Kino One Demo

Space shooters were immensely popular back in the day of the arcade, because they were challenging and fun at the same time. Naturally, the high scores were the main attraction, because it took skill and patience to reach the higher levels in games like Space Invaders and the like. However, the genre sort of dissipated when computers and consoles gained popularity, although these too featured similar games for a while.

Kino One is an interesting re-imagining of the old classics, sporting similar gameplay and even the same playful graphics, with no more than two dimensions. As such, the mechanics should feel very familiar to those who enjoyed the original games, even if this won’t feel as exciting. If you want to shoot things, on the other hand, you can certainly do that and enjoy all the resulting explosions.

In the beginning, you are greeted by a tutorial that aims to teach you the gameplay basics and get you acquainted with the mechanics. There is also a story about aliens you can optionally stick around to hear, but it’s about as dull as possible, which means that you won’t lose an awful lot by skipping through it. In essence, you can pretty much figure out what the plot is from the first few seconds of gameplay.

Just like in any other arcade game, attaining the high score is always the priority, so you must give it all to gain as many points as possible. In order to do that, you have to collect the stars dropped by the enemies you kill, or even shoot the asteroids to bits. However, various weapon upgrades and power-ups make an appearance every once in a while, which make the action that much more fun and exciting.

Controlling the spaceship should come naturally to anyone, regardless of whether you have any experience with the genre or not. Thanks to the 2D perspective and the rather restrained gameplay area, all you have to do is use the directional keys to steer the ship, as well as two other keys to shoot your weapons. The graphics look pretty nice, although they are extremely basic from a technical point of view.

In the end, Kino One can be the perfect distraction for when you are aching for some arcade shooting, or even if you find yourself bored at any point. Hence, if you do not mind the primitive graphics style and you can cope with the unforgiving difficulty level in the later stages, this game can certainly provide you with a lot of fun.