I had the chance to finally get my hands on Galak-Z: The Dimensional at this year’s Game Developers Conference. The game was revealed by 17Bit Games back in June of 2013, and they’ve been hard at work at finishing the game ever since.

My first impression was definitely positive, as the game definitely evokes that 70s and 80s anime style that I so fondly remember from my childhood. Seriously, these screenshots and videos don’t do the game justice, you have to see it running in a screen.

I’d have to say my only gripe so far is that Galak-Z takes quite a while to load its worlds, which is probably due to the fact that each world you enter is entirely different from the last – as they’re all procedurally generated. Despite this, I was eager to get into the game and just blast stuff.

The expansive and ever-changing environments reward players that constantly use them to their advantage. Flying in and expecting to take on every enemy at once is complete suicide, this game doesn’t behave like a “traditional shoot em up” in that sense. Instead, you have to think more tactfully.

You can upgrade your weapons as you progress and gather resources in the various game worlds, but the key is maintaining a balance between your standard bullet spread, your missile lock on, and of course – your maneuverability. You’ll constantly be fighting to whip your ship around both your enemies and the environments.

One of the coolest things with Galak-Z is that difficulty is broken up into seasons with each season broken up into individual episodes, just like an anime TV show. The majority of the little bits incorporated into the game are like this, and will easily make any old school anime fan squeal in glee.

Newtonian physics are in effect in Galak-Z, which might throw off some of the more casual shmup or action fans. Once you get the hang of winging your ship around, you can do a lot of fun tricks. For one, if you let your ship drift on its own (even into enemies), you can surprise your enemies.

This is also a catch 22, as your movements and noises will alert enemies to your presence. Enemies don’t immediately come after you, but they will notice another ship blasting around, and most especially – shooting at them.

The environment also comes into play with hazards that can harm both yourself, and your enemies. If you’re smart, you’ll lure your enemies near these giant spores, fire upon them, therefore unleashing very large spikes – which probably end up taking your enemy down.

Galak-Z  runs very well – the build I had played was on a Playstation 4, while the game is also coming to PC and Playstation Vita. The enemy A.I. in particular was quite impressive, I was frequently on my toes as I tried to evade their projectiles, as well as their physical attacks.

The game originally wasn’t meant to be a roguelike, in fact the game originally had randomly generated levels so the team could rapidly produce levels to playtest. After seeing how fresh it felt, they decided to go full roguelike, despite the game being an arcade experience at its core.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing Galak-Z: The Dimensional. I really wish I had more of the game to play, as it definitely feels like something unlike any other shoot-em-up I’ve played before. To be honest, I’m kind of mad that I haven’t gotten the chance to demo the game until now!

17Bit Games are looking to ship Galak-Z: The Dimensional some time later this year, although a release date has not been specified.