If, like me, you were born sometime in the 80s, there’s a good chance you used to play Asteroids on your computer. It was gaming greatness for a time, and it still carries a nostalgic simplicity for the times you just want to mindlessly shoot up simplistic graphics with funny, synthesized sounds with a few deft keystrokes and nimble fingers.

You could consider AstroRaider an Asteroids of today, beefing up the original premise of 2D space shooter game with colorful enemy ships, massive queen ships, warp holes, power crystals, and speedy flight, all with the same propensity for blowing up on a fairly continual basis. Add a bit of rock music and you’re on your way to an addictive game formula. I’m actually a bit unsure how to describe the rock music . It’s unlike the typical 80s throwback synthesizer music, with its corny ability to make you laugh and enjoy a game for nostalgic arcade purposes; it more closely resembles early 90s soft rock, tunes from KOIT with its soft, white blurred edges, and Puddle of Mudd or Smashing Pumpkins sensibility. It definitely leads a different feeling to the game.

Music aside though, gameplay is very fast-paced. You may be disoriented a bit at first, because the controller is insanely sensitive – one tiny jerk of the thumb and your ship is spiraling at light speed to the other side of the map, careening into asteroids and enemy ships along the way. In a short, optional tutorial, the game shows you how the outer circle moves the astroraider forward, and the inner circle moves it in reverse, and the yellow outline indicates what direction your ship will currently soar; however, granted the controller is small and circles so close together, you’ll more likely forgo these preliminary instructions and just smash your thumb into the general area, smooshing it this way and that and learning just by trial and error. It helps if you initially play completely zoomed out (a sliding controller is located on the right, represented by your astroraider in three different sizes of zoom), as this way you can scope out the entire scene. The learning curve is moderate, as it takes you several minutes to adjust jerkily to these sensitive settings. It does lend a frenetic and desperate air to the game, though, as you madly zip through space avoiding collisions with the brightly colored enemy ships and the gem-filled asteroids that take up most of the playing field.

Your ship is the AstroRaider, a zippy “asteroid crushing machine” as the creators call it. Your objective is to shoot and destroy as many asteroids and enemy ships as you can, racking up points with every crushing explosion and every collecting of power crystals, and destroying the queen, opening a warp hole to a new level where you rinse and repeat. Your blaster’s power increases in direct correlation with how many points you rack up, so it’s a huge incentive to destroy enemy ships and collect those maddeningly tiny and fast crystals careening in all directions. Watch out, though, because with each asteroid or enemy ship collision, you lose health points, as indicated by the green bar along the top of the screen, and that red death ray shooting out from the queen ship will have you settling for half your life, and in the red zone in no time. Thankfully, to assist you in these dangerous matters, you get 3 special weapons upgrades at certain point intervals. You get the EM Pulse every 2000 points (for those not in the know, EM is short for Electromagnetic Pulse, a charge, once released, that shuts down anything electric within its projected radius), Super Shield every 5,000 points (yay, collisions no longer hurt), and the Nuke every 10,000 points. Ah, yes, what would a good space game be without as super weapon? I was hoping for a cool nuclear explosion animation, since AstroRaider proves to have pretty good special effects. So, I was pretty let down when all you see on screen is a rumble, a blast of light, and some haziness. Though, I guess this way the game avoids the possible geek controversy over how a nuclear explosion in space would be accurately portrayed (I remember being disgrunted over the very gravity-driven single plane shockwave that radiated out vertically from a planet exploding in the updated Star Wars movies. Tsk tsk, physics gone awry).

Three types of enemy ships plague you in your quest to nuke the queen ship, all resplendent in neon colors popular from the 80s and 90s (as indicated by said, aforementioned music).  Enemy drones are like the bee hive workers. They are yellow ships that harvest power crystals from the asteroids and bring them to the queen, for her nourishment, I suppose, but also to prevent you from collecting points and health. If you destroy them, you may collect their harbored crystals with an evil, cocky laugh, but beware, they will retaliate in numbers when their queen is dead. A small neon pink enemy ship is your average goon, pestering you with their large numbers and tiny fly size; a mid size dragon-like ship with red and orange tipped wings provides a bigger challenge; and a larger, multi-hued purple and orange ship with two sets of wings poses a true nemesis. None of them, though, hold a candle to the queen – a monstrously huge, totally gargantuan insectoid ship that takes up a good 1/8 of the screen. She shoots giant, red death rays that remove huge chunks of your life, so the best tactic, really, is to nuke her… and then nuke her again. Then pellet her incessantly with your BB gun blaster, making sure to duck back into the asteroid field for cover and to regain some life with crystals. Rest assured once you destroy her you can refrain from entering the warp hole and collect more points by destroying all the leftover enemy ships and asteroids. Not only do you gain more points, but you earn bonus points for destroying all the asteroids in a given level.

The 8 levels may not seem like enough, and though there’s the option to play the game over and over, it should have been more structured like the original asteroids, where the difficulty just becomes increasingly difficult to the point where the game boils your blood and creates stomach ulcers. With the idea the game is infinitely long, there’s more of a desire to continue playing and hopefully beat it one day. 8 levels is not nearly enough to captivate a gaming audience and while fun and fast-paced, the game is over as soon as it begins. Perhaps a future update will include more enemies, different power-ups, and new bosses. And, of course, more levels.

If you feel like blowing up a myriad of Asteroids and ricocheting off walls and enemies at a maddening pace, download AstroRaider for free, our treat from the developer, with the Promo Codes below:

Promotion Codes:

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*When using the promotion code to download for free, it’s on a first-come, first-served basis. Out of courtesy, please leave a comment below mentioning you’ve used the promotion code.