There are a lot of smart, safe ways to head underground. Atunnel boring machinewith what looks like the cutting disk from a food processor grown beyond all safety limits is always good, as are controlled demolitions by trained professionals. A helicopter gunship, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like it belongs under uncountable tons of dirt and stone. It’s hard to argue with results, though, and the ship in Bore Blasters is exceptionally capable of descending into the heart of the Earth to harvest all the gold and gems it can carry.
Bore Blasters is an arcade mining game due out in a couple of months and it’s justgotten a demoreleased in advance of the Steam Next Fest. Starting off above the surface of a randomly-generated chunk of land, the helicopter shoots twin-stick style at the earth below to carve a path to the shiny-sparkly treasures buried there. The loot score serves two purposes: filling up the experience meter while also being banked to spend on permanent upgrades back at home base. Filling the meter provides the familiar “pick one of three upgrades” screen, letting you choose from random options like increased fire rate, different types of drones, and of course, a good pile of new weapons to help burrowing through the rock go more quickly.
Speed is important, because the fuel meter is depleting and bonus gas tanks are rare. The helicopter’s secondary ability helps with this quite a bit, though, briefly turning it into a glowing comet that can tear through the underground at high speed. A brief moment of slow motion at the end of the dash lets you know to ease up on the charge, because helicopters are notoriously fragile and crashing into the stone at full speed is a great way to whittle the armor down to nothing. The various enemies of the underground biomes are already willing to help with that, and while they go down easy to the ship’s gun and upgraded weapons, it’s still possible to take a hit here and there due to sheer attrition.
Once a run is completed by finding the giant treasure chest at the bottom level, it’s back to home base to buy a few upgrades in preparation for the next round. The demo holds nine different areas plus a fair amount of secondary story objectives to chase after on the way to the goal, and the extra power is needed for more hazardous sections like the volcano or fly-infested jungle. It’s not meant to be overly punishing, though, with even a failed run banking the gold for later use. While the main campaign mode only goes so far with a limited number of options to play with, there’s also a quick-play option that’s got a few more biomes and level-up options, not to mention a much longer trip down to the goal.
Play Bore Blasters right now on Steam
The Bore Blasters demo isavailable on Steamand makes for a nice evening’s gaming. The full release is scheduled Q1 2024, so it should be along within the next two months in theory, but for right this moment it’s good to settle in and shoot every clump of dirt and stone that’s in the way of buried treasures.
