Futuridium EP Deluxe is inspired by Commodore 64 all-time classic Uridium from 1986 (that was once available on the Wii Shop Virtual Console). It puts the horizontal 2D shooter into a flashy 3D shooter, but is it going to do the original justice? Well, it's taking a couple of elements from the classic but it's still a unique experience.

In the midst of a huge space war, you're damaged ship gets sucked into some kind of warp gate. This warp gate takes you behind the enemy front lines and to the enemies' approaching motherships and dreadnoughts. With your energy slowly draining from a damaged hull the only way to survive is to shoot the energy cells around each mothership to regain some health. Once all energy cells are destroyed the main core opens up. Destroying it blows up the mothership and takes you to the next zone. Basically, you're not just saving the world all on your own, you do this while you are severely damaged and continuously lose energy. It's a tense and difficult task, much like the original.


There are 50 deluxe stages and 50 classic stages that are very different from each other. If you don't want to start from zone 1 every time, you have to beat 10 stages with your limited amount of credits, so the game lets you start from zone 11, 21, 31, and 41 respectively. Also, each energy cell you destroy is counted towards further unlockables, like new skins that show the levels in different colors and additional credits that make your progress through the game much easier.

The levels start off relatively simple, with just some transport ships and a few rows of energy cells to shoot, but later on you encounter warships that have plenty of defenses like lasers, bombs, and homing missiles that take multiple hits to destroy. Also, it's not always huge ships you will find on your unlucky journey, there are outerdimensional structures that move and spin around, and areas that look like cities, scrap and debris, a train station, and much more.


Futuridium seems unforgiving in the beginning but at its heart it's a core game that rewards practice and devotion. If the challenge is still too much for you to handle you can change to an easy mode without much of a penalty (you just score less points). Unlockable new modes and a place on the online leaderboards just add to the variety and replayability. Hardcore gamers will have 3 optional goals for each stage to tackle: Complete a stage without dying, complete a stage within a certain time limit, and complete a stage with a good chain combo (shooting energy cells consecutively). These goals leave no room for mistakes.

The controls are very good: You can fly in all directions (with inverted Y-axis if you want), shoot with one of the buttons, boost with a second button, and instantly turn around on the spot by the press of third button. This is what makes Futuridium pretty unique and so fast-paced. Also, you can change the perspective with another button: There is a first person view and third person views.


Graphically, Futuridium is nice to look at and a very smooth experience. With its one-color textures it almost looks like a neon HD version of Starfox for the SNES but without any pop-ups in the distance or slowdown. The soundtrack was created by 3 dubstep artists. They add to the action on screen, and if you don't like one of the 16 tracks you can select a different one by moving through the playlist with the right analog stick anytime.

Futuridium EP Deluxe is a content-packed, modernized, retro-inspired, extremely polished arcade shooter for a really good price. If you're into fast-paced action that tests your reflexes and precision skills and want something that gets your adrenaline rushing, then this game is definately for you.


Written by SKTTR, 28th September 2016