Rock Paper Shotgun’s Samuel Horti wrote an article about Graceful Explosion Machine, the vibrant side-scrolling shooter from Vertex Pop. Vertex Pop is a Toronto-based game development studio dedicated to creating non-stop action games for console and PC platforms.
In Graceful Explosion Machine, the player is the lone surviving pilot in an alien attack, and must fly the titular Graceful Explosion Machine (or GEM) through waves of enemies while using four overpowered weapons. A quad-weapon array gives players the ability to switch between a blaster, an energy sword, missiles, and a sniper beam to rise to any challenge they come across. Combos replenish player’s ammunition, encouraging a constant, measured aggression. With over 30 levels across four worlds, there’s plenty of time to find a rhythm and become entranced with the synth-driven soundtrack.
Samuel writes that GEM “has one of the better combat systems [he’s] seen in the genre,” praising it balancing off resource preservation and aggression as a “neat internal tug-of-war.”
Graceful Explosion Machine is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch for $12.99.