Check out the two brand new stages! Launch Plateau (Stage 6), The Docks (Stage 11).
After completing Biotech H.Q.,Tutorial Part 2 unlocks for some new learnings.
Both Tutorial stages are now ranked!
All saved ranks have been reset.
Players who completed through stage 5 will need to replay stage 5 to unlock 6, etc.
All other progress data (unlocks, crafting, skills, levels) will be retained.
Ranks have been tweaked to give a larger spread, making C, B, and A rank a little easier.
Players aren't forced to stop and talk with NPCs when replaying a stage.
The number of 'poppers' (points where enemies ambush the player, not on spawners) has been reduced game-wide.
Late and end-game items have been reworked and a brand new set of 6 end-game items has been added:
Arm: Buddha Palm Absorber
Reactor: Sustained Plasma Prism
Comms: Ultralink 8T Repeater
Chassis: Internal Bandolier Sling
Leg: SineStorm Skytops
Enemies have undergone another round of balancing changes, mostly nerfs to stamina and damage, but scaling is improved.
Droid enemies can now equip a rapid fire machine gun and have a new AI element giving them a 'reload' period.
Added a scaling factor to fire damage and reworked how it hits. It now triggers twice a second.
Explosives scale severely and even environmental explosions will seriously harm players.
Players can now be properly slowed by floor spikes and certain enemy attacks.
Enemies are now more consistently slowed by player slowing attacks and abilities like Shotguns.
Slowed entities now produce a magenta ripple effect under their feet.
Enemies can now open doors!
Trees and other plant life are now easier to destroy!
Mini-bot resource consumption has been reduced and reworked.
For each mini-bot that is deployed, all mini-bots get their resource costs lowered.
Melee weapons have had their damage lowered and energy costs raised.
The Bazooka and other explosive weapons are now far more reliable and effective.
The Flame Pistol has been reworked completely and now shoots a single shot with increased damage.
Check out the new energy revolver - The N.I.L.8.R.
Several other weapons have been buffed, the goal is to balance them against each other and give each a specific use.
Kite Preview by KeenGamer.com
A great article about Kite has just been released by Nathan Wyckoff over at KeenGamer.com and it's a glowing endorsement:
16-bit shooters are reborn in the early-access title KITE! Super Nintendo and Genesis fans take heed because Kite's Universal Soldier vibe and 90's-era pixel graphics make blasting through a cyberpunk dystopia sheer bliss! Hop on board now, because this title is already a ton of fun.
INTRODUCTION
KITE is a guns-blazing, option-laden, statistic-building top-down shooter that would've been right at home alongside Soldiers of Fortune/The Chaos Engine and TechnoClash on the Sega Genesis.
At first glance, I was hoping for a return to the strategic battles and visceral carnage provided by the classic Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret games, but what I (happily) got was an 80's cyberpunk Zombies Ate My Neighbors--you'll rescue scientists, scour pre-designed, enemy-strewn levels, and work to upgrade your destructive arsenal.
Currently in Early Access, Kite is the perfect example of a pre-release title done right. It's playable, it's fun, and Lab Cat Games has proven very responsive to player suggestions and needs. Currently at $9.99 US, Kite already has enough content to give you a good time and continues to receive tweaks that improve it exponentially.
STORY
You'll be stepping into the boots of the shapely, tall-haired Mags, an "H.O.R.D." droid controlled from afar. Your mission? Eliminate the rebellious robot threat that has put the secret weapons facility known as Arch City on lock-down.
KITE Blow it all away!
Along the way, you'll have to rescue trapped scientists, take down enemy shields, and--of course--blast bots and bosses into oil-spewing chunks!
It's a plot that'd be right at home in an 80's Van Damme movie and fosters a cyberpunk atmosphere better than the moody muted colors and nihilistic themes favored by most contemporary games in the genre.
GAMEPLAY
Kite treats it's top-down shooter controls right, putting simplicity ahead of complex weapons and gear changes when you're on the battlefield. Movement is WASD, and the mouse is used to aim. Your loadout includes three weapon slots--one each for the right and left hands, and a third that's a two-handed powerhouse. The right and left mouse buttons fire the corresponding right-hand and left-hand weapons, and dual-wielding these weapons in a Wolfenstein-like fashion feels so right. You'll get melee options, too, like giant glowing blades that you can swing together like scissor blades.
A flick of your mouse wheel swaps between your duel weapons and your two-handed weapon, and there's no lag in doing so. This gives you hair-trigger control while battling your enemies, which is important, as things go bullet-hell fast. Most enemies fire multiple projectiles at once, and those that don't usually have rockets that deal splash damage.
