Star of Providence is a bullet hell roguelike shooter that mostly went under the radar when it came to Steam back in 2017. But since then, it’s won over a devoted fan following, including the YouTuber videogamedunkey, who liked it so much he decided to help republish it eight years later under the Bigmode label. It now has a Switch port and a big new update that will hopefully get it the second look it deserves.
If you’ve never heard of Star of Providence before, that could be because it wasn’t called that back when it launched. Team D-13's top-down sci-fi shoot ‘em up originally debuted on Steam as “Monolith.” The re-branding seems to be partly about giving the indie gem a catchier name, and also partly about avoiding potential legal trouble with Warner Bros. Games, who has the original title trademarked for its studio of the same name.
But for many, Star of Providence will essentially be their first introduction to the roguelike’s striking retro art style and vast array of enemies, weapons, and secrets. The boss fights are especially cool-looking and the chiptune-esque soundtrack kicks ass.
The Switch release marks a sort of 1.5 launch for the game, with Into Oblivion being its biggest content update in five years, following 2020's Relics of the Past. Here’s all the new content the game got this week:
- 2 new upgrades.
- 1 new playable character.
- 5 new normal enemies.
- More new bosses than enemies for some reason.
- 13 new unique weapons.
- 20 new cartridges.
- 43 new keywords (including those exclusive to Skully and Unique weapons).
- A nearly complete rework of the loop mechanic, including capping it to a maximum loop of 13.
- A nearly complete rework of the Skully playable “ship”.
- Face the Gauntlet, a new sub-branch which appears on late-game floors and offers valuable rewards in exchange for defeating esoteric challenges.
- “Boss” “Rushes”.
- Hundreds of new room layouts, featuring a variety of new hazards and gimmicks.
- Massive balance changes, visual improvements, and performance optimizations across the whole game.
- The unknown diminishes, ever so slightly.
Games rarely get second chances, especially beloved small indie releases that got lost in the shuffle, so it’s neat to see Star of Providence getting another shot at the limelight. While many overlooked it back in 2017, it did end up making videogamedunkey’s best games of 2018 list at number 14.
He praised its deceptively simple design, and willingness to throw players into the deep end of the space horror pond and let them figure it out through hours of dying and restarting. Once mastered, however, the game can be finished in as little as 35 minutes. Perfect for Switch.
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