Nate Schmold’s planet-hopping, 2D arcade space adventure Cosmochoria has been released onto Steam as an Early Access title. It’s pretty chill: you can plant seeds, watch them grow, get attacked by giant space monsters – you know, the usual.
You start off as a naked guy with just a fishbowl helmet to protect him from the harsh elements of outer space. No explicit goals are given to you, so you’ll want to engage in exploration and experimentation to figure things out.
Before long, you should work out that collecting and planting seeds – while being relaxing – restores planets to life, with flowers, atmosphere, and a big love heart at its center. Unfortunately, alien invaders don’t like that you’re having fun and come to blast your newly restored planet.
You’ll need to fire a few lasers back at these angry aliens then (preferably, right in their face) in order to protect your planet. The rest of the game goes on like this, with you restoring planets, defending them, and earning crystals to upgrade your astronaut, as well as purchase towers to defend your planets.
You may, sometimes, also get attacked by giant space monsters, as said, but I’m sure you can handle it (you can’t). Aside from the upgrade loop and classic platformer action, Cosmochoria should also keep you interested with its emergent mysteries.
There are other friendly people that you can meet that will talk about ancient artifacts and old stories. With some persistence, perhaps one day you’ll be able to find the very thing they’re nattering on about.
So, if you’re into the idea of this “love letter to old-school action / arcade games”, you can purchase Cosmochoria up for $9.99 (currently discounted at $8.99) on Steam Early Access right now. There’s also an old alpha demo you can play in your browser for free, just to get a feel for it—it’s missing a lot of new features, mind.
