Nova Drift

Big fan of the rougelike elements in this game, there's also so many upgrade options and paths to choose that it makes it easy to sink time into this very enjoyable game

It's like playing the game Asteroids, but you can crash into stuff to destroy it. Also, tons of upgrades to customize the destruction. But I like to just crash into stuff.

I beat the game on my first run. Though these games are typically about beating the run with harder modes enabled.

I don't feel any motivation to do more runs. The way you control your ship just feels sloppy/awkward and unfun.

I much prefer a more traditional style of SHMUP mixed with roguelite like Gunlocked was.

Scratches an itch started by space invaders decades ago. I've sunk countless hours into this thing and came to write a review and see all these insane combos on the video above that I can't even piece together how to create. Really just an excellent game with infinite possibility, I wish the devs would delve into world building so I can explore in the builds I love, but in the meantime the carnage is glorious.

It's really fun and replayable. Highly recommend for relaxation.

This is one of my favorites in the rogue-like genre. Imagine a modern day Galaga bullet hell but on steroids...

The variety of builds and upgrades makes every run enjoyable and engaging.

Looking forward to further updates that bring even more content to this awesome game!

its just a good game, not much to say, controls well, good enemy design, cool bosses, cool builds. engineering is fair and balanced.

Very good game, it's the classic game Asteroids combined with modern RPG elements, decent fanbase, some internet memes in here

Every single build you can make in this game can get ridiculous, and it's great. I've barely scratched the surface on crazy builds and had a huge amount of fun.

Good controller game for quick play or a deep dive fixation with enough variation the the game specifications to feel like there will always be new depths and strategies to explore. A good application of a rogue light skills tree progression.

Super fun game that allows the player to experiment with different combinations of upgrades. The game rewards you for coming up with unique builds and it feels great to play. A huge variation of enemy types makes runs feel unique and the draft mode allows the player to experiment. 10/10 game!

insanely fun when you get a good build, and not even that hard to do so. 100% would reccomend for anyone interested in arcade shooters or roguelikes, even just the demo is really fun if you dont want to buy.

Game is really great -- crunchy, cool upgrades, good vibes. I'm very excited for any upcoming DLC.
However, I feel that build variety is somewhat lacking. In a typical full run, I would usually max out all upgrades in my niece, and was forced to spec into something else to continue growing stronger. Some of the later unlocks mitigate this, but the game just needs more upgrades, I think. Like, twice as much, with more complex trees. As it is, most game-winning builds are somewhat generalists, which is less fun.

Good game. Works well with controllers. Though changing the control scheme to twin stick style would benefit the game greatly. Also eagerly waiting for some kind of beam weapon and more body types.

It's a fun game but the it does not have enough to keep you playing for long. you can beat the game pretty early on, but the unlock grind is incredible slow. you'll see like 98% of the enemies after you get your first win, and they are always in same wave order with the same final boss, so there is no randomness among enemies. You could beat the game 60 times and still not unlock everything, but most of the unlocks later on are just combos so they don't add variety or mix up how you play. because the lack of enemy variety between runs, and no randomness to mix up waves, the game play loops is terrible.

- the grind required to unlock everything should be way less.
- the exp you get each run is achingly low even with modifiers.
- most unlocks are combos that should be auto unlocked when you unlock both required upgrades.
- the only randomness in the game is the upgrades you pick, makes for weak game play loop.

Some of my best runs:
- Cloaked ship with a giant critical hit railgun to one-shot anything
- Battlecruiser with batteries of missile launchers on both sides, filling the screen with massive missile swarms
- Small ship that spawned drones, turrets, and interceptors and threw giant spinning homing shurikens all over the place
- Superspeed ship with a halo of burning fire that gets hotter the faster you go. Just zoom, no think.

So much variety and it's all fun

Good Game, Incredible game even, play this FOR REAL

Such an amazing love letter to roguelikes, immense build variety, numerous enemy combinations, simple score and unlock system, and a dev that released a full game years ago and continues to build on it, making massive content updates that makes the game feel constantly fresh.

It's a 10/10 game for me. Starts with a simple Asteroids mechanic but each run evolves into a wildly different build & play-style. Deeper than it looks, read all the little text to understand the breadth of crazy synergies you can do with a build. It nails that roguelite experience where each run feels fresh and new. Just enough RNG that you can never 100% steer the run one specific way, you have to let the run guide you...and hope you don't get Crucible. I hate that guy. Great distinctive art style, love all the enemy designs, and the music is dope. Can't recommend enough!

This game attests the endless nature of roguelikes. Should you be looking for a game where you can make any variety of build your imagination can come up with, this is for you. Well, if you can get past the fact this is as if someone reimagined Asteroids in a modern setting ahah.

The gameplay, on paper, is simple. Navigate the ship around, and shoot anything that moves. Collect experience and level up to improve your ship and its gear. You start with an initial pool of random upgrades that widen as you rack up play time, allowing you to learn the ins and outs of the game and what sort of build you are comfortable using, as well as giving you a taste for more complex builds that you might want to refine with later unlocks. Every initial upgrade are themed and bunched in fours, with an initial upgrade, two sides, and a final one. A lot of upgrades come with trade offs you need to balance, so expect to have to think on what you want to do. There exists a seperate pool of upgrades you toggle on and off that you unlock later on, these can help further refine a build, but they are not needed to achieve high scores.