Enemies rain down in teleportation boxes, not unlike Tardis phone booths, and show up randomly as you wander around the levels. They're mostly standard "robot-y" affairs, lots of rolling mechanical boxes and floating metallic globes that mercilessly assault you with futuristic lasers and explosive charges. Gun turrets and mines fill the areas, as well, and judging the right proximity to destroy the latter without setting them off is a survival necessity.
KITE Game over, dood!
The enemy units tend to respawn or regenerate until you've destroyed various power terminals, many of which are shielded. In order to take down the shield systems, you'll need to find and disarm the control panel with bullets or collected data packets. Which method you need to use depends on the goal of the mission, and the directions of the scientists you'll come across. These scientists often need protection, and running up to them will charge their shields and ensure their safety.
In addition to Mags, you also have a floating robo-orb that fires at enemies and gives various benefits. You have a shield option, too, which you can deploy with a button press. Both the shield and other skills you'll receive have cooldowns, and you can swap and upgrade them using loot picked up from dropped enemies and destroyed apparatuses. Most of this loot is in the form of scrap, which you can use to upgrade your skills and H.O.R.D. chassis (your body) in the stage select screen between levels. You can swap out body parts, too, and equip different weapons. Your stats, such as speed, damage resistance, etc, can be boosted as well; all of this serves to let players tweak Mags into their unique specialized fighting machine.
There are promises of bosses and more levels to come in the full-release version (there were eight in the version tested), and the consistent updates (about 2 a month, if history is any indicator) suggest those promises will be fulfilled. Levels so far run anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how thorough your sweep is, and your performance in each is letter-graded. The game does an interesting job of rewarding both retentive players and speedrunners, which encourages you to play to your strengths.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
As mentioned, the graphics are well-wrought 16-bit homages, but there are plenty of modern touches. You have a boost ability, and there's a nice Flash-like fade behind Mags as she speeds over spikes and past hazards. Explosions are pixel affairs, but they're decidedly more advanced than the SNES hardware could've handled in its heyday.
KITE Portrait chatter
Something that's grand is the portrait dialogues that pop up when you interact with the scientists-in-distress; they're pixelated glory and have a personality that puts Kite securely into the camp genre.
The music is sparse but effective electronica, with repeating tension stings and fades that work like a cross between a Goblin horror-movie soundtrack and a house party mix. It fits, and the 3D sound effects make the explosions encompassing and rattling.
CONCLUSION
There's a lot to like about Lab Cat Games' Kite, and the love and heart that went into it shows. Between the awesome retro artwork, the cyberpunk setting and soundtrack, and the overwhelming number of weapons, skills, and stat tweaks available to players, everyone can build a shapely war machine that fits their play style to a "T". While the game currently has a solid couple of hours worth of gameplay (assuming you're good at it, which I'm not), the promise of additional levels and the polish present in this early-access title already makes it worth supporting and enjoying.
Even if development were stopped right now (which I'm happy to say is not the case), Kite stands as a fun title for anyone seeking some cyberpunk shooting bliss.
OVERALL SCORE: 8/10
Game Save Update Kite Beta 0.2.0
Beta 0.2.0 Major Changes
Kite now saves all your progress automatically upon exiting the equipment screen.
You may reset your save game via a menu in the 'controls' screen.
You are now required to beat each level in order to unlock the next one.
You now start with 400 scrap and 1 personnel.
A level 38 cap has been introduced.
Leveling up has been slowed by ~50%.
Kite has undergone a significant game wide round of balancing:
Enemy scaling has been altered to provide a more difficult mid and end-game challenge.
All enemies have undergone heavy statistical changes and are generally harder to beat.
Melee attacks have been balanced to 'tick' less (how many times per second they actually do damage).
Laser Xbows and the Bazooka's damage have been increased and resource costs reduced.
The Rail Gun & Split Rail projectiles have recieved a visual update and had resource costs reduced.
Rockets now properly launch a bit slow and accelerate over time.
Land mines now require fewer hits to destroy.
Mini-Bot survivability has been reduced by ~20%.
Aborting a mission now discards any scrap picked up from that mission.
The large scrap canisters no longer boost a random stat and instead grant 16 scrap.
Certain destructable objects now grant scrap and health orbs.
Hit boxes on computers, printers and equipment that grant Data have been enlarged.
Many minor changes have been made to the maps, but some objectives have also been altered.
The scoring system has been heavily refined and is much more indicitive of it's final form.
Rank difficulty has been increased and all ranks now generally fall into these criteria:
C Rank: the bare minimum required to beat a level, this is a slow and un-thorough play through.
B Rank: this is achieved by either thoroughly clearing a level or beating it somewhat fast.
A Rank: complete the level extremely fast or moderately fast while being really thorough.
S Rank: you will need to complete the level under it's par time while also being very thorough.
Fixed a bug that was preventing music from fading in/out.
Fixed a bug that prevented One Shot skill from going off.
