If you’ve still got fuel left in the tank for a couple more demo games this week after all the fun and games of Next Fest, then please allow me to present you with Bullacator, a cute little post-apocalyptic tank-tastic fusion of coin pushing and deckbuilding.
Bullacator is also the name of the tank you control in the game; humanity’s last hope as they hide underground. On your journey across the wastelands of the future, you’ll meet giant mutant beasts, wasps and other creepy crawlers, and you’ve got to blast them into smithereens.
The action in Bullacator -pusher tank battle- (to use its full name) takes place inside your tank, which is represented here as a pixel-art 2D coin pusher puzzle room. As you can see in the screenshot below, there’s a bumper beneath a little turret, and during each turn you have several items in the firing chamber that you can launch into play.
Underneath the bumper is your ultimate target. You must fire your items into each pile beneath you, one on the left and the other on the right, and then cause shells, shields, and special items to fall into the gap in the middle. When they do so, they become active, giving you shields, buffs, or simply firing and dealing damage to your enemies.
Each battle is a mixture of gentle strategy, good luck, and physics-based planning. It’s not long before you’ll start adding new items into your thinking, which join the rotation along with the basic shells and shields you start with. These high-value shells/items are often worth putting extra effort into activating.
The overall aesthetic is sweet and yet simple, but there’s just enough detail to work out what’s going on. The UI wasn’t always the clearest to navigate, but I liked the pixel-art style used by the artists throughout, and the physics seem fine based on my limited experience with the game thus far.
The new demo for Bullacator is a good chance to try before you buy, as the game is already in Early Access on PC (Win). The plan is to keep adding “more stages, player characters, enemy characters, projectiles, and equipment” over the next year or so.
Bullacator is inspired by classic coin pusher gameplay and deckbuilding, and I was reminded of games like Peglin, Raccoin, and even Dungeon Clawler as played through the demo. So far, this blend of ingredients appears to work quite well together. It’s still early days, but when it’s content complete, I reckon I’ll be back to give the launch version a proper shot!
