Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya helped define “indie” game development with his freeware masterpiece Cave Story. Several years later, his follow up was a strange and possibly under appreciated game. Kero Blaster is a side-scrolling shooter, but unlike Cave Story it draws more inspiration from games like Mega Man and Contra than it does from Metroid or Castlevania.

Kero Blaster came out in 2014 on iOS and later Windows, but recently got its first console release on PS4. We revisit the game and discuss how our perceptions of it have changed since its debut three years ago.

Kero Blaster is $9.99 on PS4 and Steam (Windows only), and $5.99 in iOS. Expect it to take 4-5 hours to complete, not counting the unlockable “Zangyou Mode.”

Links for this episode:

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were: