A Look At RESHOOT PROXIMA 3: EXPLOSIONS R GO!

One of the first games that came out after the Amiga classic got extremely popular again was Spielscreibers game Reshoot, it is actually 7 years old by now (2016) yet it feels like it was just a few years ago.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT…

Reshoot was not the best game (my review can be found here) but it helped create a butterfly effect which more or less helped kick off a new age of really good games and an extremely active Amiga game developer community, people started taking risks as sales went up from a mere 20 copies to near 500 over just a few months, and as many probably know by now, reaching 1000 copies sold is far from impossible these days.

INTRODUCING THE SEQUEL.

The sequel Reshoot-R came out in 2019, a mere 3 years after the first game, the hype was incredibly high, and the last year before launch it was more or less social media feeds weekly. Reshoot-R lived up to all the expectations that it had built up to, the game was an instant hit and it became a household name for all Amiga fans out there (my review can be found here).

RESHOOT PROXIMA 3 IS FINALLY HERE.

So, yes where to begin, RP3 has been in development for 4 years by now, and yet again the hype has been through the roof, there have been small drips of news at Spieleschreibers Patron page about the development and progress but all in all, it has been quiet for longer periods which made a lot of the fans impatient and there were even rumors about the game being canceled at one point.

I was one of the guys that Spieleschreiber talked to every now and then and he made it clear early on that he wanted me onboard to help with QA / Beta testing and help with other stuff if needed.

RESHOOT PROXIMA 3 FEELS LIKE A VERTICAL VERSION OF RESHOOT-R.

At first, I must admit that this new game felt like a 1:1 copy of Reshoot-R but now in Vertical mode instead of Horizontal scrolling, this changed as the game got adjusted and adapted more to a typical vertical shoot ’em up game, enemy waves, bosses and so on got moved around, bullets, perspectives, and graphics, in general, everything was upgraded and what not, yep it didn’t take long before it was clear that this was a brand spanking new game.

TO THE ACTUAL REVIEW WE GO THEN.

RP3 is as its prequels a game for Amigas with the AGA chipset and 2 MB of RAM, which means that you have to have either a CD32, A1200, A4000, or an Emulator that supports the AGA chipset.

The game will be available on digital and physical media, the CD will also autoboot on the CD32 and support 2 button controllers.

Technically the game runs more or less flawlessly with no framedrops or such on a standard CD32 which means it will also do that on the A1200 as well.

RP3 sports 5 rather long levels with varied enemies spread into various seamlessly enemy patterns, some of the levels (especially level 4) reach new heights on Amiga in terms of flow and everything feels like a dance between the waves of enemies and general level design.

VARIATION, GRAPHICS, ENEMIES AND MUSIC.

The number of enemies and the variation between them fits rather well, it never turns boring because of it, every level introduces new stuff like enemies, backgrounds, color schemes, music and so on which basically pull the player into repeatedly trying just one more time to get even further.

Some levels have narrow sections where you have to carefully guide your ship through them while shooting or dodging enemies, as annoying as that sounds, well it actually works great and adds a much-needed layer of tension and stress on the player.

The music in the game is another thing that makes this game shine, really good variation and from time to time catchy enough to entertain you but at the same time not destroy your focus.

Another feature seen in RP3 is that the player will get alerts onscreen where the enemies will come from (see the top left picture in this section).

EXPLOSIONS, BULLET HELL, FLOW, IT ALL COMES TOGETHER.

I have decided to try to not spoil too much of the game (like always really), but it is very hard not to when you are as hyped as I am while writing this review now (actually almost a month after we finished up the game), but yeah the game is hard even on default mode (there are two modes, Hard being the other) but not in a way that will make the game impossible, enemy waves will stick to your brain, pacing in levels works nicely thanks to precise placements of upgrades and so on.

What you should expect though are huge explosions, lots of bullets, and tight controls.

I have to mention the boss fights too, they are extremely creative and innovative, you will be quite surprised by how they work and how they alter attack patterns while you try to kill it.

THE VERDICT.

Reshoot Proxima 3 is to put it simply, one of the best Shoot ‘Em Ups to have ever graced the Amiga, it surpasses its brilliant prequel (which I thought that no other Amiga Shoot ‘Em Up game would do). Everything is tightly adjusted, the music fits perfectly for the game, and the graphics are gobsmacking which basically means that the whole experience is more or less as good as it gets (so far) on the Amiga, it oozes AAA quality. This game is my number 1 retro game of 2023, and in my humble opinion, this is the game YOU should buy this year no matter how little interested you are in the genre or even the current Amiga market. 

RESHOOT PROXIMA 3 Will be available at most Amiga shops around the interwebs, click here for the publisher one.

NB: Thanks to RoarTJ as always for his amazing help with doing pictures for the feature front page.