Astro Duel 2 Warps Into PAX East With Frantic Six-Player Space Battles - Article

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There was a lot of commotion at the Astro Duel 2 booth at PAX East this year. With a large monitor and seats for six players at a time, it invited in a big audience, not to mention a certain party-like atmosphere. For those of us who grew up playing four-player shooters, brawlers, and racers in our friends' family rooms and basements, it felt like coming home. Indeed, there was a friendly, collegiate vibe during my 30-minute demo on the show floor. Folks who had been playing the game throughout the weekend showed up once again to show off their prowess (and tip their caps to the competition), while creator Rusty Moyher walked me through the basics.

Released just a few weeks ago, Astro Duel 2 is a space shooting/platforming game with support for six players simultaneously (or bots, if you're flying solo). It's the sequel to Astro Duel, a shoot-'em-up originally released on iOS in 2014 and ported to Switch under the name Astro Duel Deluxe in 2017. Moyher, who began making independent games in 2011, spent the last seven years coding this sequel, mostly by himself. "I'm really excited to finally share it with everyone," he said.

The best definition for Astro Duel 2 is a combination between Asteroids and Super Smash Bros. If that sounds unusual and unlikely, it is. Yet, based on my short time with the game, and the fact that convention attendees kept coming back for more, it works quite well. You'll start most matches in a spaceship in zero gravity, attempting to destroy other ships and take out the left-behind pilots floating in space. New to Astro Duel 2 are platforming "safe zones" where spaceships transform immediately into pilots and gravity takes over.

This is where the Smash Bros. influence reveals itself. You can hop around and slice & shoot other pilots in these zones, or retreat back into space. Moyher explained that the idea for this genre mash-up came to him during the development and distribution of the premier Astro Duel game. "What if we did something a little crazier, more ambitious?" he recalled.

That ambition seems to have worked, at least in terms of mindshare. While Moyher didn't share exact sales figures, he did expound on his early success getting the game on as many screens as he could. "I think what we're trying to do is ultimately share with as many people as possible," he said. "We came along on Steam and Switch and on the Epic Games Store. And for the first week, we were actually free on the Epic Games Store. And so, we got about six million people playing the game. And our Discord had like 50 people. By launch date, we had over 4,000. So, we had a lot of people playing it at launch. And what we want to do is grow that."

Conventions like PAX East are an excellent vehicle to do just that, of course. It helps, too, that the game has an addictive just-one-more quality. Matches are easy to jump into, and rather quick, so even if you're not playing especially well, you don't have to wait long to redeem yourself. In addition, there's a scoreboard that appears between matches, displaying your progress toward the point total. And there's always room for a dramatic comeback.

As for me, well, I performed adequately. I notched a double kill, I took out the tournament winner from earlier in the day, and was the last man standing at least once, although I never actually won a free-for-all contest. I did claim victory in a red-versus-blue team match, but — let's be real — I was carried by my brothers in blue. There's definitely hidden tactical depth in the game, despite its accessibility and relatively simple control scheme. Neophytes can pick up, play, and enjoy Astro Duel 2, but won't be able to seriously compete with enthusiasts who have put in the requisite hours. Said Moyher, "We're trying to make it so it's approachable. You can start with just pressing a couple of buttons. But as you play more, you really are able to start to discover more of the depth and some of the hidden things."

For those interested in discovering more of that depth, head over to the Astro Duel 2 website, or check out the game directly on Steam, EGS, and the eShop.

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