The ennemy pool is varied enough to keep things interesting, and a good part of the roster possesses variants that are stronger and biggers. Bosses happen at fixed intervals, with good variety for them too. Some ennemies may be able to decimate specific builds, or be helpess against them (personnal tip, a lot of avoiding being hurt revolves around staying behind foes).

As far as builds go, as stated earlier, you are only limited by what you can come up with. Even the strangest build idea may work wonderfully if you know what you are doing. For example, the weird ship that boosts shield powers? It is far from useless if you know how to turn that against your ennemies. Anything is viable, literally a don't knock it til you try it situation.

Difficulty wise, the gameplay is simple enough that you dont need much, but some upgrades may require you to know what some keys are bound to. The base difficulty has a single toggle to make things easier, but a few for augmenting it. If you want to try a specific build without going through the grind, you can also use Draft mode, which you can unlock after playing a while, where you start with 35 points to allocate how you want, but start at a much later wave, so do keep in mind you lose a lot of score, but it is good for quickly trying something out.

In the end, I think Nova Drift is an excellent roguelike and extremely fun, it might look pricey, but believe me when I say I would buy it twice over even if it was 40CAD. It also runs very well on literal half broken laptops, which I was stuck on for a while, even then it took a LOT of things going on at once on screen to lag my old laptop, so you shouldn't have a single problem running this game.

Sidenote, apologies for any weird syntax, grammar or what have you, it is 2:40AM as I finish typing this, I am SO TIRED lmao.

i play a lot of rouge likes and the one thing that i do not like about them is the amount of time it takes to get going nova drift fixes that. i have played the game for 132 hours so this shows how obsessed i got with the game and i still play it. this is perfect if you want a fast paced game with rouge like qualities.

Really cool roguelite! I love becoming a giant celestial snake and wreaking havoc upon the unknown vessels of other space-faring civilizations come to match my power :3

It's good. Worth buying, with medium replay value.

Classic arcade vibes, but the screen gets very busy, very fast.

Lots of glow effects, and it can be very hard at times to track what is going on and where your ship is beneath all the explosions and enemies.


There's a lot of weapons and hulls to choose from which gives it the replay value, but a lot of them are kind of bleh or too similar to the others.

Amazing game, lots of replayability and lots of fun.

Fun arcade shooter meets vampire-survivors with rogue-lite/deck-builder elements. Have had this in my library for over a year now, and not sure why I never rated it - genuinely fun game to pick up now and then for a fun 20min (or lose your entire night). Would recommend if you're into these kinds of games - high quality / well polished.

Honestly, this is the best bullet hell I have ever play. The power tree is deep and wide, the enemies are formidable , and skill is required even with a good build. Except for the occasional bad luck death it's well balanced. It does get stupidly hard past wave 400.

A lightweight but punch packing game. Taking the very basic old game "Asteroids" and ramping it up Nova Drift scratches the itch of those that enjoying little spaceships blowing up enemies and rougelikes. With an ample variety of ship types, weapons, shields and mods not two runs will be the same giving you hours of replayability

i think this is one of my favorite rogue-likes, it's just an Asteroid type game but the gameplay is so addicting and trying to make the perfect spaceship build every run is so fun and engaging, the seemingly small variety in upgrades still let's you enjoy such a big customization (to not talk about the super mods), i'd also say that it's quite accessible with its difficulty but one small and personal issue with it is the soundtrack, it varies from listenable to decent enough, it doesn't ruin the experience at all tho... honestly, it's an absolutely good gem of an indie title

Great little game to kill time, arcade feeling. The randomness is minimal tho, you can create any build you like.

i thought i wouldn't like it to be honest, but holy moly does it just grip you

Great little game. The variety of weapons, abilities, and strategies, has kept me entertained for quite a while. The difficulty ramps up nicely and the waves can really push you into that zen space of riding the line of "oh my god I'm about to die" without feeling like everything is out of your control.

One of the best games I've played in recent years. Really clean concept and execution. I would wholeheartedly recommend this game for someone whose looking for something to play for 5 minutes or for 5 hours.

Fun game developed by an awesome developer who is very dedicated to making sure the game stays updated and fresh. Lots of replayability here.

it is a really fun and well planed out game with a lot of fun combos

yeah, game's pretty fun, def needs some balance updates thought. Engeneering built is feels a little too strong compared to most other builds

An incredible little game where you experiment with builds and lose track of time due to the smooth and addicting gameplay.

Digital crack. I'm hooked. Asteroids-style movement... tons of weapon/shield customization. tons of fun.

This might be one of the best roguelite expieriences I have played in recent history. The sheer amount of customizability between weapon choice, hull choice and weapon choice, combined with the manifold options to make it synergize with upgrades picked up as you level makes Nova Drift an experience every roguelite enthousiast should experience. Once you get the hang of synergies and gameplay tactics, super mods accelerate gameplay enjoyment into fifth gear, making you truly feel like the build you've made during a run was a result of your own skill and expertise.

