If you like your vertical shooters, then you’ll need to take a look at Captain Skyrunner, the latest offering from Steven Splint and the team of Canadian indie developers over at Elektri. I initially thought that Captain Skyrunner would be reminiscent of the classic 90’s scrolling shooter 1941, but where both games may pay homage to the time period of WWII (in CS you initially fly a North American P-51 Mustang) the similarities end there. This is a vertical shooter but definitely without the hordes of enemies flying at you. Instead, you must navigate your way through a maze of obstacles, collecting coins while shooting at and destroying baddies…before they destroy you.
Played over a cool and catchy 8-bit soundtrack, Captain Skyrunner also features retro-cool isometric style maps complete with enemy planes and watchtowers who will attempt to shoot you down, unless you can destroy them first. The maps in Captain Skyrunner are in fact randomly generated, so good luck trying to memorize anything in an attempt to master this game. Further, where the maps are isometric in look, gameplay remains vertical unlike SOME games where EVERYTHING was isometric. Yeah, so maybe I’m still bitter about the whole Zaxxon thing. But I digress…
Unlockables and More
Captain Skyrunner is loaded with unlockables including planes (there are dozens to unlock) and powerups. Power ups are scattered and hidden throughout the game, so you will want to pick those up as soon as you find them. Trust me when I say that you will need the shield if you wish to survive at a bare minimum. My first attempts at this game included a LOT of dying, and we should mention that you get one life and then it’s game over and you will start at the beginning of the map, albeit with your coin collection intact.
You can check out the Captain Skyrunner trailer here and download it from the links below:
Developer: Steven Splint
Publisher: Elektri
Play it at Itch
Get it on Google Play for Android.
Get it on iTunes for iOS
Thanks for the review, glad that you liked the game. You can upgrade your HP in the in game shop and upgrades are permanent.
I would also like to point out that while the planes are randomly unlocked, Captain Skyrunner doesn’t give duplicate rewards like other games that use loot boxes, so you get something unique every time.