Right from the moment I hit the title screen and the glorious retro music starts, taking me back to my classic Commodore 64 gaming days, there's no missing that this is a throwback title. Resembling, to me, a game I might have played on my buddy's ColecoVision, Hyper Sentinel is a fast-moving homage to a variety of classic arcade-style titles.

In each level you'll be challenged to destroy a number of targets on a huge ship you're flying over. You'll be distracted by enemy fighters, power-up opportunities, and a wide variety of ship defenses as you progress through the game. Each level is also capped off with a boss battle, and you'll need to work to drain the boss's health while keeping a careful eye on your own. Fortunately, your ship will replenish its health if you're able to avoid being hit for a little while though depending on what's going on at the time that can be harder to manage than you may think.

While your first goal will likely be to simply survive the levels and bosses that the game throws at you, for most people the goal will really be chasing high scores. But, in order to maximize your score you'll first have to work to keep up with everything going on! Power-ups and score multipliers will often whiz by you, making you chase them down or circle back for them. However, as the levels progress, a variety of obstacles and enemy weapon systems will make you think twice about flying recklessly. The potential for a rich classic arcade gaming experience is already in place, I'm eager to see how the final product turns out!

Impressions are based on the free-to-download 3-level PC demo of the game created for the Kickstarter campaign. The game has evolved significantly since that time visually and has also expanded to include at least 12 levels.