It is 2022 and a tiny Indie title surprises the gaming world by winning the BAFTA award for Best Game, beating the likes of Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok. This title, Vampire Survivors, single-handedly legitimised the existence of silly, hyper-casual shoot-em up games, paving the way for Bore Blasters, the title I’m reviewing today. These games don’t need bold storylines. They don’t need amazing graphics. They don’t need strategic thinking or hours online grind. Suddenly, it was cool for me to spend a mere 20 hours playing a mindless single-player game, purely because it was fun.
It is 2024, and Bore Blasters drops onto the Steam store. And while it doesn’t arrive with the same hoopla and cult recognition of Vampire Survivors, it’s possibly just as good. A fantasy sci-fi hybrid, this title is all about dwarves and their mining space ships. They seek treasure off-world, boring deep into planets in search of gems. That’s pretty much all there is to it. Simple mindless fun.
Presented in an old fashioned 2D pixel graphics style, the game puts you in control of a high-powered spaceship as you shoot your way through a planet, hoping to release the gems embedded in the rocks around you. All this while evading a host of enemies (elves, spiders, bats with only one eye) all out to destroy you and making sure you don’t run out of fuel. With me so far? Does all of this seem too simple? Let’s add a few wrinkles. Every so often, the gem-bar on your HUD fills up as you collect, offering you rewards in the form of upgrades. You could choose from abilities such as the Battle Axe — a dwarf staple — which circles the spaceship, and destroys any enemy that comes close. Or perhaps the depth charge, a set of tiny drills dropped down the planet’s depths, granting you a speedier route to the other side. For the more fuel worried, a petroglyph sensor upgrade will steer you towards the closets refuelling block.
Still relatively straightforward right? Well, here is the additional challenge. As time goes on, time seems to move faster. Enemies swarm. You cannot shoot at the speed you’d like. Suddenly you are overwhelmed, fending spiders, deploying upgrades. Maybe you forget to refuel? Maybe your overconfidence with enemies results in catastrophic hull damage. The ever-escalating frantic urgency to get to the bottom of the planet, while desperately keeping your ship afloat is its own form of excitement that cannot be put in words.
Given this simplicity, the game finds little ways of making the game feel personal. As you progress in the game, there are three characters that are unlocked, and they are visibly different in terms of their base powers. Jarl Gemwise turns blocks into gems. Gunnar Thunderdash does this speed boost through blocks. Ragnhild Blastmaiden’s bombs have a blast radius that would make the elf enemies shake in their boots. I had my phase with Jarl Gemwise, but I went back to Gunnar in the end — he’s fast and reliable. Which one would you choose? I think it says a lot about you.
It’s almost unfair, the hold that this game had over me till I finished it. Is this all I need to be happy? A five minute run through a level in Bore Blasters? I am astonished at how the developers were able to grab hold of my monkey brain and demand its attention with a game this fun. There are some parts of Bore Blasters that have me convinced that it’s objectively better than Vampire Survivors. For one, there is a visible ending to the game — about 80 or so levels, and a semblance of a story.
It’s currently available for the PC, and the most recent update has a daily run mode. Maybe you’ll see me on the leader boards soon.
Anusha Ganapathi
@quofles
(This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)