Gastro Force is a sci-fi First-Person Shooter developed by two-man developer team Somepx and Ferando Araujo and released by Spanish company Ratalaika Games.
A pixel-based boomer-shooter that pays homage to the genre's peak in the 90s, with Blake Stone being it's most obvious inspiration, the game utilizes retraux-style graphics similar to games from three decades prior, with an Excuse Plot similar to games from that era; for the loosest definition of a "plot"...
Set in the distant year of 399X — the Gastro Force are an Elite Space Marine unit serving as security to a space colony, until gigantic aliens from a nearby eldritch nebula invades. You're the best of the force, so of course it's up to you to take on an endless horde of alien monsters.
The game was given a 2023 release on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch.
The Fate of the Colonies is in your Hands, Soldier.
- Arm Cannon: The humanoid alien enemies has these grafted on their arms they'll use to shoot from a distance. The last boss has them on both hands and can spam projectiles on full auto.
- Attack Drone: Besides worm-like creatures and humanoid foot soldiers, the game also throws occasional hovering, mechanical drones at you as an obstacle. They tend to appear in area containing dark, bottomless pits where the drones will fly from the depths in an ambush.
- Container Maze: More than one stage consists of crates and containers forming a maze you'll need to navigate around while taking down enemies.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Replicating the nature of old-timey 90s games, the layout of stages tends to get really, really repetitive. Most of the first half is set in the interiors of a spaceship where the corridors all looks the same.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: There's one on the upper-left corner that displays the entire map of a stage, where enemies shows up as green dots. It even leaves a white trail everywhere you go so you know which area you've explored.
- Featureless Protagonist: You spend the whole game clad in armor and given the first-person nature, don't see yourself onscreen. It's unknown how you actually look like in-game.
- King Mook: The game has four bosses, and the first three are enlarged, boss versions of the regular worm, drone and humanoid alien enemies using the same attacks as their mook counterparts, just capable of taking more damage. The last one is a beefed-up variant of the humanoid enemies that at least uses a different design.
- Meat Moss: In the first few stages the levels consists of interiors of spaceships and plain metal walls, but as you proceed further and further you start getting into areas whose walls are coated with red, fleshy substances everywhere...
- Mook Maker: The game begins with you fighting some alien worm-things, and further on, larger and fatter versions of the same creature who lacks any attacks, but can spawn the smaller worm-enemies until they're killed.
- Pipe Pain: In the first area, you're without a weapon in the aftermath of the first alien attack. But you do manage to collect a steel pipe, which works surprisingly well in smashing alien skulls to bits.
- Space Marine: The titular force are trained elite marines defending a space station, and naturally you're their best member.
- A Winner Is You: For taking out the last of the alien forces and saving your ship? You're given a "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" announcement before the game returns to the title screen (though to be fair, this is a really short game).
