Developer Qplaze's new retro shoot'em up game Galaxy Warfighter is heavily inspired by classic games in the genre. Flying through space and destroying other ships feels great on the Nintendo Switch, and the visuals never cease to excite the player. Galaxy Warfighter's progression system is unbalanced however, and forces players to fight against the same four bosses throughout the game.
The controls for Galaxy Warfighter are tight and simple. Players only have to worry about using the left stick to control their ship and two buttons for special abilities. The ship will fire automatically, allowing players to focus on dodging incoming attacks. Moving the ship around on screen is responsive and players should have no problems picking up the controls quickly.
The difficulty level is pretty high in the beginning, and players may find themselves repeating several missions. This is particularly evident once bosses enter the mix, as players are tasked with dodging all manner of projectiles while aiming for small weak points. The boss battles are, at least at first, the star of the show. Beating one for the first time is rewarding and players will be excited to see what Galaxy Warfighter throws at them next.
The issue here though is that once players make it past the fourth level, Galaxy Warfighter has nothing new to show off. There are only four bosses, so for the other 96 levels players will be reliving the same fights at the end of each level. These enemies also don't gain any new abilities either, despite seeming to gain more hit points as players get into the later stages. The minuscule amount of health that the bosses pick up later on can't keep up with the rate that the player is growing by buying upgrades though.
The upgrade system presents another major flaw in Galaxy Warfighter's mechanics. The game has a high difficult curve at first, but once players have acquired a few upgrades it becomes very easy. Normal enemies and bosses are incapable of keeping up with the amount that the player is able to progress, especially once players are able to acquire the Time Stop upgrade. Players who use this ability during a boss battle will be able to finish off them off without taking any damage at all. As players continue to level up they will quickly come to realize that they are basically untouchable.
In its early moments Galaxy Warfighter seems like it is on to something special. The combat mechanics are tight and the difficulty is high but fair. Even the early boss battles are fun and change up gameplay in interesting ways. Sadly, players will quickly come to realize that they will be doing the same things over and over again in this repetitive space shooter. Difficulty as well drops off considerably and it becomes easy to just breeze through levels. Despite its good moments, Galaxy Warfighter mostly just repeats itself for 100 levels.
Galaxy Warfighter releases on Nintendo Switch and PC April 16, 2020. A Nintendo Switch code was provided for the purposes of this review.