Indie roguelikes really can’t stay away from the 1980’s, with its colourful fashions and neon aesthetic. Taking inspiration from John Carpenter’s The Thing, HyperParasite sees you play as a parasitic alien creature who must kill and assimilate their human assailants in their quest to destroy the world.

Set in a parallel 1980’s universe, where the USA is recovering from World War III, you have landed on Earth with the goal of consuming everyone in your path. With the President of the US declaring an all-out assault on the alien menace, you must explore 5 different settings and absorb over 60 different kinds of opponents and steal their abilities.

As a humble parasite, you are quite fragile and only have access to a weak projectile attack. However, at the push of a button, you can assimilate any enemy whose form you have unlocked and take on their abilities. These range from the mundane, like police officers and firefighters, to the increasingly ridiculous, including superheroes, werewolves and ninjas. While each body doesn’t tend to last too long, you are encouraged to simply nab another form rather than necessarily focusing on preserving the form you have.

The issue is that HyperParasite is pretty frugal with its currency. You will typically barely make enough to afford a single upgrade in a level, forcing you to choose between being upgraded enough for the boss, or contributing a bit more for the next new form. As such, it can take a while before you feel like you’re making much progress in HyperParasite.

Adding to the grind is how enemy types are segregated by area, meaning that none of the forms you unlock in Downtown will help you in Asiatown. The joy of overcoming a tricky boss is trumped by the annoyance of having to build up a new library of hosts from scratch. If the game was a bit more generous with its in-game currency, or made the act of unlocking new forms less arduous, then it might feel less exhausting. Even a couple of freebee forms each level would make the initial acts of building up your library of forms more enjoyable. As it stands, the disposability of your host bodies makes it difficult to feel like you’re making substantial progress when it can be lost so easily.

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Despite the dull progression system, the combat of HyperParasite is a lot of fun. Absorbing enemies has that Kirby-like quality of being able to use enemy tactics against them. Each of the 60+ forms have several attacks at their disposal, and the game is happy to throw lots of cannon fodder enemies at you to ensure you have a steady supply of bodies to steal. Even if each body doesn’t last too long, there is an appealing flow to absorbing your way up the food chain and snagging better and better host bodies.