Denshi Life 2 review

In 1970, British mathematician John Horton Conway created The Game of Life (often shortened to “Life”), a seminal work in computer simulation. After positioning an array of cells on a grid, the model would spring into existence, exhibiting interactions between the individual units. Some cells would die off if they either had too few or too many adjacent units, mimicking the effects of isolation or overpopulation. But seemingly deceased cells could be resurrected when they had exactly three neighbors.

While this might sound rather boring in written description, watching a game of Life play out could be rather alluring. Patterns would grow wildly, others would repeat cyclically, while some would descend toward stagnation. If the refresh speed for each generation was fast enough, Life could become hypnotic. Movement could resemble time-lapse photography of a culture growing in a Petri dish or even a visualization of urban populations viewed across decades.

Particle Peacefulness and Chiptune Tranquility  

Conway’s simulation is at the core of Denshi Life 2, the latest effort from Mindware’s Mikito Ichikawa (aka Micky G. Albert). Here, a fluid light show surges across the playfield. The game’s precursor, 2023’s D-Life, flanked it’s 4:3 ratio playfield with options instructions recalling the look of a table-top arcade machine. But for Denshi Life 2, play fills your entire monitor. And while there’s a GPU test mode that showcases the game’s plethora of particles, on-screen data prevent this from becoming the ultimate screen-saver.

This illusion of D Life being a forgotten game from the ’80s is assisted by 8-bit fonts and a blissful soundtrack from Yuriko Keino, who created Super Pac-Man and Dig Dug’s soundscapes. Here, your actions often result in chiptune serenades that occasionally recall eki-melody, those charming melodies that you’ll hear at Japanese train stations.

Justify That GPU Purchase

D Life’s single anachronism is rooted in the interaction between six colors of cells. Sure, the palette is in line with the constrained number of colors that ‘80s coin-ops could display. But it’s obvious that modern hardware is driving the simulation. D Life’s cells dance with fluidity and dynamism that would be impossible to render on older hardware. If you have a discrete GPU, you can harness the ability of your card to make things extra smooth.

In execution, the game’s adaptation of Life resembles an interactive art exhibit. While it’s not a requirement for success, the game allows you to push individual colors around, creating vertical or horizontal winds that can scatter cells. But there’s the contentious thing: a seemingly AI-powered Conway springs to life in the corner to deliver a posthumous greeting.

Ring Around the Cellular Simulation

Across Denshi Life 2’s Basic and Caravan Modes the goal is the same: capture a subset of colors. This is accomplished by moving the mouse around to direct a pulsating cursor. Holding down the left mouse button draws a circle that increases in diameter as long as you hold the button down. So, if the game requests three colors, you need to ensure that there are only a trio of hues in the ring’s interior. Given that the individual cells are pixel-sized, it’s easy to overlook a stray cell sometimes. Wisely, the game has an allotment for outliers, so those two cyan cells you might not have noticed won’t automatically end your game.

But that’s not to say that Denshi Life is a pushover. Rapidly assessing the number of colors in an area is probably not a proficiency that we habitually practice. Occasionally, the game can feel a bit punitive when you release the button just a few milliseconds too soon, neglecting to capture cells of a specific color. Ideally, D Life would replicate the system of retro titles and offer multiple chances. Two other improvements I’d like to see: a save of visual settings, so the game didn’t default to Windowed play and better Steam Deck control. At present, encircling cells is imprecise, with the radius sporadically shifted away from the cursor.

Conclusion

Meanwhile, Rogue-like imposes a countdown on each stage, as well as specific colors requirements (“must include purple and green”). But at the end of each stage, you are offered two different options for the following round, granting different amounts of extra time and even the possibility of scoring multipliers. Sporadically, the random number generator will feel compassionate offering an easy six-color shot, albeit with a significant time deduction. While the additional mode contributes some longevity, you’ll likely be wanting further variations before long.

Like many retro-influenced games, Denshi Life 2 probably won’t maintain your interest across extended play sessions. But the game is remarkably enjoyable across brief intervals, where its synthesis of sinuous cell movement and challenge of scanning for color clusters feels utterly distinct. Much like Ichikawa’s Space Mouse 2, this is one of those diminutive games that deserves a permanent spot on your PC. When you just don’t have the motivation to make a dent in the latest 40-hour epic, games like Denshi Life 2 are ideal.

Denshi Life 2 was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher