RASHLANDER

Intergalactic parallel parking.
Rashlander is a lunar lander arcade roguelike developed by Ryan Davis. In Rashlander you control a small ship, looking for landing platforms across a series of five levels. You’ll encounter numerous hazards along the way and you’ll need to keep your fuel topped up, lest you explode. You rack up points across playthroughs which unlock mysterious message fragments as well as new ship-types every so often.
Positives:
I really like the art here. It has a classic arcade feel to it but it’s surprisingly easy on the eye. The choice of colours is great, and there’s more than enough contrast for you to be able to tell everything apart.
If you’ve ever played a lunar lander game, you’ll be right at home with the gameplay. Essentially, you’re thrown into a level and you then have to reach a set goal. It starts off pretty easy but each level gets more complex and adds more hazards so you’ll be dodging things constantly, which is pretty challenging. There’s also great risk vs. reward of flying fast or taking your time and being careful.
So far I’ve unlocked three different ship types, they’re well-varied and it’s been fun trying all three of them. What’s nice about the unlockable ships I’ve seen so far is that they have a specific strength or weakness, and you need to come up with a strategy to deal with that. This helps makes them feel really unique compared to the default ship. The ships are unlocked by reaching certain point thresholds (points are accumulated across your runs) which is also how you get those mysterious messages I mentioned. The game does have a story, you just have to piece it together as you unlock these fragments.
The main way you’ll be working on those strategies is by choosing research options. You get a research option at the end of each level, and you’ll often find research platforms in a level. I do wish that there were more research options, but there are already a decent number and there’s a good balance between options that grant a good, but small bonus and options that offer a better bonus as well as a negative effect.
The procedural generation for levels is great, I haven’t noticed any repetition apart from in the alternate routes which seem to be set designs. You can take the alternate routes if you reach the goal of a level in a certain amount of time (this is where that risk vs. reward I mentioned comes in) and there are bonus points associated with doing this.
This is a great coffee-break game. I’ve beaten it once so far and that run took about ten minutes. Because the gameplay is fairly simple and a full run is only five levels (though you do have the option to loop) it’s really easy to pick up and play for 5-10 minutes and still have a satisfying experience.
The music is great.
Negatives:
There were a couple of physics-related things that were inconsistent in my experience. Sometimes I’d blow up from simply tapping an asteroid, other times I’d just glance or bounce off of it. Even with harder impacts it seemed inconsistent. The other inconsistency I noticed was with the mines, sometimes their explosions would launch me away, other times it had little to no effect.
It doesn’t have achievements. Not a huge deal for some people, but I was a tad disappointed. The dev has mentioned that he may consider adding them, so here’s hoping.
Verdict:
Rashlander is a great little arcade roguelike that’s the perfect candidate for your next coffee-break game. It keeps things pretty short and simple, but its still really satisfying when you do well in it. Well worth picking up if you enjoy lunar lander type games, or just arcade games in general.
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Super addictive! Simply beautiful pixels and physics!! Action packed! Loaded with tons of challenges and secrets! I have the arcade version at my work (Tappers Arcade Bar Indianapolis, IN) and its hard to do my job because I want to set a higher score than my Rashlander rival, Todd, as we have had an incredible time shredding this game apart. This is among my intensely beloved and ultra favorite indie titles. GET IT!! DIE A LOT!! FIND SECRETS!! STREAM IT!! <3<3<3 Thanks for such a shiny gem, Ryan D.!!

Excellent audio/visual design and overall presentation. Hard as nails physics-based arcade goodness, with roguelike progression. A fresh, modern spin on a genre classic.
I'd love to see this in an arcade cabinet!

Pretty cool game, best played on a controller, not for the easily angry people, too sad it died out somewhere in 2019. theres a lot of ships that i havent unlocked yet and you really have to play the game alot to really unlock one ship. Each ship has their own ups and downs,
Overall, a 9/10 game for me.

May have more hours played than displayed
It's like those old side-scrollers where you pilot an aircraft and you have to land for fuel, except in space with gravity physics. Has a small set of unlockables and a good little amount of secrets.

Very tightly designed arcade roguelike. Surprisingly large amount of unlockable content with a strong core gameplay loop. The game itself doesn't change much throughout a playthrough, but amps up in difficulty and is very satisfying to build up your skills. I'd compare it to downwell which is an amazing game, this one is strong enough at its core to be a challenging lunar-landing style roguelike. It probably won't entertain you forever, but it is well worth its value. Any arcade game lover will appreciate this game!

It's a hardcore update of lunar lander, done perfectly. There's not much to dislike about this game, if you like lunar lander, you will love this modern update. Just buy it.