After 10 Years of Development, Galactic Glitch Fully Launched on Steam!

June 3, 2025 | Tear physics apart and weaponize it against your enemies! German indie developer Crunchy Leaf Games proudly announces that Galactic Glitch, the twin-stick shooter where you can catch missiles mid-air and fling them back at your foes, fully launches on Steam today after 10 years of development and one year of community-driven Early Access. The game will be sold at a price of 14.99 USD | EUR, with a 25% discount during the first 2 weeks after launch.

What’s New in 1.0

• Explore the Quarantine Zone: A tough, infested new mid-game level
• Defeat the Cybervoid: An endgame arena with dynamic, ever-changing challenges
• 20+ new enemies: Each featuring new mechanics
• Two new final bosses, and 6 new level bosses
• More than 40 new upgradeable powers, for 90+ powers total
• All-new mechanics, like Glitch Bombs, to unlock secrets and explore
• Prototype ships, which you can find in the wild, capture, and use as starter ships
• A new Overview Map in the Hub area, that guides your exploration of the void
• New Glitch Tokens, to give players more control over their builds
• More Improvements
• Completely reworked and improved UI
• A new Boss Orb system, that unlocks game progress more smoothly
• Added 15+ more special room types, challenges, event rooms, and new mini-bosses
• Higher base difficulty, for better challenge and to make progress more gradual
• Updated and Expanded Hub area, with new rooms
• Added Helpers that allow construction of Hub rooms

Galactic Glitch blends the frantic action and build depth of Nova Drift, the fluid combat style of Dead Cells, and its own innovative physics-based combat mechanics. Use your grav gun creatively to slingshot debris, rip enemies apart, or repurpose enemy attacks into your own arsenal. With 100+ powers and weapons, 70+ enemy types, and a dynamic New Game+ system, Galactic Glitch offers endless replayability and evolving challenges every run.

"Community feedback guided us all through Early Access, and we’re incredibly thankful for that. It led to big changes—like adding mid-run saves early on, or reworking the weapon system after players told us the old one just wasn’t fun. Version 1.0 follows the same path, with highly requested features like Prototype ships and a much better upgrade system. Working together with our players has been a great experience and very enjoyable for us—and we’re thrilled to finally launch the full game." — Max Dohme, lead developer at Crunchy Leaf Games

KEY FEATURES

• 2D Space-Roguelite – A frantic twin-stick shooter with endless replayability and permadeath stakes.
• Physics-Based Combat – Use a gravity gun to grab debris, hurl asteroids, and fling enemy missiles back at them.
• Multi-Part Enemies – Tear foes apart piece by piece, exposing weak spots while dodging their armored sections.
• Dynamic Exploration – Chart a glitched starfield, uncover secrets, and loot rare gear along branching paths.
• Abilities and Items – Unlock new powers every run and combine them into endlessly varied builds.

About Crunchy Leaf Games

Crunchy Leaf Games is a Berlin-based indie studio led by founder Max Dohme. Known for 3030 Deathwar Redux, Rise of Legions, and Crystal Clash, the team specialises in community-driven action games that push genre boundaries.

Development Through Adversity

Roughly half of the Galactic Glitch developers are Ukrainian. While some still work from within Ukraine, others have been forced to relocate—often more than once—yet all have continued contributing code, art, and design amid the turmoil of war. In recognition of their resilience, Crunchy Leaf Games will donate a portion of the game’s launch profits to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.

Article by: Susan N.

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Roguelike Shooter Galactic Glitch Launching to Steam on June 3!

May 15, 2025 | Tear physics apart and weaponize it against your enemies! German indie developer Crunchy Leaf Games proudly announces that Galactic Glitch, the twin-stick shooter where you can catch missiles mid-air and fling them back at your foes, will fully launch on Steam this June 3 after 10 years of development and one year of community-driven Early Access. The game will be sold at a price of 14.99 USD | EUR, with a 25% discount during the first 2 weeks after launch.

