Thank you Badland Games for sending us this game to review!

Demon’s Crystals is a 3D twin stick shooter that arrived on PC in 2016. Nearly a year later, console players can now enjoy this $5 game. While a story isn't really needed, I’ll share it with you now. Urican demons have been on the top of the food chain until strange beings arrived that changed the peaceful inhabitants into hostile ones. It’s now up to the Urican demons to bring things back to the way they once were.

The arcade mode can be played solo or cooperatively with friends. In this mode you have to clear several levels before facing off against a boss. In order to complete a level you’ll have to satisfy the requirements of collecting a specified number of crystals or eliminating a certain amount of enemies. Oftentimes you’ll have to do a little bit of both. I like how the progress is saved and that the players can resurrect each other as often as needed. If you die alone or with a friend, you’ll have to restart the current level. You can continue as often as you like, which is nice. If this was genuine arcade game, I would have lost a lot of quarters!

Like all twin stick shooters, one of the joysticks is used for movement while the other guides a constant stream of bullets. The default firing mode isn’t that powerful, but thankfully there are many fun power-ups that spawn in random locations. Some of the power-ups change the formation of your bullets or create multidirectional streams. One of my favorite power-ups are the huge rockets that are good by themselves and even better when you can shoot three at a time! The invincibility mushrooms are nice too. Health and additional time bonuses are always welcome as they are often in short supply. You have to be careful at what you grab since there are debuffs as well that subtract time or confuse your controls.

The survival mode is the only one that does not allow for more than one player. As the title suggests, your goal in this mode is to survive as long as possible while trying to earn a high score. Sadly, there is no option for online play so you’ll need to recruit some family or friends to play with or against.

If you’re the competitive type, there are six multiplayer modes to choose from. Here’s a quick breakdown of them:

Crystal Quest – Collect as many crystals as possible before the time runs out.
Deathmatch - The last player standing wins.
Kill the Enemies - Shoot as many enemies as possible, but don’t kill the gnomes as they’ll reset your score!
Seize the Large Crystal - Break through the barrier and capture the crystal before your opponent.
Survival – See if you can withstand more waves of enemies than the others can.
Versus – Eliminate the opposing team.

As you can tell, this $5 game has a lot to offer. The game variety is decent, but this title is still best in short spurts since it may get a bit repetitive after a while. My son and I had a lot of fun playing this game together.

If you don’t mind the Halloween themed monsters and rune magic, this game is pretty family friendly. The violence is mild and the visuals remind me of the Skylanders games. They’re a little bit dated, but they’re colorful and get the job done. The sound effects are decent too. If you’re a fan of twin stick shooters, Demon’s Crystals will be a great addition to your PC or console library. The asking price is very reasonable and it’s bound to entertain you and your family/friends for a little while.