I have reduced my gameplaying activities to virtually nothing but “galactic conquest games”.
Last time, you heard me speak about Mayhem Intergalactic, a small indie title which takes the space 4X game and reduces it to its base elements, providing a galactic conquest experience in under 30 minutes, sometimes even under 15. A far cry from the hours-long commitments required by “deeper”, more complex 4X games.
Today I present to you a game that takes the experience offered by Mayhem Intergalactic, removes the “Next Turn” button, cranks it up to real-time, and distills the 4X experience even further, down to an explosion of action and, yes, strategy which takes less than 5 minutes, and often much less than that.
That game is: GALCON!
The description of the game is not unlike that of Mayhem Intergalactic, or of any other space 4X game. You start with a planet, and try to expand your empire to other planets, each of which offers a different production potential, building a space army of space ships and space lasers to send to your enemy’s space planets to try to conquer them. But whereas 30 seconds into your normal 4X game you would still be scrolling around the screen, getting your bearings, your first tenuous thoughts of overall strategy just barely forming in your mind, and maybe you’ve moved your cursor over to your home planet and are considering pressing the “build a ship” button.
30 seconds into a game of GALCON, the screen will be engulfed in the FIERY FLAMES OF SPACE ARMAGEDDON, with hundreds of little Asteroids mans coursing through the galaxy, exploding in droves as they attempt to conquer the opposing players’ empires.
It’s often exhilirating and even hilarious to watch, as it embraces glorious excess, and the “explosion” sound (which is the sound of someone making an “explosion sound” into a microphone) rattles around as the rhythmic undertone of the whole undertaking.
It sounds, and often feels, ridiculous. But really, when you get down to it, it still manages to be a strategy game, even as your mouse is flitting frantically around the screen trying to launch your armadas one second to the next.
When you win, you really feel like you executed a superior strategy, not that you just were able to drag and drop ships faster. And when you lose, you feel like you could do better the next time, not by mousing quicker, but by making better decisions.
So either it’s a tremendously strategic action game, or just the most frantic damn strategy game you’ll ever see.
It offers online multiplayer play, so if you happen to try the single player version out and are as charmed by it as I was, and want to try it online, I will meet you there.
Ice Cream Jonsey