What’s New in 1.0

• Explore the Quarantine Zone: A tough, infested new mid-game level
• Defeat the Cybervoid: An endgame arena with dynamic, ever-changing challenges
• 20+ new enemies: Each featuring new mechanics
• Two new final bosses, and 6 new level bosses
• More than 40 new upgradeable powers, for 90+ powers total
• All-new mechanics, like Glitch Bombs, to unlock secrets and explore
• Prototype ships, which you can find in the wild, capture, and use as starter ships
• A new Overview Map in the Hub area, that guides your exploration of the void
• New Glitch Tokens, to give players more control over their builds
• More Improvements
• Completely reworked and improved UI
• A new Boss Orb system, that unlocks game progress more smoothly
• Added 15+ more special room types, challenges, event rooms, and new mini-bosses
• Higher base difficulty, for better challenge and to make progress more gradual
• Updated and Expanded Hub area, with new rooms
• Added Helpers that allow construction of Hub rooms

Galactic Glitch blends the frantic action and build depth of Nova Drift, the fluid combat style of Dead Cells, and its own innovative physics-based combat mechanics. Use your grav gun creatively to slingshot debris, rip enemies apart, or repurpose enemy attacks into your own arsenal. With 100+ powers and weapons, 70+ enemy types, and a dynamic New Game+ system, Galactic Glitch offers endless replayability and evolving challenges every run.

"Community feedback guided us all through Early Access, and we’re incredibly thankful for that. It led to big changes—like adding mid-run saves early on, or reworking the weapon system after players told us the old one just wasn’t fun. Version 1.0 follows the same path, with highly requested features like Prototype ships and a much better upgrade system. Working together with our players has been a great experience and very enjoyable for us—and we’re thrilled to finally launch the full game." — Max Dohme, lead developer at Crunchy Leaf Games

KEY FEATURES

• 2D Space-Roguelite – A frantic twin-stick shooter with endless replayability and permadeath stakes.
• Physics-Based Combat – Use a gravity gun to grab debris, hurl asteroids, and fling enemy missiles back at them.
• Multi-Part Enemies – Tear foes apart piece by piece, exposing weak spots while dodging their armored sections.
• Dynamic Exploration – Chart a glitched starfield, uncover secrets, and loot rare gear along branching paths.
• Abilities and Items – Unlock new powers every run and combine them into endlessly varied builds.

About Crunchy Leaf Games

Crunchy Leaf Games is a Berlin-based indie studio led by founder Max Dohme. Known for 3030 Deathwar Redux, Rise of Legions, and Crystal Clash, the team specialises in community-driven action games that push genre boundaries.

Development Through Adversity

Roughly half of the Galactic Glitch developers are Ukrainian. While some still work from within Ukraine, others have been forced to relocate—often more than once—yet all have continued contributing code, art, and design amid the turmoil of war. In recognition of their resilience, Crunchy Leaf Games will donate a portion of the game’s launch profits to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.

Article by: Susan N.

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Godstrike - PC Review

Godstrike by developer Overpowered Team and publisher Freedom Games—PC review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Godstrike is an interesting take on the twin shooter style. With some interesting mechanics and some colourful visuals, Godstrike is an cool blend of a few different takes on similar genres. While the collision detection leaves something to be desired, the fights themselves tend to be rather fun.

In Godstrike you take on the role of Talaal, who has taken on the role of Herald. Long ago, there was a great God who divided his power into pieces. These pieces formed into masks, that would choose a bearer to be their Herald. All but one mask selected Heralds, but over time, one Herald/mask decided to usurp the power of others. The mask was eventually sealed away, but over time the seal has weakened, and the power of the mask seeps out and is corrupting the land. Talaal ventures forth to put a stop to this corruption.

Godstrike is a twin shooter isometric where your health is on a timer and you only fight bosses. You ever clear a game and unlock boss rush mode? Well, this is basically that, just as a full game instead of a feature. It's suggested to use a controller to play, and I can definitely say it does feel better. One stick moves, the other aims and fires your shots. You have up to four active skills that you can assign to the triggers/bumpers, and four passive skills. These active and passive skills are unlocked when you beat one of the bosses, and the active skill will reduce your time.

An interesting idea that is rather well implemented, your health is actually a time bar, with each hit you take reducing your time. Once you run out, you don't die, but you will only have one hit left. Each active skill you can assign has a different time cost, and will be deducted from your “health” bar. Passive skills are free however. Active skills aren't free to use in battle, however. Each skill has a “charge” that you need souls for. These souls are dropped from the bosses as you hit them, allowing you uses of the skills you have equipped. Your goal in battle is to drop each health bar of the boss until they are defeated.

