[Demo] Dark Adelita (PC)

Sounds like Mexico has hard time in 1918. Big supernatural problem, I mean.

 

Anyway, this is demo of Brain-dead Rabbit Games’ Dark Adelita (2026). She looks fine for the action but I don’t think white shirt is good choice because: 1) It’s hard to be on stealth while wearing white cloth. 2) It’s very hard to clean the bloodstain on it. Anyway, let’s start the game.  

 

I like this story exposition in the form of comic. I like to point out that our heroine here hitchhikes her way to her destination which is 1) Illegal. 2) Unsafe. Luckily, she can land safely there.

 

So, here I am at Tinum, Yucatan. No button tutorial but the control is standard modern game. W, A, S, and D to move around. Mouse to aim around. Left mouse button to shoot. Space bar to jump.

 

There’s statue of Maria as checkpoints that placed in some part of the level and they’re fairly plenty. Angela will respawn at checkpoint when her life reserve reaches 0.        

 

The combat is as straightforward as you can get. You fire rifle at the enemies until they die and avoid getting hit yourself. You can crouch to make yourself smaller target or jump and hopefully dodge enemy’s bullets. Enemies takes couple of hit to go down. On the other hand, Angela is pretty fragile. One-well placed bullet is enough to take her life reserve by 1. You also have to keep in mind that Angela’s rifle is the old wild west single-shot action rifle. It takes time to load her gun before she can fire another bullet. Could be worse. She could use the ancient musket with very long procedure of reloading the gun: Put the black powder first, put the bullets, mix them together with stick, aim, and then pull the trigger.    

 

I try to be adventurous by driving Angela into that small alcove. It rewards me with machine gun but on my way back to top, Angela slips into water and then hop into platform only for her to fall dead with blood pool. The water looks fine to me. So, how she dies grotesquely like that just because she take a dip into normal-looking water? I think she’s drama queen. 

 

Zombie riflemen are not the only enemy around this part. There’s this wizened eagle also out for my blood.

 

Hanged man with burlap sack on his head. Cool. Besides the ammo box that provides me with machine gun, the game has no power up item. Turns out, I can pick that cross for unknown effect. 

 

Oh, I see. The cross is basically shield power up. It blocks lethal hit for me. But it breaks once its effect takes place.

 

Next level introduces me with shotgun guy. At first, he does nothing until I slightly approach him, he begins to walk and fire his shotgun.

 

Another comic intermission. Oh god! That Kuntilanak is horrifying!

 

Even in pixel form, she’s still horrifying. Look at that mouth that covers her entire face thus making her nose gone! Meanwhile on her portrait besides her health bar, she looks like Slenderman’s wife. She’s scary in any view. Not only she’s scary looking but also dangerous as she can scream out bullets! So, it’s another game that implements bullet hell/Danmaku, huh?

 

When her health reaches 50%, she has new routine. First, she flies way above the screen and raining me down with bullets.

Next, she’s fly just slightly above the ground which makes her easy target. But she fires bullets with diagonal pattern and then flies to almost the edge of level. I have hard time jumping over her safely. I wish Angela has double jump or dash which feels mandatory to this kind of game. Then I realize that Angela jumps higher if I press the jump button and hold it longer instead of just tap. But still, the timing to dodge the ghost’s move must be very precise.  

 

After several attempts, I manage to defeat the boss ghost. Now she can fly to heaven and reunite with her kids that presumably died drowning sin this very lake. What in tarnation that Angela picks there? I don’t like mysterious object that can talk.

 

So, uh. The mysterious voice directs Angela to her next target. Maybe, the voice is angel that specialized at secret supernatural extermination. Also, my next target is: wealthy family that gain riches from sealing deal with devil, I think?

 

This level takes time at day which is very contrary to previous level that takes place in eerie night. The game introduces me with spikes. You see those stubby pricks on the right? Those are them. Even though they look stupid and harmless. Angela will die if she gets hit by them.

This level is strangely generous with weapon up presumably to demonstrate what you can get with picking weapon up items consecutively. The first thing, I got machine gun. Very useful because it fires lots of hot leads while removing the loading time. Second time, I got big iron which is big revolver handgun that has increased attack power. Third time, I got shotgun. It’s more useful for close range combat. Those special weapon has limited ammo and if you get hit even once, you will lose it. So, the game emphasizes on rewarding player who does perfectly. Sounds imbalance like how Super Ghouls n Ghosts rewards player with armor with armor power up, but I can understand the design decision.

