Rick Henderson Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · September 6, 2022

Our Rick Henderson Review has us playing a game that Pays homage to arcade classics with a nostalgic 16-bit graphic style, Rick Henderson is an endless horizontal-scrolling shoot’em up with unlimited replayability. Twitch your fingers through five enemy factions and their bosses, upgrade your ship and try to survive unpredictable space events.

Rick Henderson Review Pros:

Decent modern pixel art graphics.
593.5MB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Graphic settings – bloom, screen shake, chromatic aberration, scan lines, and screen flashes.
Shmup gameplay.
Online leaderboards.
Tutorial mode.
Two endless modes – standard and hard.
Boss raid mode.
Decent soundtrack.
Three pilots each with unique Pros and cons.
Four sets of power-ups can be collected from bosses- offensive, score, support, and other.
Big boss encounters.
Full stats tracking of a run.
At the end of a boss battle, you get to pick one of four modifiers that randomize each run.
Fast loading times.
Fun to play.
You have three equipped gun types that all do different damage including what they do to enemy types and shields.
Plays like a modern shooter but has a deep nostalgic feel to it.
Shields help protects you but can also be used to ram and damage enemies.
Has an R Type feel to it.
One life runs.
End of a run breakdown showing rank, time taken, kills, and score.
Wide variety of enemy types.
Score chaser means a bit of replay value.
Earn ranks as you progress.
Solid controls.
2D perspective.
Easy achievements.

Rick Henderson Review Cons:

No way to rebind controls.
The tutorial is very slow and drawn out.
Had a few instances where the game would make the noise of my button pressing but wouldn’t actually action them resulting in a full reboot.
Doesn’t feel unique or different.
You never know what enemy type needs what gun so you just continuously swap between them and test it out.

Rick Henderson:

Official website.

Developer: Fat Pug Studio

Publisher: Eastasiasoft

Store Links –

Xbox

7/10
Graphics - 7/10
7/10
Sound - 7/10
7/10
Accessibility - 7/10
7/10
Length - 7/10
7/10
Fun Factor - 7/10

7/10

Summary

Rick Henderson, is a weird name but a great game. A Shmup that harps back to the side scroller shooters of old like R Type and Einhander, Rick Anderson is the guy you play as and you fight through waves of enemies on an ever-moving backdrop in Space, armed with 3 weapon types (energy/bullets/missiles) you freely swap between them to do more damage to particular enemy types which is more significant on the screen filling madness of boss fights. Upon defeating bosses you get to pick one modifier from four and the loop continues. It’s a fun game to play that never really felt like it was unique or new in any particular way but it did play well and it has and will still hold my attention as it gets back down to it. Rick Henderson has easy achievements and a somewhat low barrier of entry, with online leaderboards and a strong score mechanic, Rick Henderson has the makings of a game with a lot of replay value and fun.