Each boss has as many phases as health bars and they all have different patterns and function differently. While the game is pretty fluid and the skill combinations are fun to play with, there are a few glaring issues with the gameplay. First up is the collision detection. While being in a vertical line is fine, the problem with isometric shooters is that if everything is floating, it can get really hard to tell where the collision actually is. The hardest boss wasn't the last one for me, it was the third one, because it has these stupid skull things with a really dumb collision zone that I just couldn't deal with. The other issue has to deal with the souls that are used for the active abilities. Basically, the souls come out in a random direction. While this wouldn't really be an issue normally, the problem arises when they either fall off the map, or drop directly under the boss, making them really difficult to grab if you don't have an active skill that can help out. Thankfully each skill is charged individually, so even if you use one, it doesn't take away from the charges on the others.

During the main campaign you may find an enemy to difficult for you. Thankfully there's an easy mode available. I'm not entirely certain what it affects, but I believe it just cuts boss health. This is also rather important as you can't leave to reselect skills after you've started a fight, so if your loadout doesn't really work for the boss you're fighting? Well, too bad. In addition to the campaign mode, there is also a challenge/daily challenge mode and an arena mode. Arena mode lets you pick from any of the possible skills and you can choose whatever boss you want to fight. Challenge mode tasks you with clearing bosses without losing. The daily challenge is similar, but you only get the one shot at it. Godstrike is definitely on the shorter side, and even with the challenge and arena modes it won't take long to complete, but it does offer a decent amount replayability.

Summary

Overall, I have to say I had a lot of fun with Godstrike. It scratched that itch I didn't really know I had. While some of the hitboxes are wonky at best and table-flipping awful at worst, that's only for a select few bosses really. The gameplay was smooth, and it was fun to make different skill compositions. Godstrike definitely isn't for everyone, and it still has a few kinks to work out, but still promises to be a lot of fun.

Score: 7.25 / 10

 

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Project AETHER: First Contact - PC Review

Project AETHER: First Contact by developer and publisher Sleepy Spider Studios—PC (Steam) review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Project AETHER is a nice little blast from the past in the form of a twin stick shooter. Mechs, laser beams, and a really dumb mining alien spaceship, Project AETHER has a nice combination of retro style arcade shooters and more new-age graphics and gameplay decisions.

In Project AETHER you take control of the AETHER prototype mech suit. During a trial run, you encounter hostile enemy units. As the best, and only, pilot of the AETHER suit, it is up to you to fight back the alien invasion. I’m going to be perfectly honest here, the plot is incredibly corny and a little clichéd, but that just makes it all the more fun. The banter is super corny, but it gives a nice retro feeling of old alien invasion movies and arcade games.

True to the old-school arcade fashion, you pilot your mech in a top-down auto-scrolling style. Enemy fighters will pour out of the sides of the screens and you need to destroy or survive waves until you reach the boss of the stage. In order to help you make your way through the hordes of enemies, you have a myriad of tools for you to make use of. While traditional arcade style shooters would have you earn weapon upgrades or changes from enemies that drop items, in project AETHER you can take with you two weapons into battle and swap between them freely. As you progress through the game and clear stages, you will unlock more weapons that you can equip before heading into battle. In addition to your two weapons, you also have access to a dash that, as a default, allows you to dash through enemy bullets, and an EMP that you can use to destroy a group of enemies at once.

Unlike more traditional titles in the same vein, you have a health gauge instead of a single hit point, and you also have a heat gauge on your weapons. As you keep firing, you build up heat. Once it maxes out, you need to wait for the weapon to cool down before you can fire again. But no worries, as you have a beam saber you can use as well. The beam saber has a three hit combo and is actually quite useful for dispatching nearby enemies if they get too close for comfort. The bosses usually consist of large ships, each with their own gimmicks and weakpoints, and were all pretty fun to fight.

In addition to the standard story mode, you also can take part in trial missions, which task you with performing specific actions or meeting certain objectives. Some of these are time trials, others may be weapon specific tasks. There are also endless and boss rush modes, where you can fight swarms of enemies till you die, and fight all the bosses in order respectively. Interestingly enough, boss rush is actually available before clearing the game, so if you’re good enough with the starting weapons, you can either get a sneak peak at the next upcoming bosses, or even beat the last boss before finishing the game. On an interesting side note, I actually enjoyed fighting every boss in Project AETHER, which I can assure you usually doesn’t happen with bullet hell type games, as there’s usually one or two bosses that you just never want to speak of afterwards.

