Designed as a fast-paced twin-stick shooter, Project AETHER puts you in the pilot’s seat of the prototype mecha Aether as you face off against a robotic alien force bent on the destruction of mankind. Aether features a customizable loadout of ranged and melee weapons as well as an EMP Burst system, allowing you to detonate weakened enemies in a devastating chain reaction.

Toronto-based Sleepy Spider Studios is nicely time-warped in the 2000’s, but I like that a lot. Their first game was Legions of Tyrandel, a PC deck-building turn-based strategy game made for two players (although single player challenge maps are available), and now we’re getting Project AETHER: First Contact, which is coming to Steam on February 24. There’s a free demo to try here, and it’s pretty good stuff that blends twin-stick arcade shooting action and some nice visuals in what’s shaping up to be an excellent game.

Here’s another cool trailer and a few screenshots, but I say if you’ve got a Steam account, you need to go try the demo out for yourself to see what’s what:

So far, the game is easy to control, looks to be a lot of fun as space shooters go and I like the clean look here overall. As a longtime shooter fan, for me, the genre is one that never really went away, but has only gotten more crowded over the years with plenty of worthy contenders. So how this game will stack up is to some favorites is a thing to look for and forward to. As usual, we shall see, but I’d say the Aether is off to a solid start if that demo is any indication.

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-GW