As a video-game player, what’s the most difficult thing you’ve ever done? Maybe it was playing through Dark Souls. Or perhaps you’re an old-school player who beat The Legend of Zelda on NES without ever using a guide. Maybe you’re just barely getting into these more challenging games. Whatever the case may be, if you’re looking for a good time — and a very brutal one — Squad Killer is quite the delightful little roguelike shoot-‘em-up.
The game has an old-school arcade vibe to it. You basically go through single-screen rooms filled with enemies and kill them all to open a door to the next level. Enemies have different attack patterns, so it takes a few rounds to learn each individual enemy’s offense, but once you do, avoiding attacks while dishing out some pain yourself becomes much more doable.
Enemies drop coins, and every few levels, you can buy upgrades. These range from increased health to faster rate of fire. Some are more worth it than others, and if you’d rather save your coins, you can just skip upgrades altogether.
In Squad Killer, projectiles come at you from every direction. You’re usually surrounded by enemies and enemy fire, so you’re bound to take damage. You’ll find yourself backed into a corner often, hoping that the next enemy you kill drops a health item. And whether or not that happens, if you’ve got a boss battle up next, you probably won’t survive.
Here’s the thing, though: You can get the Platinum Trophy for Squad Killer in 15 minutes or less, which ultimately creates a relaxing environment outside of the game’s chaotic difficulty. And you know what? I love that about this game. I wonder, though — is this becoming, you know, a thing? First there was Horned Knight, and now Squad Killer. If these brutally challenging indies are rewarding you with easy Platinum Trophies, I’m all for it!
I’ll be glad to tell you why I appreciate the ease of getting every Trophy in Squad Killer momentarily, but first, let’s take a look at the complete Trophy list:
- Platinum — Unlock all Trophies
- Hunter I — Kill 3 enemies
- Hunter II — Kill 18 enemies
- Hunter III — Kill 58 enemies
- Banker I — Collect 100 coins
- Banker II — Collect 500 coins
- Banker III — Collect 1,000 coins
- Black Smith I — Buy 1 upgrade
- Black Smith II — Buy 2 upgrades
- Black Smith III — Buy 3 upgrades
- Survivor I — Die once
- Survivor II — Die 3 times
- Survivor III — Die 5 times
As you can see, these Trophies don’t require you to do anything out of the ordinary. Literally all you have to do is play the game normally. This is a difficult game, so you’ll die five times in mere minutes, especially when you first start and you’re just learning how the game plays. Each stage has plenty of enemies, so you’ll hit the goal for the Hunter III Trophy after just a few rounds. When you kill those enemies, they’ll drop coins quite generously, so you’ll reach the 1,000-coin goal in no time.
The only Trophies you could hypothetically miss are the Black Smith ones. The main reason for that being that you don’t actually have to buy any upgrades. So if you’re one of those people who thinks they’re too cool to buy upgrades in a video game, you won’t get those Trophies.
It took me 20 minutes to get every Trophy in Squad Killer, and honestly, that’s when I felt like I was able to really start enjoying the game. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like video games. I like to have fun playing video games. And most of the time, I do exactly that. But I’m not really a Trophy or Achievement hunter. To me, those are fun little additions, and it’s cool to earn them as I play — especially because the little sound effect that plays makes me feel like I accomplished something in my sad day-to-day life.
But I don’t need Trophies to feel rewarded when playing a game. I don’t miss them when I play games on my Switch. I don’t think about Trophies when I go hours and hours playing the same game and never unlock one. For me, they’re just there, and they’re fine, but I don’t love them. Sometimes I wish I was more into Trophies, and admittedly, I’d feel an odd bit of disappointment if they were removed from games, but I just don’t go out of my way collect them.
That’s why I was glad that I earned the Platinum in Squad Killer as soon as I did. I was earning them all so quickly that I was starting to check my Trophy list after every Trophy once I’d earned the first three. This took me out of the game a bit, and it was honestly somewhat distracting. But then I earned the Platinum, and that was that. I could finally get into the game and try to get good enough at it to defeat the first boss.
Unfortunately, that’s all I was able to do in my first couple hours with Squad Killer. Like I said, the game is very difficult. Fun, charming, frustrating, and difficult.
That said, without the burden of unearned Trophies hanging over my head, it’s strangely calming, which is weird to say about a classically difficult game like this. I like it so far. I’m not sure if I love it, but I definitely like it a lot. If you enjoy arcade-style single-screen bullet–hell shoot-‘em-ups, you might like it, too. And at just $5, it’s a nice little budget arcade title.
