Game Review: Horizon Shift '81

Horizon Shift '81

Review by Gregory Rodney

While booting up Horizon Shift '81 you're greeted with an energizing soundtrack, bright colors, and an old school and familiar look.

Flump Studios and the sole employee Paul Marrable develop Horizon. He first started creating games around the age of 8 and released his first game on Windows Phone. It'd be wrong to say he's entirely alone though; he has the assistance of people like Jason Heine, of Heinehouse studios, who provides the soundtrack for Horizon.

Paul feels that he never really makes the games completely on his own. From his website, he states, "There's always been another creative force pushing development along”. And after playing Horizon Shift '81 I understand that statement a lot better.

Horizon is a side-scrolling arcade shooter with a little twist in regard to where your ship is positioned. You have a line in the middle of the screen that you slide along. You can flip your ship to shoot on either half of the screen.

Enemies will often land along the line and you're forced to dash into to avoid losing a life. The pacing of the levels is very fun, and the screen can get packed extremely fast. In certain cases, the game can feel like a survival arcade shooter because at some points all you can do is try to stay alive.

There are so many meteors, saw ships, and bullets flying for you to focus on anything other than avoiding being hit. This is balanced with the power-ups, which can stack up and turn you into a cyclone of bullets.

The combination of great visuals and exciting music had me hooked for an hour or two whenever I started this game up. The boss battles were amazing and another highlight of the game. Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for something to kill an hour or two.

Final Rating: 👍