Spacegulls is Joust meets Mega Man — and a great way to learn speedrunning

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There’s a lot of discourse about game length these days, usually cropping up when either a developer makes bold claims about the ridiculous amount of “content” their game has, or when everyone believes game [x] is “too short” or “not worth full price” due to its length. The thing that often doesn’t get mentioned during these discussions is the fact that sometimes playing a really short game is nice. Sometimes you want to be able to blast through a complete-feeling experience in 20 minutes. And that’s exactly what Spacegulls from independent developer Morphcat Games offers.

Like many of Morphcat’s other titles, Spacegulls was built for the NES, and was first programmed as a competition entry. Following its release, though, it became quite popular with followers of the studio’s work — and has become a game that speedrunners are quite fond of, too, with it appearing at the Awesome Games Done Quick event in early 2022.

Spacegulls

Spacegulls is best described exactly as it is in the headline: it’s a combination of the movement mechanics of Joust with the level design of Mega Man, and the result is an unusual and interesting take on the platformer genre. Playing the role of a Spacegull (and optionally bringing a friend along in the simultaneous two-player mode), it’s your job to rescue your missing chicks and take down the dastardly Dr. Beak.

In order to do so, you’ll work your way through a mostly linear sequence of single-screen challenges. Occasionally there will be multiple routes to take, with one often being the critical path forward and the other leading to rewards such as health bonuses or the missing chicks, but for the most part you’ll constantly be pushing onwards.

As you progress, various rooms will require dealing with in different ways. Some simply require you to reach the exit while avoiding obstacles and enemies. Some feature “skull” doors which task you with defeating some or all of the enemies in the room before allowing you to proceed. Some feature keys, which cause blocks with keyholes on them to disappear. And some feature a combination of these factors.

Spacegulls

Combat and platforming in Spacegulls is straight out of Joust. By pressing a button, you flap the Spacegull’s wings, and this allows them to jump and fly. Timing your flaps appropriately allows you to control your altitude, and if you land on an enemy from above, you will damage or defeat them. Most enemies take more than one hit, so while dealing with them you’ll need to take your own “bounce” off their head into account — particularly when fighting in an area festooned with sharp and pointy things!

There are only a few different types of enemy in the game, but given the whole thing only lasts about 20 minutes that doesn’t really matter too much; they’re introduced at a good rate, gradually challenging you to deal with them individually and then in combination with other foes you’ve encountered before. This culminates in the run up to the final confrontation with Dr. Beak, which features a gauntlet of several rooms, tasking you with defeating all the different enemies in the game in various combinations and arrangements.

And that’s essentially all there is to Spacegulls. There are a few pick-ups around the place — and some dropped by enemies on a random basis — but these are simply for restoring your health. Each major area concludes with a checkpoint that you’ll be reset back to if you die — but any progress you made after the checkpoint, such as doors opened, will remain, meaning you can gradually push onwards even if you find a particular section a bit of a struggle.

Spacegulls

Ultimately most people will likely be able to make it through the entirety of Spacegulls pretty easily and quickly. But that’s not where the appeal of this game ends. As we mentioned at the beginning, speedrunners have taken to Spacegulls, and with good reason: it’s a great game with which to familiarise yourself with the skillsets you need to develop in order to become a good speedrunner.

This is where Spacegulls’ short length really works in its favour. If you’re practicing for an actual record attempt, you can make multiple runthroughs in the space of a single afternoon, and in doing so you’ll doubtless start to spot the areas where you can make significant time savings: rooms where there’s no need to engage with the enemies are a great start, since you can make up a ton of time by simply zipping through these efficiently.

You’ll also be able to learn the optimal route through the game that minimises any need for backtracking — and hopefully you’ll be able to locate the hidden chicks along the way too, allowing you to take aim for a 100% completion run. And, while you practice, you’ll doubtless figure out your own best strategies for dealing with the various enemies, too, because each of them require their own distinct timing to dispatch efficiently.

Spacegulls

While I’d perhaps question Spacegulls’ value were it a standalone full-price release for NES — which, at the time of writing, it isn’t; you can get it as a pay-what-you-want title on Itch or as part of the Morphcat Games Collection 1 for Evercade — it’s a perfect pick-up-and play title for when you just fancy playing something fun.

And while it’s a great speedrunner training aid, there’s no pressure to enjoy the game that way if you don’t want to, either; it’s just a simple, solidly designed, deliberately short-form and very enjoyable platformer with a creative blend of mechanics. And those things all add up to a good time.

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Pete Davison
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