Very good little... twin stick shooter? Geometry wars-like? Asteroid clone? I've got a good amount of experience in this kind of game but don't really know the terminology. Shmup-adjacent stuff; you know. It reminds me a lot of one of the best flash games imo: bubble tanks 2. Good amount of mods and leveling pathways and builds. Challenging but not over the top difficult.

this game is great. i don't have anything really negative to say. any problems i encountered while playing were self inflicted. looking at you barrage and saturation fire grenades.

Super great, simple indie game, still receiving new content, and with good replayability! Super fun to learn and test new builds, to try and speed run the bosses, and to try and go for as long as possible.

This game is the perfect blend of arcade shooter and rogue-lite. The replayability factor and skill ceiling is tremendously high due to all the different customization options. The graphics are vibrant, simple, yet beautifully geometric--sophisticated and elegant. The soundtrack is an absoulte banger, each and every track is phenomenal. The sound effects are fantastic and immersive. The game has scaling challenge modes, and even a draft mode. Check it out!

Highly recommended. I had a blast going on run after run, always adding the harder difficulty settings as they became available. I beat it in 22 hours and there are a few different modes I haven't tried.
The enemies are all distinct and require different tactics with different builds. It's very satisfying to get melted by a baddie and restart and roll for the solution to the last run's problem.
And holy smokes, is it slick-looking. And sounding. Some boss fights increase the size of the screen to epic effect, with lights from dozens of projectiles creating a terrifying haze as they gather in pursuit of your little ship. You unload on a chain-linked laser critter and each segment pops like a firecracker.
Winning the final boss fight was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've had in a long time.

It's a great game, my go to game for simple fun stress relief. There is significant depth for those who enjoy the Rogue-like genre, but not so much that it's overwhelming to new players. 450 hours in and I still discover new builds occasionally.

Fun Roguelike, many ways to be op and very many build variety
cant wait for stuff planned along the way like mutations

Fun shoot em up. Not too difficult so you have a good time finishing the game. It's slightly too easily once you get rolling after the first quarter of the game.

Roguelike Asteroids game with very pretty graphics, a good pick-up for a game to play that doesn't require a Ph.D in braining while rewarding players for clever combinations.

I was browsing for party games (local co-op, 4 player, couch co-op, etc.) to play with friends and family over the holidays and while not a party game, this one caught my eye.

It is a truly amazing game for some good ol' fashioned casual arcade gaming. It is a modern take on Asteroids with roguelite run progression and meta progression by unlocking new elements as you play. It has been a ton of fun mixing and matching all of the perks, the controls are tight, and the visuals are mesmerizing; I am not a huge fan of electronic music, but it is pretty mellow and works with the whole vibe. Despite how busy the screen can get, I don't find myself getting lost too often. I am really looking forward to having some high score battles with my friends and family.

The only thing that could make it better is Player 2.

I'm quite the fan of this game, great premise and really wish more games did things in the rogue-lite and similar genres while making shmups fun. Especially as something that was developed for one of those gamejam or related 'make a game under specific restrictions' events. Really there's only one flaw I have but it's hard to figure out if it's due to the game, my hardware, or what exactly the problem is caused by. Every so often when I load the game up no matter what my GPU or the game itself has for settings it acts like things are 'double speed'. Originally it seemed like turning it from windowed mode to borderless seemed to help but now even that doesn't fix it. It happens at random times so I can't really control the problem. Even telling my GPU to limit games to 60 frames or anything like that seems to help. Otherwise I'd recommend this five stars for anyone who loves shmup style games with rpg ship build mechanics. Otherwise I have to give it maybe three point five out of five stars, or a low end of four stars out of five.

If there was some way to figure out this fix or what is causing it even I'd be quite happy to change my review otherwise to five stars. I say this while I've almost unlocked all the 'ranking' related items at 30 hours or so of playtime. So it's not like it's a souls-like hard game, even turning on all the challenges except the 'hardest' isn't a big deal and worth the challenge it brings with the boosts it offers. Heck even the 'final challenge' that I've unlocked is fun even if it doesn't boost anything but giving a specially marked score. But this weird 'double speed' or '1.5x' speed thing that could simply be something on my end makes it necessary to give this a less then perfect review. The reason I say this is because i've never seen a game go 'faster then normal' when having frame issues or the like, it's always gone slower then normal. Like a game going at .75 normal speed because your system can't keep up with settings. There's no way that's the problem here because I meet if not exceed any requirements for this game.

After making report of this to the developer I have to reduce this to a two out of five stars, because the developer banned me from community discussions. The game is great, but the developer needs to be removed from Steam if they're not able to take criticism that well. Something as simple as a 'frame rate lock' shouldn't be that hard to implement in a game, and making the developer aware of the issue shouldn't require you be a perfect angel to get your point across.

I call this genre of game time wasters ever since Time Wasters came out. This is another game with its own take on the genre from the inertial movement since you're in space to the fully user activated firing and single weapon system. Kind of a psychedelic art style but fun and pretty enough. I enjoyed it, worth the money.