Boss 101 is a shmup that lets players take a role in creating the bosses they’ll fight, allowing them to roll on which random set of parts will make up their major enemies, deciding whether or not they wish to face various oddball machines.
Before players head into battle in Boss 101, they are given the ability to randomly roll a boss creation. These will pull from various parts, weapons, and abilities, creating several various concoctions for players to fight, listing their strengths and weaknesses. It will be up to the player whether they feel up to fighting the particular boss they’ve created, as they can keep trying to make new ones until they find something they like, but players are given better rewards for beating especially challenging creations.
Players can spend their cash rewards on upgrades, gain new guns that offer different means of offense, or unlock hats that give their character various boosts. Players can also find new pets in their journey to battle across the galaxy, bringing some of them on missions while others simply rest at the player’s home base.
Boss 101’s protagonist is pretty chatty, as is his robot pal. They will discuss what’s going on in the fight in goofy ways, as will the created boss, creating a silly back-and-forth between all of the beings shooting at one another. This talk even carries over into the various extra arcade games players can access when they don’t feel like shooting down robots. They can also go fly a kite in game for a truly relaxing break from battle.
Boss 101 is available now on Steam.
