Turbo Pudding

LoudnikFriday pudding

A pocket dictionary of a very loud galaxy

· The Turbo Pudding team · 5 min read

Volta’s ship, a white and lilac arrowhead with a round speaker in the middle and lime-green wing tips, sits at the center of a Drop going off over the dark purple sky of Pirate Cove: a wide cream ring with a white inner edge rolls outward around it, a thinner copper ring follows inside, short orange sparks fly off the ship, a fan of green CHORD shots glows just above its nose, two little pale blue microphones hover at its sides, and a gold guitar pick, two small pink rings and a white one float on the right

Monotone, the conductor machine behind the Jammers, thinks the universe needs exactly one sound: a clean A at 440 hertz. DJ Volta’s pirate radio ship disagrees, and so does just about every word in Loudnik. The money, the bombs, the shop, even the game over screen all talk music. So this Friday, a pocket dictionary, in about the order you’ll meet the words.

The picture at the top is a Drop going off around Volta’s ship.

Picks, tapes and records

The money in Loudnik is guitar picks. Jammers drop them when they go down, and you spend them in the Garage. Even if a station goes off the air, the game promises: “You keep every pick you collected.”

Weapons are tapes: BEAT, CHORD, SOLO, TRILL and BASS. The one you take into a station is “In the deck.” Bombs are records. You start each station with two, and when you grab another, the screen says “+1 RECORD.”

The Garage

The Garage is where the ship gets its upgrades, and every one has a studio name. The Amplifier adds damage to every tape. Warm-up starts each station one level louder. The Sleeve takes a hit for you, once per ship. The Record case holds one more record. The Antenna pulls picks in from farther away. The Gold tape adds ten percent more picks from every kill. The Spare ship is exactly what it sounds like.

Our favorite is Backing vocals: “Two little mics that fire with you.” They hover at the ship’s sides and add their own small shots to whatever tape is playing.

Volta’s ship, a white and lilac arrowhead with a round speaker in the middle and cyan wing tips, flies up a dark plum sky over the Disco Rings with two little pale blue microphones on short stems hovering at its sides, each firing a thin pale shot straight ahead, while two fat bundles of four cyan BEAT shots fly up the middle past two big glowing violet orbs and three smaller pink bullets with white cores, in front of a dim floor of brown and slate dance tiles
Searched “space shooter with drones.” Ours sing backup.

Four records

Drop is the bass hit from the picture at the top. A ring rolls out from the ship across the screen, and every enemy bullet it reaches turns into a small pick. Jammers in its path take a big hit. Bosses, only a small bite.

Ovation is, in the game’s own words, “a cloud of confetti stars that find the enemies.” On screen, it bursts out of the ship as a ring of 22 green notes, each one off to find its own target.

In Bell Garden, against a dark teal sky, Volta’s ship sits in the middle of an Ovation: a wide ring of bright green music notes, each with a soft glow and a curling tail, surrounds it, a thin green ring spreads even wider around them, short green streaks fly between the notes and the ship, two pale blue microphones hover at the ship’s sides and the gray outline of a bell hangs just below it
Typed “shoot em up homing missiles.” Got a standing ovation.

Scratch puts a spinning record in the sky just above the ship. For about three seconds, it pulls enemy bullets in from all around and pops them, grinds any Jammer that comes close and drags the lighter ones toward it.

Over Pirate Cove, a Scratch hangs above Volta’s ship: a big black disc with a white rim floats in the dark purple sky inside wide lilac rings that curl around it like the grooves of a record, while the ship below, a white and lilac arrowhead with lime-green wing tips, fires a fan of green CHORD shots up toward it, with two pale blue microphones at its sides and the gray lattice of an old relay tower on the left
People also ask: can a record eat bullets? This one can.

Wall of Sound is “a ring of speakers” around the ship. For five and a half seconds, it swallows the bullets that touch it, and any Jammer that rams it takes the damage instead of you.

In Bell Garden, against a dark teal sky, Volta’s ship sits inside a Wall of Sound, a see-through cyan ring with six small white dots spaced around its edge, with two pale blue microphones inside the ring at the ship’s sides, a green and white arc of BASS just leaving the top of the ring, two thin pale shots beside it and the gray outline of a bell hanging at the top right
Search history: “bullet shield shooter,” “wall of sound meaning.”

Words on the screen

A station starts with “ON AIR!” A mid-boss shows up under a “JAMMER!” banner, a big boss under “INTERFERENCE!”, each with its name underneath. Capsules level up your tape, and every new level says “LOUDER!” Past the top level, a capsule gives you OVERDRIVE: six seconds of faster fire and 25 bonus picks.

Under the pick counter runs a thin orange bar. It fills while you play well and drops when you get hit or use a record. Get it near the top and it starts to flash, the word VOLUME lights up, and every kill pays more picks and more points. The Jammers notice, too: the louder it gets, the faster they fire back.

In the Disco Rings, shoot down a mirror ball and you get a GLINT: for three seconds, your shots come with a fan of four extra ones. Free a station and it’s “STATION ON AIR!” Lose your last ship and it’s “OFF THE AIR,” with a button that says “Take two.” Beat your best score and the game calls it a “New record!” Yes, the same word as the bombs. We noticed. We kept it.

Three gold discs

Every station has three gold discs to win. The first is for clearing it. The second is called Sold out: shoot down a set share of the enemies, 65 percent on the first three stations. The third is the station’s own, like “Take no hits,” “Use no bombs” or “Shoot down every music box and tape truck.” A music box is the little bonus that crosses the top of the screen now and then. It never hurts the ship. The first time you win a disc on a difficulty, it pays a Disc bonus in picks.

How loud do you want it?

There are four difficulty settings, and each has a second name under it. Easy is “Quiet,” Normal is “Loud,” Hard is “Louder” and Insane is “Full blast.” On Quiet, bonuses, hearts and weapon upgrades rain down. Full blast, where bonuses almost never come, opens once you clear the last station on Hard.

The other side

Monotone’s side has words too, just fewer of them. His mid-boss at Pirate Cove is Patrol “Shh,” and his flagship is called Hushmost. On Night Highway, his posters say KEEP IT DOWN and SILENCE IS ORDER. Volta does not keep it down.

The first three stations are free to play in your browser at loudnik.com. The full game, all ten stations and every boss, is $4.99, paid once. More about the game is on the Loudnik page.

More about Loudnik

LoudnikMeet the cast

Loudnik: meet Volta, Bobina and the Jammers

Who’s who in Loudnik’s first three stations: a pirate DJ, a cassette robot, a machine that loves one note and the gray army that switches the galaxy off.