 

I reached a tavern with car parked nearby and I trigger another cutscene. If you’re curious what those guys talk about, it goes like this. Man 1: “Thanks to “him” my business is thriving”. Man 2: “At this point you will be rich! Where can I sign? Hahaha!”

Maybe that guy made a pact with the devil like I assume before. Angela is running out of money so being Dark Adelita doesn’t pay afterall. Then the demo ends. That’s pretty suddenly.

 

You’re welcome. :)  

 

Brain-dead Rabbit Games’ Dark Adelita (2026) is game with unique setting. As for the gameplay…the core immediately reminds me of Warhammer 40,000 Shootas, Blood & Teef. I played the demo and full version of it. There’s slight change with the demo: the ammo for other than slugga (handgun) is limited and you have to search crook and nook to find it, which makes the game more interesting in my opinion. Anyway, compared to dat Warhammer 40K Ork gaem, Dark Adelita feels lacking in gameplay. As I have mentioned before, I think the game needs dash or double jump. I do hope that those abilities are added later in full version. The power up also feels lacking. Maybe make the weaponry switchable on the fly and Angela can hold up to 2 special weapons. Kind of like Contra III or Alien Strike -Blasting the Intruders that I recently played the demo of it. Maybe put stealth kill into the mix to spice things up. Maybe add throwing dagger as weapon with unlimited ammo instead of rifle. The sound effect is standard good. The music is pretty nice. I love the intense music on the first boss fight. It  captures both the horror nuance and also full of spirit [pun may or may not be intended].

Summary: It gets pass on my wishlist   

I look forward to gameplay improvement and also the story continuation…

[Demo] Alien Strike - Blasting the Intruders

Today, we’re looking at demo version of Combo Game Studio’s Alien Strike - Blasting the Intruders(2026).

That’s some majestic 80s neon title screen along with the buildings and clouds. Steam recommends me to use controller but I insist on using the keyboard. Probably bad idea.

 

I immediately start new game with medium difficulty. When I see this character select screen, I immediately think of Metal Slug X and sequels. I see 2 possible slots on each corner, maybe there are unlockable character in full version? That be awesome. Anyway, I take Alan first because he has Ryu’s headband.

 

There’s no button tutorial on the game so I just peek the control setting furthermore I change it to standard WASD control because I’m no longer accustomed with arrow keys for movement.

 

From this screenshot alone, you should know that the game is pretty much Contra but not made by Konami. Everything speaks Contra here. The one-hit death system. The rolling jump. The Spreadshot. The space alien enemies. The prone position. Pretty much everything is homage to Contra.

 

Also, the climbing section. Goodness! This section reminds me research laboratory in Contra Hardcorps. One thing that may different from Contra is how generous this game with shield power up. It only lasts for one hit but better than you die right away after getting hit.        

 

These alien buffoons barely have chance to succeed invasion if they don’t know how to aim other direction than just front. So, I have button to lock my move and allow me to aim in more various direction pretty much like in Contra Hardcorps or Cuphead.   

There’s mid boss: a dangling hive of space hornet. Earth hornet is already evil, so you know how more evil space hornet is. I lose a life because I try to be smart by using slide to dodge hornets but it didn’t work well because the slide is short. But when I use the slide to pass the gap, it becomes significantly longer.

 

I’m impressed with telyport teleport technology that the alien invader has. But when their soldier walks in lazy manner like that, I’m certain they won’t succeed in their invasion. On the other hand, my gun has upgrade! By picking up same weapon icon twice, I will get upgraded version of my gun. Upgraded weapon has addition -x in its name. The electric gun that I had, has limited range. But when it’s upgraded to ElectricX (which is freaking rad name, by the way), it has longer range and stronger power.

 

I also upgrade the spread shot. The game call it 3-bullets but it’s no longer 3 bullets come out from the muzzle which makes the name invalid. I think this similar weapon upgrade system also exist in Contra: Operation Galuga. I could be wrong though.

