Shooting Saucer Review

Shooting Saucer is a fast-paced 2D platformer where you are constantly on the run. Slow down too much, and the UFO will trap you with its tractor beam, taking you away. The game doesn't have a deep story; your main focus is to stay far from the beam's reach. You will play as one of three characters trying to avoid being captured.

The first character is Paraffin, a candle that can't shoot but damages enemies with its aura. While this may sound like a difficult way to attack, it works well when combined with the ability to jump really high. Plus, the cute face in the light with its changing expressions adds to the charm. As Paraffin collects orbs and powers up, the aura grows larger. Paraffin starts with four lives but collects additional lives after reaching three power-up levels.

Turr is the second character: it’s a blue penguin with the ability to double jump, which compensates for its poor vertical. When you collect orbs dropped by enemies or found on the stage, Turr doesn't level up but instead gets a new penguin friend. The penguins hunt in packs, shooting at the enemy simultaneously and jumping together. It becomes a bit tricky to ensure that all the penguins avoid getting hit by the enemy (though a group of multicoloured penguins was incredibly cute)! Turr starts with seven lives before getting a game over.

The third character is Piggy, a red, very round pig — kind of looks like an octopus — with the ability to shoot. When Piggy levels up, besides changing colour, its shooting improves. It starts with one stream, then gains two streams, and in the third form, it shoots in three directions — straight, upwards, and downwards. Like Paraffin, Piggy also starts with four lives.

The game starts with your character, in my case Piggy, having a picnic with their friend and bringing a cake. They realise they forgot the most important thing — the strawberry for the top. While digging in their spaceship, a mean-looking creature sneaks up, eats the cake, and disguises itself as the missing cake. Once Piggy adds the strawberry, their friend eats the whole cake, and the alien creature possesses them. They hop into the saucer and chase after the poor, confused character.

The controls in Shooting Saucer are straightforward and easy to use. You jump with one button, and if your character can shoot, you use the other button. You control the character with the left thumbstick or directional pad. Keep in mind that you will shoot in the direction you are facing, including shooting up. The tricky part is combining running, shooting, and avoiding getting hit. 

When an enemy shoots a heart at you, it doesn’t mean that they like you. These shiny hearts do big damage! If you are playing as Piggy or Paraffin at level one, you can only get hit once before dying. At level two or three, similar to a powered-up Mario when he is big, you will drop down to the previous level when hit. If you manage to reach the boss battle at the end of the stage with lives remaining, there is a checkpoint where you will start off. However, if you get a game over, you start over from the beginning of the game, not just the current stage. Shooting Saucer provides the option to save and quit the game, but the problem arises when you want to load your last save and continue. To access the main menu, you need to save and quit, which, unfortunately, erases your previous save.

Visually, Shooting Saucer features simple and bright colours, along with cute characters; even the evil cardboard box running towards me was adorable! Each stage has a different theme and introduces new enemies to fight or avoid, depending on the character you are playing as. The game's music is catchy, although you will hear the first stage music repeatedly as you die and attempt the run again and again!

Despite its cheery visuals and cute characters, Shooting Saucer is a challenging game. Building muscle memory is crucial here, and it takes numerous playthroughs to learn enemy placements, jumping spots, and orb locations to level up your character and gain more lives. You must find the right balance of running fast enough to avoid the saucer catching up to you but not too fast that you become sloppy and take damage from enemies. There are moments when frustration sets in due to silly mistakes caused by impatience and rushing. More than a few curse words have been uttered while playing.

Shooting Saucer is a fun and addictive 2D platformer that will challenge you to rely on muscle memory and quick reaction time. Personally, I found the most success playing as Paraffin and Piggy, but it ultimately depends on your play style. Controlling Turr and its army of penguins proved to be a bit tricky for me. If you're looking for a cute and enjoyable game that works well on both PC and the Steam Deck, Shooting Saucer is an addictive title to check out.