Heckabomb

Heckabomb is a twin-stick shooter in which you pilot a doomsday weapon across the Universe, destroying enemy planets and fighting their defenders. You can play with a controller or with mouse and keyboard. Across varied levels set in circular arenas, you upgrade your ship, gather construction materials and take on enemies ranging from fast divebombers to huge boss warships.

Destroy enemy worlds

The Heckabomber is the only thing to survive the alien armada’s destruction of your home planet. It carries planet-destroying bombs, which you use to obliterate enemy worlds, crush their defenders and crack the planets open. You harvest the remains for materials to upgrade your ship and continue your campaign.

To reach a planet, you first charge up on ship upgrades, fight aggressive enemy ships and break through their defensive lines. Enemies include missile batteries, tractor beams and a deadly enemy ace pilot, as well as tiny, fast-moving divebombers and massive tractor-beam transports that try to pin you down for other enemies to shoot.

Gather resources

Asteroids across the Universe can be mined for resources to build weapons, upgrade equipment and resupply smartbombs. Every second level, you race to harvest asteroids before the blast wave from the planet you just destroyed reaches you.

Upgrade your ship

You can improve stats including bullet spread, rate of fire, turbo boosters and magnetic collectors. The game also has six add-on weapons, including a chain-lightning gun, bullet-reflecting satellites and a rapid-fire swirly weapon.

Every 10th level brings an increasingly large enemy Warship. Each carries a unique bonus upgrade, which you can obtain only by choosing to engage it instead of avoiding its weapons and fighter launch bay.

Game modes

The campaign takes you through enemy worlds and Warship encounters. Completing one campaign level unlocks Casual mode, which offers less challenge and more salvage loot, and lets you progress as far as the first Warship encounter. It also has these modes:

• Survival Mode: Customize your ship once with a large upgrade budget, then fight endlessly against increasingly fierce odds and a limitless armada of enemy Warships.
• Hardcore Mode: Fight with one life and no continues, against enemies with substantially increased accuracy, rate of fire and bullet speed. Your score competes for a place on the elite hiscore table.
• Duel Mode: After facing the elite enemy ace pilot in the campaign, unlock a challenge against the ace and his five elite henchmen.

The game also features an AI Duel Challenge and online hiscores. Its presentation includes massive explosions, debris clouds and trails, alongside an arcade soundtrack.