When it comes to designing a key mechanic in any gameplay loop, the challenge -- from a developer/studio standpoint -- isn't so much the immediate appeal of controlling said loop, but how you evolve that mechanic once that initial honeymoon period has worn off. True, there are exceptions to this; gunplay, in as broad a definition that may be, needn't have to reinvent itself at every encounter. If the weapons look/feel/sound satisfying to work with -- to swap in and out from -- you've got yourself a sound base to work off of. But even then, it's the encounters that find themselves having to step up to the plate. No one wants to fight the exact same low-level fodder over and over again. More specifically, they don't want to fight the exact same low-level fodder in exactly the same manner, over and over again.

That's not to say that the weapon-flinging, zip-zap delight of Boomerang X is relegated totally to the way its differing, stand-alone, muti-wave fights evolve over the course of the game. Though that's a plus -- an almighty plus that's deserving of its own paragraph. But if one has to pick the ideal place to raise the plentiful amount of joy spent with Boomerang X so far, it's the literal start of the latest build. Dang! That's the actual name of the developer behind the game, though in all honesty it's similarly my first reaction upon realizing that bunny-hopping is in fact a much quicker means of traversing than sticking to the ground. Seriously, the difference in both speed and ground covered is absurd. But that absurdity seems all too intentional from the developer's side and funnily enough, it makes complete sense for what kind of game Boomerang X starts off as. And, more impressively, evolves into the further in one delves.

The premise of the game, on its own, is simple enough. Take out a required number of waves of black, ink-like foes -- making sure to target specifically those picked out by a hovering gold icon that indicates which enemies are the primary targets. It starts off simple enough; a ground-based affair beating back slow-marching insects and idly-floating squid-like equivalents. Soon though, the madness of Boomerang X reveals itself, but it's a madness that's both indulgent yet more importantly, cleverly layered. The ability to teleport to where you've flung your weapon is quickly unlocked and the moment these controls sit alongside your ability to both recall your weapon as much halt one's momentum during flight is when Boomerang X truly starts to reveal itself as a carefully-considered maniacally-tense rush for survival.

Easy enough it may have been to construct a game where players are afforded absolute liberty with movement -- to be free to warp, shoot and fly chaotically about a wide-open arena -- the best part of Boomerang X's delivery here is its acknowledgment of a required and expected form of evolution. One that in no short a time will be required once the players get the hang of the simple control set-up. Target enemies, decide on whether to recall/teleport/hang back seconds later, rinse-and-repeat until all waves are cleared. The formula starting a new. That's not to say the game, at its most basic level, isn't appealing. There's an odd edge-of-your-seat intensity to the way enemies can so easily gang up on you -- the subtle audio and less-subtle visual equivalent providing enough of a count-down so that players refrain from standing still for too long. To barely survive a required waves with just one life remaining makes such encounters even more exhilarating to get through, not least when the game drops an accompanying music track so heart-pounding, you'd almost think you'd been transported to mid-way through a horror game.

But the greatest aspect of Boomerang X's early phases here is the ways it shakes things up at each key moment. And not just through the introduction of new enemy types -- both projectile-firing as much those who are similarly on-the-prowl, ready to charge at you head-first. Safe platforms get smaller, health pads (of which can refill one precious bar, providing you stand on it long enough) are interspersed at greater and more elaborate positions. There's even the fact that some enemies actively require you to maneuver, stun and quickly move around them to find their vital weak spot. Pivotal the core mechanics still are here, it's these segments where a player's liberty with movement requires a little more of a purposeful, calculated application. Theoretically one could just keep randomly hurtling in one of many directions, hoping to bump into that last vital, targeted foe to slice apart. But cleverly, the game seems all too prepared for that period when players may get too comfortable with the notion of their own seeming invincibility. And so the game happily obliges to have a player's feet, if not literally, hit the ground in preparation for what is clearly coming up next.

Incredibly brief the passages of Boomerang X have been so far (or at least the segments I'm at liberty to elaborate on), it's pleasing to find a game of this caliber and intensity still find the means to evolve and shake up its own formula at just the right time. As giddy as it may be to loosen any and all figurative shackles when it comes to basic movement. The fact that it still finds the time and space to provide a satisfying mix of challenge and peril, even with such freedom of movement. It's primarily the reason why I look forward to seeing where Dang!'s weapon-flinging antics will end up. Coming up with an enticing gameplay mechanic to kick things off? Boomerang X scoffs at the very notion that such a feat may prove difficult. But to have potentially found a way to make such encounters even more nuanced and exciting to work around, with little cost to the nerve-wrangling chaos on show? There's plenty of madness to administer as much survive here, but it's Boomerang X's very execution -- its poker-like unveiling of more deliberately, purposefully-designed tricks and turns -- that's delivered in such terrific a fashion.