Then I encounter the sub-boss: giant alien with 3 eyes. I’m pretty sure you know where to hit them. I like the flying item container over there. It’s cute. It more resembles the one in Riot than in any Contra game. I also want to point out that the boss’ health bar on the right resembles the same thing in Castlevania.

 

Now, we moving to Monteiro subway station. From quick browse, I gain knowledge of Monteiro Bus Terminal is located in Brazil. So, I assume we’re in Brazil. It’s nice detail to show panicking civilians but as far as I know, aliens only kill me and not the running civilians so there’s no reason for them to run for their lives. On the other hand, the aliens know their target priority. Aiming at nerd with gun over scared weaponless people. They’re quite smart although they look lazy and unenthusiastic with the invasion.

 

So, we board on the train to destroy more aliens. To quote Caleb from Blood: “Get off my train!”  

 

So, the level boss is that giant worm from the start of Men in Black 2. Good to know. One thing that I didn’t check before is the super shot. I assume every character has their own super shot. Alan shoots lots of large plasma balls across entire screen. The super shot can be activated once the super bar is filled by hitting enemies. This pretty much reminds me of Cuphead and I like it.   

The boss fight goes well for me until alien spiders come from right side. When I focus on the alien worm boss, these arachnid bastards bite my backside. Uncool!

 

Due to cowardly spider attack, Alan is replaced with Melina. So far nothing different from her. Although this big laser is something that I think unusual for giant worm, I can expect it but that sneaky spider attack is the heinous one.  

 

I think Melina’s super shot is quite similar to Alan but she teleports to right side instead of left side like Alan did. Plus, there’s her name (written in Korean, I think) in the middle of explosion.

 

Despite using continue, I got Rank A for this level. A for (late) Alan, I guess. I like that I unlock bunch of rewards for doing so well in this level even though I have no idea what are they.

 

Of course, there’s sewer level. Come to think of it, I can’t recall any Contra with sewer level. Funny enough. Finally, some alien has some sense and utilize gun even though he’s still easy target like his peers.

 

It’s Thay’s turn. His super shot is giant beam which I think has more damage power than Melina’s and Alan’s super shot but bit smaller area of effect.

 

The boss of the 2nd level is: this flying abomination. I thought it is sentient boiler machines put together with hose but that’s probably not true. I didn’t expect one of the sentient orbs to spit explosive sewer water on me and thus Thay lose her life once. And then she lose another life because one of the grinning orb headbutt here. The headbutt is super quick but telegraphed pretty decently with the orb's eye emits spark or shine.

 

Then it flies on background and spits more gooey projectiles. This bastard is dirty but it’s fitting for the sewer level.

 

When the boss has health less than 50%, the unenergetic aliens begin to teleport from sides. They’re not as threatening as spiders.

 

The boss also combines what he already did and that means more slimy sewer water drop on me. Very disgusting. Luckily if I stay in either corner, I’ll be saved from that torrent of sewer water. If the boss moves more further into the corner, I’ll be dead. But I still have to look out for the exploding orb. It explodes on floor’s contact and the explosion move outward a bit.   

 

So, that’s the end of the demo. Pretty good part of the game to show. I notice there’s small Brazilian flag icon on the left bottom, so I can assume the developer is from Brazil.

 

Before I conclude the review. I like to show you Marco’s super shot which is he fires heated laser and then spin around. This one is easy to analyze. His super shot probably has the least damage power but hit everything on the screen. Ok. Let’s wrap things up.

 

I don’t like their gun looks like toy in the main menu. It looks like hybrid of Nerf gun and SNES super scope.

Combo Game Studio’s Alien Strike - Blasting the Intruders (2026) is very good homage of classic Contra. Usually, I don’t like the one-hit die system but AS gets a pass because the enemies are reasonably slow, allowing me to dodge their attack. Also, I think the game is pretty generous with shield power up. The only bad thing that I can say is how short the slide is and how long the cooldown of it. Other than those, the game is very intuitive to play. The weaponry is interesting. The sound effect is good. The music is fine.

Summary: It gets pass on my wishlist   

Game is super fun to play especially with the super shot mechanism. I still hope there’s just little bit improvement in full version like more specialty among the character. Maybe they have varied move speed or sliding capability.