Sektori review – a twin-stick shooter full of Housemarque spirit

Fancy diving into a hard-as-nails twin-stick shooter with psychedelic visuals and a thumping soundtrack? Yeah? You want — nay, need — Sektori, the work of solo developer Kimmo Lahtinen. Fast-paced, relentless and utterly moreish, I just can’t get enough of Sektori, even when it’s completely kicking my ass.

Play Sektori for just five minutes, and the fact that its developer Lahtinen spent 13 years of his career working at Housemarque won’t come as a surprise. He’s worked on games such as Resogun and Dead Nation, and even though he’s been independently designing games for the last decade, that Housemarque twin-stick shooter DNA is clear to see. Sektori might not be as sophisticated or flashy as some of Housemarque’s titles, but it doesn’t need to be: playing this twin-stick shooter feels fantastic, and that’s all that matters.

Jump in for the first time, and all that’s available to you in Sektori is its main campaign mode. Here you’ll survive for as long as possible, making your way through several worlds. And of course, there’s a boss to defeat at the end of each of them. Chances are, though, you won’t even see a boss for several attempts. This is an unforgiving shooter that requires you to be nimble-fingered with reflexes of a cat. You’ll need to stay on the move, shooting as you go, clearing space and moving into any free gap that you can see on the screen.

And with so much happening on your screen at any one time, finding free space to move into is easier said than done. In campaign mode, the shape of the level changes every 10 or 15 seconds or so; a square arena might split into four segments, for example, or an open space might morph into a narrow tunnel. You’ll need to pay attention and make sure you’re not caught out by the arena changing, which is often easier said than done.

You’ll also need to look out for power-ups and other tokens of note appearing on your screen. Rather than directly picking up an upgrade, you’ll store them to use when you’re ready. One upgrade token will give you a boost to your speed, but save up four before you use them and you can improve your gun. There’s a neat element of risk versus reward here, and it’s up to you whether you want an instant payoff, or hold off for something more meaningful.

Progress far enough into the campaign (you’ll need to defeat the first boss) and you’ll unlock additional modes to jump into. There are eight alternative modes, all offering you a unique spin on the same gameplay loop. One is a boss rush, pitting you against all of the game’s bosses in quick succession. Another takes away the ability to shoot, instead forcing you to rely on your boost ability to damage enemies as well as explosive tokens that appear on the screen. Each mode is entertaining in its own right, and thanks to being score-based, there’s always reason to jump back in again and again. You’ll also see your scores on a global leaderboard, so you can strive to be number one if you’re seriously competitive.

Even if you don’t care about your performance compared to others, Sektori offers up enough entertainment that you’ll want to keep revisiting it. It’s going to take some serious practice to get good enough to see the campaign through to the end, and even just beating your own best scores is enough reason to visit the other modes. And although it’s strictly a single-player experience, it’s a fun game to play with others as you challenge each other to set a new best score.

The only thing that lets Sektori down somewhat is its presentation. While it’s nothing less than an audiovisual treat in the heat of gameplay, the menus in comparison are rather dull. With bland text and basic fonts, they feel a bit overlooked. It could also do a better job of explaining some of its mechanics to you. In fairness to Sektori, its brief tutorial does tell you, aside from the basics, it’s up to you to figure things out. A card system that bolsters upgrades in campaign mode is very poorly explained, and you’ll likely not know what most things you’re picking up actually do. Does it spoil the fun? No, but it would be nice to feel better equipped – knowing what one card does compared to another could give you the edge when playing.

Those small niggles aside, there’s so much to love about Sektori. If you have fond memories of the likes of Resogun and wish Housemarque would return to their twin-stick shooting roots, Sektori is the closest thing you’re going to get. Fast-paced, relentless and a huge amount of fun, this is a game that’s easy to play but very hard to master — but you’ll love every moment as you try again and again to get there.