Fifteen Sentinel: Bullet-Packed

Elite. Bomb Jack. Manic Miner. The Dizzy series. These were all big hits in Great Britain, but here in the United States, they were barely recognized, overshadowed by high-profile NES titles like Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, and Castlevania.

You didn't watch the movie, now
don't play the game!
(image from TheGamesDB.net)

So it goes with Uridium. Released for home computers in 1986 by Hewson Consultants, this side-scrolling shooter was largely ignored in America, to the point where Mindscape had to rebrand it as merchandise for the film The Last Starfighter when they brought it to the NES. Of course, since this five year old movie wasn't particularly successful either, it didn't do much to improve Uridium's visibility, and the game continued to fly under the radar of most Americans.

Fast-forward to 2020. Huey Games now holds the rights to the Uridium series, and it's determined to finally find an American audience with the latest game in the series, Hyper Sentinel. It's not just louder, flashier, and more colorful than ever, but it's cheaper, sometimes selling for as little as fifteen cents on the Nintendo Switch. That's couch change when your couch is holding out on you. That's not even nickels and dimes... that's nickel and dime. Try ignoring it now.

Needless to say, this was the first purchase I made for my Switch. At that price, why wouldn't you? Expectations are pretty low when you're charged a palmful of pennies for a game. If it gives you anything past an error screen, it's already earned its keep. Fortunately, Hyper Sentinel aims higher than you might expect for the price. It's noisy, chaotic, and inscrutable, but once you understand the play mechanics, you'll get more than your money's worth out of it.

Like Activision's The Dreadnought Factor, Hyper Sentinel is a series of strafing runs, with your ship hovering over the top of a gargantuan battle cruiser, picking off cannons, power cells, and other targets. Once the targets have all been destroyed, the battleship summons a "guardian" in a last ditch effort to crush you. Bring that down and it's mission accomplished... the dreadnought succumbs to its injuries in a satisfyingly drawn out explosion. Bring on the next one!

However, the game is not as cut and dry as that description makes it sound. Despite an instruction manual accessible from the options screen, Hyper Sentinel is confusing for newcomers. What exactly on that battleship am I supposed to blast? Why isn't that target destroyed... didn't I already shoot it? What's the point of the rainbow colored enemies that pop up from time to time? Why did that thing damage me and make me reverse course? Why did I suddenly get all my energy back? Unlike most shooters, Hyper Sentinel is not immediately intuitive, and it's going to take a few games to understand what makes it tick.

It's a lot to absorb, isn't it?
(image from Nintendo)

Once it all comes together, Hyper Sentinel is a fun distraction... not addictive per se, but an enjoyable way to burn through five minutes of your spare time. You jump in, blow up a couple of battleships, unlock some new stages, and quit when you're ready to play something more substantial. It's not on par with the best shoot 'em ups on the Switch, and I wouldn't recommend it for its standard retail price of eight dollars, but for fifteen cents? Yeah, you've got my attention.