Project AETHER does a lot of things right. The dash invulnerability is great for avoiding lasers and helping out newcomers to the genre who might not be used to bullet hell style games, the variable weapon loadouts keep the game from becoming tedious during longer segments, the addition of the EMP was a great feature that definitely made me want to get as many enemies as I could in a single go, and the beam saber is a freaking beam saber, nuff said.

While the genre doesn’t usually appeal to more than a niche audience, Sleepy Spider Studios sure did one heck of an amazing job making it both readily accessible to newer players, as well as adding features that will excite veterans of the genre like myself to keep playing. With many optional trials and a boss rush and survival mode, there’s definitely a lot that Project AETHER can provide, despite how short the main campaign may feel. Whether you’re a bullet hell veteran or just looking for a top-down shooter style gameplay, Project AETHER aims to please.

Score: 9 / 10

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Nom Nom Apocalypse - PC Review

Nom Nom Apocalypse by developer and publisher Deadleaf Games—PC (Steam) review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Nom Nom Apocalypse is an intriguing top-down-ish shooter set in an apocalyptic future where mutant food has overrun the world. It is up to you and your saucycompanions to fight back in this delectable title from Deadleaf Games.

The basic premise of Nom Nom Apocalypse is exactly what I just mentioned: there are mutant food monsters everywhere, and you must battle your way through hordes of evil burgers, fight off fries, and crush some cupcakes. You must battle your way through a series of procedurally generated stages, fighting your way up to a food themed boss before you can move on to the next stage. There are a bunch of characters available to choose from, each with their own specific character trait and special ability, and a smorgasbord of different weapons to find, ranging from Sezchuan Slingers to Pepper Shaker cannons.

For the most part the game is fairly standard fair for top-down shooters, although the camera angle in Nom Nom is a little bit too angled to call it truly “top-down”. You run and gun, with an infinite knife you can throw if you run out of ammo, and a sort-of dodge roll that you still take damage during until you buy an upgrade for it. You also have a special move that is usable when you fill a special gauge by defeating enemies. Each special move is specific to character, and each character also has a specific character trait. The special abilities and traits vary pretty widely, as one character may be able to throw three knives at once with a sort of short ranged dash attack as the special, and another could have a barrier that activates under certain conditions and a laser beam as the special skill.

There are also a wide array of weapons, each act in different ways: some fire in bursts, some are single shots, and some are sustained shots. You can “win” weapons off of boss fights, or find them in vending machines spread throughout levels. Speaking of the vending machines, there are a bunch of different types spread throughout the stages, and by exchanging money you find from defeated enemies, you can get health refills, weapons, or ammo. Yup, that’s right, ammo because guns aren’t infinite shots.

While there is a fairly wide variety of weapons, I found a lot of them to be rather lacking in punch, if not figuratively, then literally. More often than not I found the initial weapon to be more than enough to get through most of the stages, or at least I didn’t find many weapons that I really preferred using. The accuracy tends to be rather poor, and when coupled with how the camera is angled, if enemies are “below” you on-screen, they tend to be VERY difficult to hit.

The upgrade perks are pretty interesting, as you need to purchase them with leftover cash, and can equip up to three at a time. These can be anything from more ammo capacity, to faster movement, to leaving a fire trail when you dodge roll. Add to this this decent selection of characters that you can unlock, and there are a lot of interesting character builds that you can try out. One aspect I found really nice was that your thrown knife can pick up item drops for you. I can assure you that nothing is quite as aggravating as having an enemy drop an item over an acid pit and not being able to pick it up, but no longer do you have to worry about that.

Overall, since the stages are procedurally generated there is a lot of replayability, and the different abilities from the different characters are really nice for keeping you coming back for another serving. The graphics are rather reminiscent of overcooked and the soundtrack is pretty decent. With monster filled levels, the meat of Nom Nom Apocalypse is definitely fighting through the hordes of mutant food monsters and throwing yourself out of the frying pan and into the fire. Facing off against the big bosses are fun, and every run feels a little bit different from the last. Nom Nom Apocalypse is a quirky top-down shooter that, while maybe not going too far outside the box in terms of gameplay, certainly has a delicious draw to it.

Score: 7 / 10

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