There are loads of gems littered through the Internet. From websites like Newgrounds.com that facilitate games created in Flash and HTML5, to others like Gamejolt.com which serve as a portal for games to be played straight from the desktop. Without looking at a lot of the indie games out on the web, it doesn’t hurt to play a game you have to download. Thus, I have to tell you guys about Boson-X.
A free game on gamejolt.com, Boson-X takes inspirations from classics like Tempest and mixes those ideas with the hectic high-speed twitch gameplay from Super Hexagon. The levels are bright and futuristic with an emphasis on focusing on where you should be going and jumping.
Boson-X has a level of strategy to its patterns. In order to beat a level, you have to fill a meter by running through blue platforms. This means that you can decide when and when not to try to beat a level based on you current location. Play a little too greedy and you could fall prey to your choices, but playing too delicately can be equally destructive with no gains. There’s a level of strategy to the game where you have to choose where to jump. Do you take the blue jump pads and risk failing as soon as you reach the level’s climax? If there is a hard section coming up, is it wise to gain more speed and risk falling at a bad spot?
Super Hexagon is the closest comparison to Boson-X, but if you’re deciding which game to play over the other, the strategies and play style are entirely different for both games. Super Hexagon is about focusing on a single object and avoiding everything coming in the way of said object, whereas Boson-X, again, is about taking risks and deciding when to take advantage of the next patterns to gain more points. The two games are twitch-based but both play differently. Super Hexagon is all about split second movements while Boson-X allows you to see farther into the level, allowing the player to decide where to go next. In some ways, this makes Boson-X far easier than Super Hexagon because you have time to decide where to go next, which makes it a more accessible game for newcomers to skill-based twitch games.
Boson-X is a lot easier to get a handle on than it seems. The game immediately gets the player accustomed to the controls. Left makes you jump on the left lane, right on the right lane, and up to jump on the current lane. As disorienting as Boson-X looks, the graphics are minimalistic enough that they don’t hinder your sight. Each level introduces new elements that make the game more complex but are easily understood the moment they are seen. You can’t hit walls, and red blocks go down.
Bottom Line:
Boson-X’s quality is on par with a lot of big Steam releases like Nidhogg and Super Hexagon. Of course, you can’t beat free, and Boson-X being a free game, why wouldn’t you pick it up? You can get some serious fun out of Boson-X. Oh, and did I mention that it’s also out for Android and iOS?
