Akalaupdate: If you’re still on the fence, why not try the just-released demo, available through Steam?

Over at the Wing Commander CIC, Bandit LOAF has posted a review — with screenshots — of the new space sim from Austin-based independent studio Seamless Entertainment: SOL: Exodus. Obviously, he looks at it from the perspective of a die-hard, old guard Wing Commander fan, and asks whether the game does right by the space shooter genre.

And happily, he argues that it does.

The 1990s were rife with soulless imitators that sought to be nothing more than the last Wing Commander done cheaper with the benefit of the latest video card drivers. Then the last decade was a scattering of well-meaning attempts to recapture our favorite series’ glory that generally suffered from trying to do too much with too little money. Suddenly every attempt needed a Privateer-style open world, a Wing Commander cinematic story and years worth of “player wish list” bucket items involving overly complicated physics and off-putting gameplay options..

I’m happy to announce that Sol: Exodus is none of these things. This is a small game that’s aimed at giving a modern audience their first taste of how much fun a space shooter should be. The game forgoes all those pitfalls to give us something unique: a deceptively simple action game that should teach today’s gamers how awesome space combat is.

He goes through some of the game’s “highs and lows”, but in general he offers up far more praise than criticism for what sounds like a worthy successor to the Wing Commander tradition. And the price — $9.99 on Steam, at least for now — is damn hard to argue with. Maybe consider picking this one up, Dragons and Dragonettes!