Perfomance Update Beta 0.1.5
Some users were suffering major FPS issues while recording or streaming. This problem has been identified and fixed. Maintaining ~60 FPS while capturing should work on any PC designed for recording.
The Upgrader now has a 'level meter' on the side that fills up as you add points, showing your progress for each skill tab.
The Rank system has undergone some balancing, shifting more emphasis on completing levels swiftly.
Scrap from enemies has been boosted significantly, but Rank points from Scrap have been reduced to compensate.
Enemy scaling factor has been increased to hopefully keep up with the player's leveling power curve better.
Intro cinematic speed has been increased and text adjusted.
Fixed several bugs with the secondary weapon set not being selectable when changing weapons.
All starting weapons (Primary and Secondary) are now correctly set to 'crafted' initially.
The Mars Laser Axe secondary weapon has been replaced with another Neptune Beam Sword.
In the distant future, weapons development and research has been banned worldwide. Sounds like a difficult thing to keep in check, right? Such is the case, as secret weapons base Arch City continued their research, hidden away from the world. A robot outbreak threatens to destroy everything Arch City has worked for, and now it’s up to you and your Human Operated Remote Droid – or H.O.R.D – to take back control.
Lab Cat Games’ Kite is a fast-paced top-down shoot ’em up beaming with retro flair. The first thing you see upon booting up the game is a fierce looking woman right before she gets outfitted with her droid equipment. The whole sequence is oozing with 80’s cyberpunk flavor, and it sets up the sci-fi mood of the game. Kite is filled to the brim with bright and colorful pixel art that creates a clear image of the city. Speaking of Arch City, you’ll be exploring outdoor, lush environments with all sorts of trees and plants. At the same time you’ll be wandering in an out of hi-tech buildings littered around.
Mags, the name of the H.O.R.D you control, has three slots for weapons. She can carry two small weapons which include pistols, swords, shotguns, and the like. Additionally she can carry one two handed weapon for the big guys, which include what you’re probably expecting – rocket launcher, rail guns, and more. Kite plays out like a typical top down shooter, and swift bullet dodging is the name of the game here. To help you out, Mags is equipped with a bullet time-esque ability called the “Tempo Drive” that lets you elegantly weave around incoming projectiles. She also has turbo legs that lets her zoom around at the speed of sound. To top that all off, she also has access to two special abilities that can be swapped out for different ones. Basically Mags is packing heat, and you’re going to need it!
The early levels of Kite are designed to get you used to the volatile pacing of the game. Picking off enemies one by one is one of the best methods of dealing with any group of enemies, and to do this you’ll need to take things slow. You’ll learn quickly that rushing in guns blazing will get you overwhelmed very quickly, and when things get super chaotic it’s almost impossible to keep up with the action. Remember the trees and plants we mentioned earlier? Those can abrupt into flames if you shoot them, and fire lingers around for a couple of seconds. Touching the fire will appropriately damage Mags, so it’s a bit of a control mechanic. While there definitely is a time and place for shooting everything in sight, control and precision are rewarded too. Some levels also have mines hidden around, and they’re only destructible if you’re close enough, further reinforcing this design.
Of course, we can’t all be perfect and precise, and there will be moments where you are completed outnumbered and overwhelm. This is where the combat of Kite really shines, as utilizing every tool at your disposal feels fast, fun and extremely satisfying. Mags has about four different resources you’ll need to manage, not counting her health and shields. You have weapons that run on energy, weapons that run on bullets, your turbo legs, and your tempo drive. Managing all of that plus using your two abilities all the while dodging enemy gunfire takes some practice, but once you pull it off you’ll feel like a invincible combat droid.
The RPG elements also complement the gunplay perfectly. As you rescue researchers, you can develop better gear for Mags. Mags has a ton of different equipment slots, much like an action RPG. There are also the aformentioned weapon choices that let you play Mags however you want, from a long range sniper to a close, in your face laser axe wielder. Mags also has access to four different upgrade trees, much like character specializations you find in MMOs. The four different trees are tailored towards Mags’ base abilities, so you can build her to your favorite playstyle.
Kite is a slick game that is not only fun to play but cool to look at as well. The RPG elements go hand in hand with the shooting action and doesn’t feel tacked on. The different weapon types and upgrades give you plenty of options to play around with and adds a lot of replayability. Pick up Kite if you want some good ol’ shoot ’em up action wrapped up in a stylish package.
Final rating: 8/10
Minor Update: Beta 0.1.4
Just a quick patch to address a couple of minor balance issues and bugs.
Enemy scrap increased by 125%
Rank points from scrap reduced by 50%
Set all default weapons (Primary & Secondary) to 'Crafted'
Removed Mars laser Axe from default Secondary one hand set
Default Secondary one hand set chanaged to dual Neptune beam swords
