We came across Genetos after reading a post from Gamers With Jobs, and after we spent a 20 minute session playing through the game, we were awed. To describe the experience in a sentence it would be that it is a game that teaches the player a lesson of progress, of evolution, of the genre; and that genre obviously being vertical scrolling shooters. We recommend that every fan of the genre, or simply anyone who has encountered any shooters in their gaming life, to play it, and to be awed by it; and if you grew up with the genre, this game will more than give you a smile on your face (it might give you an uber erection, if you were a guy, if this was your thing). It is very good, and it is free. That got us to thinking that it is shameful how the game publishing industry works nowadays, that game publishing giants like EA or Koei, can churn out some more-of-the-same-old-crap “blockbuster” titles (like Madden 16 or Dynasty Warriors 12) and people would gladly pay 60 bucks for it, and people would not complain. But people complain incessantly about a 99 cents iPhone indie game having not enough content, or PSN and XBLA games not worth the10 bucks entry free, or free flash or PC games not having enough substance. We will gladly pay for our exotic and unforgettable experience with Genetos, we want to, if only to support better indie efforts like this, but how do we even do this?
Genetos is a history lesson through time. You start out with a ship that can only move left to right, enemies and graphics that remind you of the first Space Invader and Galaga, as you grab more items, your ship will evolve, where a generation shift occurs and your ship will become more powerful, it begins to fire more frequent lasers, and it can even move up and down (but only on the lower half of the screen), and then later with full screen movements. We won’t bore you with every minute details here but your ship will become more Gradius like as it shifts, that it will autofire with spread lasers, it will have homing missiles and lock-on mechanisms, it will have “options” like orbs that spin around and guard your ships. The game will remind you of every title you loved and played before — Space Invader, Galaga, Raystorm, Raiden, Gradius, 1943, Twin Bee, Every Extend Extra… etc, if you haven’t, shame on you, you need to be taught a history lesson.
So what are you waiting for, download the damn game today.
