Dominic Sheard: "If you like arcade games or twin stick shooters, then stop right now! Yep, you heard me, don't even bother to continue reading past this opening paragraph, because that is wasting time, and I'm sure you would rather be playing an incredibly fun game. You see, Assault Android Cactus is one of those twin stick shooters that arrives every so often and makes itself an example in how to spice up the genre with energizing gameplay and well implemented mechanics. Twin stick shooters can often feel like pet projects to experiment with, due to the genre's openness to simplicity - it makes a good task for new game creators to make something - but playing this game showcases that Witch Beam has done much more, and have a beautiful understanding of what makes the genre tick. Wait! Why are you still looking at these words? I guess you aren't convinced or aren't much of a fan of the genre – let me see if I can change your opinion with the following statement, Assault Android Cactus is likely the best entry in the genre since Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. I know, that is a huge announcement to make, but just hear me out on why I think this game is a bliss to play and should be in everybody's Steam library."
Assault Android Cactus has been upgraded on PC. Assault Android Cactus+ adds a number of features from the recent Switch version.
From GameWatcher: "Assault Android Cactus is a top-down shooter that's got an 'overwhelmingly positive' review rating on Steam, but as it turns out, this is not nearly enough for the game to get accepted for release on Epic Games Store."
It doesn't even have 1K reviews and it released in 2015. Plus, I never even heard of this game so I'm not all that surprised really.
It's only just one of the best twin stick shooters ever created. But because you never heard of it I guess it doesn't deserve to be on the all mighty all loved Epic Launcher!
Seriously fuck Epic.
I have never heard of this game to be honest. If it is truely one of the best, I think most of us here would have heard of it since 2015.
I mean, Sony even had the game featured in the Vote to Play thing they used to do on Playstation Plus. That's where I remember the name from. Broforce did end up winning that month, but to even be considered for the running, I'd say that's a pretty big honor for a small indie team. Sony never featured an indie of absolute poor quality on these votes. It got an 85 Metacritic on PS4 w 20 review sites, a 79 on PC w 15 reviews.
This wasn't just some random shovelware made to turn a buck. This is a bit too restrictive if Epic just ignores positively received games to their whim. I guess it is their site though, and they're free to tank their business if they want. This particular game won't cause that, but if this becomes a trend, it could really turn off indie developers from even bothering with them.
It also came to Ps4 in 2016, Xbox One in 2017 and the Switch will be this year. If you missed this amazing twin stick shooter then that is all on you.
It's one thing to filter out pornographic content and worthless cash grabs with exploitative real money transactions, and quite another to turn away a polished and acclaimed indie game. This doesn't add up.
Seems Epic is being selective of which game they release for now. I'd hope they don't continue doing that for the long term.
"worthless cash grabs with exploitative real money transactions" - You just described Epic only successful game for years - Fortnite. Epic doesn't care about older great games already on Steam. All they care about is stopping new Steam marketed games from being released on Steam at launch.
They want to be the only place that sells these paid exclusive 3rd party games and call themselves competition when they are anything but. Epic is toxic for the whole PC platform and marketplace.
Epic is the one becoming the monopoly not Steam and they are stuck so far up their own backside they don't even realise it.
This game released 4 years ago and it wasn't successful enough to be an epic game store game
So the Epic store is only for the chosen few games that deserve the privilege of being sold to the true elite gamers?
Yeah. Kind of like how Steam was way back when. Sucks, and hopefully Epic doesn't do it for the long term.
Who the f*ck wants to play twin stick shooters and sh*t when you got real games wtf?!
I don't support Epic because of Tencent but I agree with them on this being a trash game I wouldn't want cluttering my store page, looks like a GTA mini-game.
Fuck Epic. Gamers don't need Epic being an overbearing parent telling people what to play. Just proving more and more why they're an absolute joke.
How is deciding not to sell a 4 year old Steam game equivalent to telling people what to play?
Is that honestly a question? Restricting content is telling people what to play. It's saying "we don't believe this is good enough for our platform". As the article points out, restricting indie exposure is something Steam managed to get past quite awhile ago now. Epic is dead set on keeping their store in the past in every conceivable way though, from store features to how they judge and restrict small developers.
@luckytrouble
Deciding what games to sell on their own store is not restricting content or telling people what to play. Are you saying you don't think Epic should have the freedom to decide what games are available on their own store?
In Epic's case, they dangle a carrot of increased profits and of being a new and great store, then they sit there and say they'll judge every game through a lens of expected profit and deny anything that doesn't match projections basically no small indie game could reasonably make, unless maybe they pull a Hades and make an exclusivity deal.
I mean, are you going to tell me they denied this one based on quality? Assault Android Cactus is a polished twin stick shooter title that got favorable reviews from critics and players, even if it never hit the big time, so to speak. This is hardly an issue of not meeting quality standards unless Epic aims on being incredibly inconsistent about what indie games they define as being of high enough quality. This is obviously an issue of Epic not seeing enough profit in it for them based likely on how they have all their contracts set up. It doesn't appear to be a matter of just hosting the game, and instead they've opted to over complicate it while punishing small indie devs who's games likely won't see a ton of sales.
Although plenty of people malign Steam a bit for becoming so lax and allowing nearly all games, to the point where some are never actually completed but still exist and are for sale. Arguably they could do some more quality control, but Epic seems to think they know better than gamers what gamers want and that is a critical mistake Steam was smart to fix and that Epic seems to think was never a problem at all.
@luckytrouble
Epic is a business, if they don't analyze things from a profit/loss perspective they won't be around for long.
I don't know why they denied Android Assault Cactus. I can say that when browsing the Epic store I don't want to see games that have been on Steam for the last four years.
Miguel Moran:
"When Assault Android Cactus originally came out back in 2015, it totally passed me by. I vaguely remember the lead up to its release, but it just never grabbed my attention. I was a fool for letting that happen, because just a year later I happened upon the game during a sale and decided to pick it up. What I discovered was a gem of a co-op game and my absolute favourite twin-stick shooter of all time. Now, almost 3 years later, one of my favourite indie games is back with an enhanced and upgraded Nintendo Switch port."
