Utopia 9 – A Volatile Vacation

Genre: 2-Stick Shooter / Roguelike

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Best Action Games 5-in-1 bundle, along with Akane, Akuto Showdown, Door Kickers, and Real Boxing 2.)

Utopia 9 is a Two-Stick Shooter with Roguelike elements where you play one of a long line of tourists sold on the vacation planet Utopia 9, which turns out not to be the utopia it’s marketed as, but a mutant-infested hellhole.

The game has fairly basic two-stick shooter gameplay, but manages to work in some interesting twists on the formula, such as a Roguelike system where you retain your “vacation points” from each death to use on the next life, as well as a “nemesis” system where some enemies that kill you power up and can be hunted down to re-acquire some of your gear. On top of this is a whimsical presentation hitting home the notion of you as an idiot tourist, even going as far as making your default melee weapon a briefcase.

However, the game has its share of problems. Weapon fire rate is slow, your movement speed is slow, and enemies take multiple hits to down, making what is normally a fast-paced and fun genre into a trudging slog. Making things even worse is how every weapon other than melee weapons has limited ammo, and it will run out fast. Also, oddly, music only shows up in shop menus, making the game an eerily quiet experience.

It’s unfortunate, because Utopia 9 has a lot of great ideas worked into this game, and a fun and unique theme, but the slow pacing caused by multiple problems makes this less of a fun vacation and more like… work.

tl;dr – Utopia 9 – A Volatile Vacation is a 2-Stick Shooter/Roguelike that has a lot of inventive ideas for a different spin on the genre, but its dreadfully slow pacing saps much of the fun out of the experience.

Grade: C

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