POV: Cell War

* “POV” (Point of View) is a new feature that we’re testing out *

TipCat Mobile’s rating: 8.0
IAR’s rating: 8.0

TipCat Mobile (a CWC company) has certainly made a splash with their first action game for the iPhone called Cell War.  It’s an arcade shooter, a horizontal shmup to be exact (and we’re all about exact here at IAR).  There’s no shortage of these babies in the app store so does it carve out a niche or simply step to the back of the line?  TipCat tells us it’s the former and I tend to agree…read on for their capsule review followed by the comments of yours truly in the name of all that’s honest and fair.

TipCat Mobile’s summary:

What Cell War is about:

Where this app needs to improve:

We aren’t satisfied with the art style which we implemented in the game.

Features and improvements planned for the future:

More levels if players like the game.

IAR’s take:

Cell War takes me back to the glorious 16-bit days of the Amiga for which some of the finest shmup’s ever were released…it would have been right at home on that lovely machine.  Getting back on track, the backstory here is that you’ve been shrunk to micro-scale and must wage bio-war against viruses inside some random human.  That’s all I can say about the story because quite frankly that’s all there is to it and even that mere morsel was only learned from the app store description; the game itself makes no mention at all.  I guess what I’m saying here is there’s no story so…movin’ on.  The controls are done quite well and that’s a relief since controls are truly a ‘make or break’ situation in an iPhone shooter.  You tilt to move your ship (which autofires), tap enemies to launch missiles and touch the lower corners of the screen to detonate a smart bomb which wipes out all (or at least most) enemies onscreen and also serves as a bullet shield in boss fights.  A really nice feature is that you can pause at any time and recalibrate the accelerometer.

Music, sound, graphics, tutorial - agree, all very nice.  Not spectacular or mindblowing by current standards but…quite pleasant.  The graphics are crisp and colorful if a wee bit lacking in overall detail, the sound fx never get dull or annoying and the music is a nifty bit of ambient electronica, even a little spooky actually.  The tutorial is interactive and effective; wouldn’t change a thing there.

The gameplay is laid out in classic fashion with 9 stages consisting of lots of stuff to shoot, weapon upgrades to snap up, mini-bosses interspersed and the de facto big boss at the end of each level.  All the shmup fans out there won’t be disappointed here as the ‘bomb carpet’ we know and love is alive and well in the boss fights.  Powerups are gained by killing certain groupings of baddies or sometimes just sitting in out of the way locations which result in cool stuff like an extra life or smart bomb, health boost and of course more powerful guns (and lasers!).  I really like the gameplay elements presented and I get the feeling of ever so slight homages to classics like Scramble and Vanguard (the game does actually go semi-vertical in some stages) and the missile implementation reminds me of Space Deadbeef, one of the first shmups ever for the iPhone.  What I mean is this game certainly stands alone perfectly well but I do welcome the familiar elements.  I’m not sure what’s meant by ‘arcade modes’ unless once you beat the game you unlock new ones; certainly at the onset there is just 1 mode.  That’s a nice segue into the fact that even on easy this game is a serious challenge so I wasn’t able to beat it all the way through for the review.

Rarely at a loss for gripes am I and so it is with this game as well.

• The presentation has almost nothing to do with the supposed backstory about cellular warfare beyond some red-heavy (aka blood) background colors.  The dev mentions as much above and I definitely agree; a different art direction emphasizing the feeling of being inside a human body would have gone a long way to giving the game more character and identity.
• MAJOR PET PEEVE –  if you attempt to exit (what you would think is) gracefully using the ingame pause menu you LOSE ALL PROGRESS and have to restart from square one next time you play.  It appears you literally have to exit with the home button to be able to resume your game at the currently achieved stage.

The production quality on this game is top shelf and for that reason alone it deserves some attention.  Fortunately, the game’s a real blast to play as well.  With games like SkySmash 1918 just released for a dollar, is this game priced a bit high?  Some would say so of course but the point is, if you’re the picky type that only wants a few games of each genre on their iDevice, you would not go wrong with Cell War for those times when you need a pure dose of action (just don’t expect a story!).