Galactic Beacon Brigade for Windows

Fly a spaceship in this wacky indie game

Galactic Beacon Brigade is a free action video game wherein you have to reconnect the galaxy. Developed by TomSmizzle, this physics-based indie game has simple controls and an even-simpler objective. However, this makes it a really short experience as it doesn’t have any fail conditions, so you’re bound to get things right even if your movements are wonky. This game can feel incomplete due to its short length.

Easy-peasy

Galactic Beacon Brigade has a simple premise: reconnect the galaxy with your mouse cursor-looking spaceship. To do this, you have to fly the ship between the two pulsing points on the screen by using either the W, A, and D keys or the arrow keys to steer the ship. However, space doesn’t allow for precise turning, so expect your ship to float past and start hitting the sides of the screen like a pinball.

Once you go past the space between the points—even just hitting the points a bit—a line will be drawn between the two of them like a constellation, and the next set of points will pop up. Keep doing this until you’ve finished 10 of them, and the lines will finally solidify and reveal the hidden image. Unfortunately, after that, there’s nothing else to do as the program quickly closes. 

This game is definitely fun for a while, as the tricky physics of steering the spaceship and making it turn properly can result in hilarious pinballing across the galaxy-themed screen. Going forward activates the thrusters and you can only steer left and right and can’t brake. However, the lack of a challenge—whether by doing it fast or achieving other means—makes it all boring after a while, unfortunately.

A little too easy, actually

Overall, Galactic Beacon Brigade is fun indeed but isn’t really a game that merits being downloaded on its own, especially when you don’t even get achievements, new challenges, new beacon maps, or even new rewards. The whole game seems more suited to be a game mechanic reference for future projects that would want to utilize this kind of space physics.