New top-down Genesis/Mega-Drive shooter Sovietborgs now crowdfunding on Indiegogo

Developer Retro Sumus are back with an all-new action shooter coming to Genesis/Mega-Drive called Sovietborgs. Spaniard developer Retro Sumus were previously known for their amazing 3D Dreamcast shooter Xenocider, released in 2021. That game, one of the first fully 3D indie games on Dreamcast, was a visual tour-de-force and a great tribute to Space Harrier and Sin & Punishment. With Sovietborgs, they’ve set their sights not just on Genesis, but aim to bring the game to Dreamcast and even MS-DOS and Neo-Geo. Quite the ambitious project indeed, and they’ve brought Sovietborgs to IndieGogo for the funding needed to make it happen.

Sovietborgs leverages pre-rendered 3D graphics, much like Vectorman or Sonic 3D Blast, to bring you into an alternate reality in which the Soviet Union became the dominant civilization following the Cold War. You’ll be controlling three mercenaries called “Sovietborgs” all at once to wipe out all the vicious mutants in every level. The game will play like a top-down shooter, but there are in-between levels more like a horizontal scrolling shmup as well. The music is inspired by the Strike trilogy and Command & Conquer: Red Alert and composed by the same Juanjo Martin who composed the music for Xenocider.

If you’re just itching to throw money at this game’s Indiegogo and get a copy of the game in the process following its completion, then journey on down past the break and find out what to expect from this campaign.

The majority of rewards for the Indiegogo campaign will entitle you to a copy of the game on your system of choice, and with four platforms to choose from (Five if you count Neo-Geo AES and MVS separately), you got plenty to go over. The cheapest is the Dreamcast port, which will set you back €45 EUR for a copy in a standard NA/JPN jewel case. A copy in a European style Dreamcast jewel case or a custom steelbook case will set you back €100. A Genesis cartridge in a box with reversible US and PAL style box art will set you back €60. The MS-DOS port, which comes in a big classic PC game box, will be €80 for a CD-ROM version or €100 for a version on five floppy disks. The real hot dog version is the Neo-Geo port, which will cost you €350 for the MVS arcade cartridge or €400 for the AES home console cartridge, with appropriate boxes for either option. There are a few extra special editions for each console in large cases with extra goodies or custom Genesis and Dreamcast consoles for even more money as well, if you happen to have a lot of rubles to burn.

Although each version of the game is the same, they all are tailored around the various strengths of each platform. The Dreamcast port isn’t just emulating any of the other versions like you might think. You can see the differences from this graphic below. Try clicking it (or tapping it if you’re on a mobile device) to see in better detail.

Given the nature of crowdfunding, however, I must go into my usual spiel of warnings. Just like Kickstarter, Indiegogo is not to be thought of as a simple store. When you pledge money to anything here, you are investing in its ongoing development, and if everything goes as planned, then and only then will you get the rewards that you are promised. Besides that, development can take a long time, sometimes years in the case of games like these (Xenocider, which wasn’t crowdfunded, took 5 years to come out), so it may be a while before you see your game. Anything can happen in the world of indie game development, and you must be ready to accept that and the fact refunds are not a guarantee as you pony up money to crowdfund something. Fortunately, this isn’t Retro Sumus’s first time developing a game, so chances are good that you will eventually see your copy of Sovietborgs and it’s going to be pretty sweet.

If you’ve made peace with the risks of crowdfunding, and you think Sovietborgs looks cool, then go check out the Indiegogo page for more information. They even have a demo you can download and play in your favorite Genesis emulator or flash cartridge. In fact, Retro Sumus have prepared an emulator that runs right from your web browser, so you don’t even need to download the demo to try it this time. They have until July 24th to raise €48,000 for development and are currently about 20% of the way there as of this writing. Should they make it with time to spare, there are stretch goals laid out for possible additions to the game as well.

Are you planning to back Sovietborgs? Did you enjoy its demo? Have you played Xenocider? Let us know in the comments below.

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