Games which play around with genres, particularly those ones which have gone a little stale over time, are often a lot of fun. Micro Shooter [1] is a new release game for iOS, and it mixes classic shoot-em-up action with a more relaxing, cerebral style seen in games such as flOw for the PlayStation. Getting the mix right is the hard part, as if the game has too little action it runs the risk of being boring. How does Micro Shooter do? Let’s find out.
Micro Shooter has a stripped down, retro style that manages to look fresh and cool today. You pilot a circular ship with an upgradeable weapon, and must destroy incoming hordes of aliens. They arrive in tight formation and have a singular mission â€" to charge in your direction. Every few levels you face a large boss alien, who takes longer to kill.
The game’s screen is small, with the bottom section taken up by the twin sticks used to control your craft. On the left is your direction control, and on the right, the control for moving the gun turret around. This gives you complete freedom in the rather tiny play area, so you can’t get boxed in by the relentless enemies. Sadly, the sticks act more like buttons than analogue, free-roaming sticks, and moving and shooting at the same time should be more fluid.
It’s not a game-ending problem though, and setting up camp on one side of the screen is a decent strategy anyway. Problems only arise when enemies spawn right next to you. The circle which defines the edge of your ship also functions as a health meter, and touching an alien craft sees a section disappear. Get down to one and your gun is disabled, and the Game Over message is just a moment away.
Luckily there are lots of power-ups floating around the screen, some of which will recharge your energy if you can get to one before a nasty gets you first. Other collectables power up your weapons, and there’s a choice of a stronger single cannon, or a wide-shot with three streams of fire. It’s the latter which proves most effective, but it has a downside of slowing down your ship, while the single cannon speeds things up.
This, combined with the limited room available ensures there’s a surprising amount of strategy to Micro Shooter, but really only if you want to get that involved. Micro Shooter is best enjoyed when played for fun. Ignore the messing around with power-ups, plug in your headphones and listen to the awesome ambient soundtrack, and shoot enemies until you get taken out yourself. It’s a credit to the game, and its developer, that it can be played in two different ways. It certainly doesn’t get boring.
Micro Shooter is free to download, but does come with an in-app purchase to unlock the full game. If you do, then there are unlimited levels instead of the 15 included in the free version, along with score and level information, plus data on the enemy species you encounter. For the nominal fee of £0.59, it’s worth paying up for the complete game, if only to support indie developers making interesting, fun little games.
We were really taken with Micro Shooter, and it occupied our time over the review period very nicely, and it’s a game we’ll be returning to often. It’s easy to recommend it to fans of both genres, and those who just want a well designed, great sounding iPhone [2] game to while away a few minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment