Sektori review

I was a senior in college when the original Geometry Wars made it to the newly launched Xbox 360. My buddies and I would take turns passing the controller around, giving the game a try. Watching someone get on a hot streak was mesmerizing. Sektori captures that feeling perfectly with a few new twists of its own. If you’re looking for your brain to release some of those “feel-good” chemicals, Sektori is the perfect way to get them.

In Campaign mode, levels shift dynamically, keeping you on your toes.

Unlike many modern games, Sektori has no narrative to speak of. There are no characters and no world or Galactic Federation to save. This is just good, clean, arcade-style twin-stick shoot ‘em up fun. You’ll fly around enclosed arenas, shooting directionally with the right stick. Sektori gives you a sort of empowered dash to charge through enemies and deal some damage with a bit of flair. Depending on the mode, you’ll get various power-ups as you play. At the end of the day, the highest score is your goal. That’s it. It’s a simple premise, but with 7 different modes, there’s plenty of variety in how you approach your experience.

Boss battles are huge, full-arena affairs

Sektori’s premier mode, Campaign, drops you into a small arena and starts spawning enemies. As you pick up what appear to be experience tokens, you’ll spawn upgrade pickups. You’ll pick these up for better upgrades and cash them in when you’re on the upgrade you want. There are several, ranging from your speed or shields to missiles and your primary fire.

Unique to Campaign, you’ll also have 8 categories of unique upgrades to take on a run. These will grant you three random bonus options to choose from, much like Vampire Survivors. It allows for some wildly powerful combos if you play your cards right.

Classic mode has a static arena but plenty of chaos to go around

As you play, the arena will also constantly shift, dropping out sections or adding new sections to keep the field of play dynamic. It has the game feeling like a mix between Geometry Wars and Pac-Man CE(with the ever-changing arena). As you fly around, you can spell out the word “MIRAGE” one letter at a time. Doing so activates a rainbow-infused brain-melting chaos-fest that will have you melting everything in your path for a period of time (and on higher difficulties, the word changes to be longer). It’s an incredible treat for your eyes and brain.

Finally, Campaign has up to five worlds in a single run to work through. Each world requires a few minutes of fighting off the hordes to spawn a massive boss encounter. Beat that boss, and you’ll progress to the next world with some extra goodies at your disposal. It’s addicting and beefy. A single, full run could take you the better part of an hour if things go well, but beware - you’ll finish up and swear you just want to do one more run, only to look at the clock and realize a couple of hours have gone by. It’s a blast!

Sektori has multiple game modes to enjoy

Beyond the Campaign, Sektori features a handful of other unlockable modes to enjoy. Classic Mode puts you in a static arena that spawns enemies. Your goal here is to survive as long as possible, getting power-ups and killing enemies to accumulate the highest score possible. This is as close to the classic Geometry Wars experience as you can get without literally paying someone from Bizarre Creations. If you want a break from the Campaign, you’ll probably be spending most of your time here.

Surge is an interesting mode that has you flipping from weak to strong modes, activated by picking up a token. Gates mode is Sektori’s take on the Geometry Wars ’ Pacifism mode. With no weapons to use, your only way to dispatch enemies is by explosions triggered when you fly between gates. Crash offers a focused mode that makes heavy use of Sektori’s Strike ability, so you’ll earn score by dashing through baddies. Assault mode puts the challenge in your hands, spawning waves of enemies when you pick up corresponding tokens. Finally, there’s a Boss Rush mode that lets you take on all the bosses one at a time.

There’s a great variety of ways to play, and several are genuinely fun gimmicks. While I personally gravitate towards the Campaign and Classic modes, I found Crash and Gates to be fun distractions I’ll go back to time and again. Campaign alone would be worth the price of admission, so it’s fun to see some extra goodies to round out the package.

In Campaign mode, you can customize your ship to show off things you've unlocked for a job well done.

Visually, Sektori is a treat. Like the games that inspired it, it uses simple geometric shapes to represent your ship and all of the enemies. Each shape corresponds to a unique set of behaviors. The game is full of bright, vibrant neons contrasted against a dark play field. There’s often so much happening on screen; it can be easy to get lost in the sauce. Thankfully, you’ll quickly learn to decipher the chaos and let your brain enjoy its candy. With regards to the sound design, the soundtrack is bumpin’, keeping the BPMs up so you’re locked in trying to grab that high score.

As a former Housemarque employee, it probably comes as no surprise that Kimmo Lahtinen is a top-shelf shoot ‘em up dev. With years of experience and a few unique twists applied to a classic formula, he’s developed something that is truly standout in the genre. If you enjoy Shoot ‘Em Ups, indie games, or just bright, flashing colors, Sektori is for you…and if you think it’s not, you should give it a try so you can prove yourself wrong.

Review Guidelines

95

Sektori

Excellent

Sektori is, without a doubt, one of the best shoot ‘em ups to drop in years. While it stands on the shoulders of giants, it brings enough to the table to prove its worth. Beautiful in its simplicity and addictive in action, you’ll constantly have to fight that “one more run” feeling to get anything done once you start playing. Everyone should give Sektori a try.

Pros

• Fast-paced, addictive shoot ‘em up gameplay
• Visuals are simple in premise, but a beautiful dance in motion
• Several modes with high scores and unlockables give you tons of replayability

Cons

• I’m not playing it right this second
• I can’t pipe it directly into my brain

This review is based on a retail Nintendo Switch 2 copy provided by the publisher.