Do I need to explain how X-Men Cyclops’ powers work? I’m going to do it anyway, just in case. He shoots rays from his eyes! More or less, I think technically it’s energy from a punch dimension? I’m not an X-Men nerd, so correct me in the comments. The main point is that he can never stop shooting these beams, which is why he must always wear at least glasses. Which, ultimately, makes for a fun video game concept, as it now manifests itself in the form of Laser Guy, a twin-stick “anti-shooter” whose goal is to not kill your colleagues.
In Laser Guy, you play as – oh, oh no, it’s topical – a very stressed video game developer who, when he gets anxious, starts shooting laser beams from his singular eye uncontrollably (everyone is a monster in this world, so the one-eyed thing is normal (I don’t know how normal the laser beam thing is)). The problem with this laser beam is that it will kill anyone it hits, so you have to be very precise about how you move through the game’s different levels. Kill one of your colleagues and you will have to start the room again.
There are ways around this problem. Furniture isn’t destroyed immediately, so you can use it to block your laser beams to ensure you don’t turn anyone into a roast chicken. It then becomes a semi-strategy game, in which you must use the terrain to your advantage. In turn, there are difficult elements such as smoke screens hiding roaming colleagues and, for some reason, devices that can explode and instantly kill anyone nearby.
You may also encounter puzzles that involve reflecting your laser beam precisely, occasionally tasking you with charging a battery to open a door. Presumably some difficulty will be added as the levels progress in which you’ll need to time this thinking just right in order to avoid any murders. The whole thing has an old web charm, like a game you played on Nitrome back in the day. I like it! And there’s a playtest you can sign up for if you want try it for yourself on Steam (or you know, just add it to your wishlist).
