Have you ever wondered what might happen if you put Armored Core and Vampire Survivors into opposite ends of the teleporter from The Fly and flipped the switch? The resulting mash-up would probably look a lot like Vital Shell, a game by solo developer Marvin Wizard released to Steam on January 8.

Vital Shell, fortunately, is less a monstrous example of scientific hubris and more a competent, top-down arena shooter that combines fantasy mechs with automatic battling mechanics and adds an aesthetic splash of PlayStation 1 visuals and ambient jungle music for good vibes. I spent a few rounds running the game through its paces after noticing its launch this morning and, folks, it’s pretty dang fun.

If you’ve played Vampire Survivors, you should mostly know what to expect here. Vital Shell places players in control of a giant robot and tasks them with destroying everything in their wake. What this looks like in practice is kiting waves of enemy hordes around a nondescript battlefield, persisting long enough to level up, and building an ever-improving kit of weaponry and upgrades for tackling the challenges ahead.

As fun as Vital Shell is gameplay-wise, it really excels in presentation. The level-up screen looks like something out of early installments of Armored Core, and the clean 3D graphics make it easy to distinguish friend from foe during raucous battles. Marvin Wizard also developed the game with a “console-first approach” from the beginning, which means the menus are snappy and easy to navigate via controller. I first tried playing Vital Shell with mouse and keyboard but quickly switched to my trusty DualSense and haven’t looked back.

MarvinWizard

Vital Shell is now available on Steam for $4.79 (the price goes up to $5.99 after January 21), alongside a demo-disc-style preview if you want to try before you buy. It’s a solo affair at the moment, but Marvin Wizard is exploring the addition of co-op in a future update.