Play Hyper Vanguard, a Star Citizen-inspired arcade space shooter

Star Citizen is a massive, sprawling space simulator that took decades of time and $50 million of crowdfunded cash to put together. It’s a huge world to explore, the kind of game that swallows your life for however long you stay with it.

Hyper Vanguard is the opposite. It’s a tiny, Galaga-style arcade shooter that lives on the Star Citizen site, with dead-simple controls and just three levels. You don’t even have to fullscreen it. It’s a minigame version of Star Citizen, based on some of the larger game’s copious concept art and written to occupy roughly the same world.

It’s being touted as a minigame, but you can think of it as a to-go cup version of a galaxy that’s otherwise intimidatingly complex. This being the weekend, you can probably play through it in less time than it takes to finish a podcast.