless you want to play the same levels over and over until you manage to scrape out all the points. It’s a perfect homage to the 1980s, and a recommended game for 80’s kids trying to relive their childhood, or just fans of the genre altogether.
