Whilst most shooters are about having a little fun and blowing off some steam every now and then a game comes along with a point to make. Enter Upgrade Complete! (because nothing says I'm trying to make a point like a good exclamation mark) where everything in the game is unlockable or upgradeable from the weapons on your ship to the graphics themselves. One of the best examples of this can be found right at the beginning of the game where you have to purchase the menu. I won't spoil it for you but make sure you read everything on the screen because it sums up everything this game wants to say about online gaming's (and indeed most games now) obsession with the ability to upgrade and improve things.
Once you have access the menu and all the other little bits and bobs necessary to actually play the game you can start blasting other ships out of the... well its not really a sky until you upgrade the graphics enough times but you get the idea. Your ship comes equipped with two blasters but there are a decent set of other options available to bolster your offense, speed or collecting abilities which, naturally, are all completely upgradable so those of you who enjoy tweaking their set up will have plenty to keep you occupied. All you have to do is kill enough enemies and collect enough of the coins that they drop to do so, something which you will almost certainly spend the bulk of your time doing.
Apart from all the upgrading and unlocking the purpose of the game is to blast your way through 20 waves of increasingly powerful enemies in a typical upward scrolling shooter. The controls are simply the arrow buttons and space to fire so there are certainly no problems there but the ship tilts rather than strafing so you have to compensate for this when shooting at your targets. It takes a little getting used to but it works and you have the time to line up your shot because your enemies don't shoot back... or even harm you when they crash into you... in fact there is no way in which you can die. Rather than surviving your goal is actually to destroy all the enemies before they can get past you, which would be fine except it takes all the intensity away and means for the most part that getting past the waves is more about how much firepower you can afford than your skill level.
Now to condemn Upgrade Complete! for this would be missing the point a bit. The game deliberately makes the upgrades the most important aspect because that's what it is about. If you fail a wave there is no penalty and you get to keep all the gold you collected so you can upgrade and have another crack at it but truthfully the game side of this game is a bit lacking. The graphics are pretty good once you upgrade them and the transition from very basic pong style to vector to 8 bit to 16 bit type graphics certainly makes the game more interesting but the truth is there isn't much to be found in the way of challenges. Ultimately you just need to grind your way until you can afford good enough weapons to get through all 20 waves.
Fortunately the game isn't very long so the grinding never becomes unbearable. It's just that with so many shooters out there doing it better it really depends on what you want/expect from your game. If you want a fast paced adrenaline rush where you have to dodge screens full of enemy projectiles you're definitely in the wrong place but Upgrade Complete! is not without it's charm and it's great to see some developers thinking outside the box. This would normally be the part where I would give the game a rating but in this case I don't think any rating I could chose would do it justice. Sure the gameplay is a bit lacking but it is making a statement and that takes guts and some lateral thinking so I'm going to leave you to judge what sort of rating this game should get because ultimately it depends on what sort of player you are as to how much you'll enjoy this game.
Badge Hunter Notes:
All badges are pretty easy to get. Just make sure you upgrade in all the right places and you'll make it through that final wave. Good luck.
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