AK-xolotl Preview

AK-xolotl is a charming pixel-art top-down shooter-slash-roguelite game coming from 2Awesome Studio. Playing as an axolotl, I’m dropped in at the hub of the game, a serene piece of land with several different-looking axolotl companions that act as a showcase of models that I can select for my run. I can then select a starting pistol from a chest, each with its own rate of fire, reload speed, and bullet pattern before romping into one of the two arcade modes available in this demo.

Starting with “Pond King”, I simply have to survive never-ending waves of enemies until I either get bored with murder or my axolotl dies once my three lives are extinguished. Facing off against ducks with knives, rats with shotguns, and other assorted bestiary combinations, I have to avoid bullets while racking up the points. There’s not much to it, but the death metal soundtrack that accompanied me in my slaughter sure got the blood pumping. Some of the enemies will drop their weapons, allowing me to pick them up to use against the onslaught; these collected weapons have limited ammunition, meaning once spent I’m back to my starting weapon and its limitless ammo reserves.

The other mode “Chrono” has me essentially doing the same task, defeating endless enemies in the pursuit of a highscore. However, I only have one life and a limited amount of time to do so. This puts further pressure on me as I’m having to take more risks to get more kills, while also keeping a tight hold of my single life like it’s my last carton of juice on a very long train journey.

Controlling my axolotl is very simple, as it plays like a twin-stick shooter. Whether using a keyboard and mouse, or a controller, movement is kept to the basics of run and gun. If I had to choose between the two for this game, I’d pick the controller over the keyboard and mouse. Using the left stick to move, the right stick to aim, A button to dash, LB to interact, and RB to shoot, there’s nothing to it and it takes no time at all to be the deadliest amphibian in the pond.

These arcade modes are a side dish of the game. Small bite-sized pieces of fun, with the main course locked away until release. The developers are also poised to run a Kickstarter for this game, and should you be interested, clicking here will take you to that page. AK-xolotl is offering over 20 different types of enemies, an expandable and customisable hub, a huge variety of melee and ranged weapons, and fully supported online leaderboards in the full release, meaning there should be plenty of content once this goes live.

AK-xolotl is currently set as TBA in terms of release date, but there’s no harm in giving it a spot on your Steam wishlist.