Shuriken and Aliens

I went looking for community buzz on Shuriken and Aliens and found almost none, which is either a red flag or an invitation. I chose to treat it as the latter. Glass Bubble Software shipped this solo ninja-versus-aliens action game in February 2020, and it has since existed in a kind of comfortable obscurity, the sort of release that never trends but quietly sits on a wishlist until someone gives it a chance. The central hook is a genuine dual-path approach to combat. You can go loud with a sword and close-quarters hack-and-slash, cutting through the alien invaders in fast, reflex-heavy exchanges, or you can slow everything down and pick enemies off from the shadows one by one, keeping the entire alien army unaware of you. The game does not force one style, which is the right call for a title this compact. Enemy line of sight is the core stealth mechanic, and it has been noted as somewhat counterintuitive until you learn its logic, so expect a small adjustment period before the shadow-running clicks. Once it does, the stealth path carries a satisfying quiet tension that the louder approach simply cannot replicate. Beyond combat, the game asks you to move through the ruins of a collapsed civilization, piecing together the story of humanity's fall by talking to the few survivors still clinging on. These conversations also serve as your upgrade pipeline, letting you expand your arsenal as you go. It is a lean structure, nothing that will redefine narrative design, but it gives the exploration a purpose beyond just reaching the next fight. The set design across different biomes adds a sense of geographic scale that you might not expect from a release this small, and the angular, stylized animation has a retro quality that works with the game's general atmosphere rather than against it. For players who want a harder test, there is a permadeath mode that reframes every encounter as genuinely consequential. That mode shifts the game's tone considerably. What feels like a breezy action title on a standard run becomes a careful, measured experience where a single missed stealth check or overcommitted sword swing ends your run entirely. It is a welcome option that extends the life of the game without padding the content. What you should calibrate your expectations around: this is a solo-developer-scale project with no critical coverage and virtually no community discourse to lean on. There is no roadmap, no post-launch content trail I could find, and the Steam review count is essentially zero. That silence is not necessarily condemnation. It more likely reflects a game that launched quietly, never found its audience, and has been waiting since. The craft is present in small ways, particularly in the visual style and the dual-path combat design. What is missing is the final polish and external validation that would make a purchase feel like a sure thing rather than a small wager.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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