App Sale: Sky Force Reloaded
Michael (Admin) | Feb 26, 2010 App Sale Alert
User rating: 
(7 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5)
(7 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5)
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Sky Force Reloaded is on sale for free – normally $1.99
Sky Force is a top-down shmup similar to iFighter and Hotfield… it’s a quality game and has its own style, and apparently it’s on sale for one day only so grab it for free while you still can! I don’t know exactly when the sale ends but it’s probably very soon.
iTunes Link – Sky Force Reloaded
Tags: shmup
POV: Cell War
Swain Valasek | Nov 13, 2009 Games, POV
User rating: (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...
* “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.
Tags: $2.99, shmup, side scroller, Swain Valasek
SkySmash 1918
Michael (Admin) | Nov 13, 2009 Games
User rating: 
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5) Loading ...
The past few weeks I haven’t been reviewing too many apps because of the backlog of free codes, and now that it’s time to get back to reviewing stuff I can’t think of a better way to do it than with a kickass shmup!
SkySmash 1918 is your basic top-down shooter, a la Hotfield and iFighter, and it’s beautiful. It seems like Richard Wilson didn’t put a ton of thought into the design of some of the menus, but screw menus! It’s the game that counts, and the game itself is really a sight to behold. I guess it’s mostly the ground graphics that have me so impressed. When you’re playing this type of game, the entire backdrop is what’s beneath your plane (in this case it’s a biplane, actually) and SkySmash’s ground looks really nice. Crisp is probably a better word. Everything else in the game is top-notch as well… from the way the biplane moves and tilts to the Hogan’s Heroes soundtrack to all the crap that’s exploding in the sky around you, it’s got all the trademarks of a very well produced shooter.
Q&F: Space Shooter
Michael (Admin) | Sep 8, 2009 Games, Quick & Free
User rating: (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5) Loading ...
Invasion of the Upside Down Batteries!
Off to a slow start here after a long weekend so, while I’m finishing up a couple of other reviews, go and amuse yourself with Space Shooter!
If there was a contest for the simplest arcade shmup on the planet, this game by Dokimi would win hands down. Drag left and right across the bottom of the screen to move your “spaceship”, and tap aroud elsewhere to shoot the evil geometric shapes that mean to do you harm.
I had the entire thing beat on my first try (yes, levels are limited) and it took all of 10 minutes! But whoop-dee-doo, who gives a bibble, gabba gabba hey! It’s free, give it a try. Oh, and extra credit to whoever can identify the quote I just threw down.
Space Shooter
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1
Tyrian
Swain Valasek | Aug 16, 2009 Games
User rating: (7 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)
(7 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5) Loading ...
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Tyrian is a classic SHMUP or 2D vertical shoot-em-up, developed by Eclipse Productions and originally published on the PC in 1995 by Epic MegaGames. The game officially went freeware in 2004 and a project called OpenTyrian came about in 2007 to create an open-source version. This iPhone port from Mobila Interactive is based on OpenTyrian but special enhancements have been made to take advantage of the iPhone’s unique interface. I can tell you right now (IMO anyway) that this is the finest port yet of any game for the iPhone so if you happen to like SHMUP’s, you’ve found heaven. Since this port uses original game assets, they must be downloaded (~10 MB) post-install from the Internet. Much like Flashback, when you first run the game you’ll be prompted through this process so try to be on WiFi (after this 1-time download you’re all set).
Tags: $1.99, 2D shooter, shmup, Swain Valasek, vertical shooter
The Terminator
Michael (Admin) | Jul 27, 2009 Games
User rating: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from 30+ years of rotting my brain on video games it’s that killing robots is cool!! The Terminator is full of robots (duh!) and the object is to kill ‘em all while you meet certain objectives, so I’m not surprised that this is a pretty kickass game.
Big Head Games Ltd. partnered up with Dark Horse Comics to produce this app and they’ve done a mostly-great job of creating a game that fits in nicely with The Terminator’s 20-year gaming history. It comes with both a story mode and a “quick game” mode, and if you buy this app I’d recommend starting with the story as it’s a good way to get used to the controls and get a feel for moving around the often cluttered environments.
Light Wars
Michael (Admin) | Jun 3, 2009 Games
User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...
I’m SHMUP CRAZY!!!! At least it seems that way lately after writing about shoot ‘em ups iFighter, Glandarius Wing Strike, and now Light Wars.
Of the three, Light Wars is by far the simplest with its less-is-more vector graphics approach. It kind of feels like a variation on Asteroids with the glowing grid arena style of Tron, and everything gets tied together in a very Playstation-like way with left and right analog controls.
Edit: I’ve never played Geometry Wars, but according to reviewers in the App Store, Light Wars is just like it :P
Don’t be fooled by the outward simplicity, though… underneath the minimalistic skin of this game is a pretty kickass gaming experience complete with all kinds of powerups, enemies of varying strengths, and other shmup standards such as shields to keep you from dying and bombs for obliterating everything in sight.
Glandarius Wing Strike
Michael (Admin) | May 22, 2009 Games
User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5) Loading ...
If you’re into shmups you should take a good look at Glandarius Wing Strike! It’s a little frantic, there’s tons of shooting, and there’s definitely no shortage of targets to beat down.
Probably the most unique thing about Glandarius is the control scheme… you can literally play this game with one finger. Tap to the left or right of your little fighting vessel and it’ll speed over in that direction while spitting out a whole lotta bullets, and for smaller movements you can simply drag the finger a little. In a way, one-finger control is pretty cool because it means you can play just about anytime, anywhere as long as you have a free hand. At the same time, though, this control scheme also restricts your ship to left and right movements which is kind of limiting in the gameplay department.
iFighter
Michael (Admin) | May 14, 2009 Games
User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5) Loading ...
iFighter is on sale for $.99
If you’ve ever played the arcade classic Raiden, you already know whether or not you’ll be a fan of iFighter. Raiden was that scrolling shooter where you were endlessly tapping the Fire button to take down enemy planes, collecting powerups, and occasionally dropping bombs on the bad guys below.
Personally, I thought Raiden kicked ass and now I’m madly in love with iFighter. This game RULES!! The concept of flying a badass warplane through a scrolling battlefield may not be all that original, but the execution is top-notch and makes for a kickass iPhone arcade experience.
HotField
Swain Valasek | Mar 22, 2009 Games
User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5) Loading ...
Perhaps the next delightfully retro gaming genre set to invade the iPhone is the classic SHMUP, or 2D shoot-em-up for the unitiated. This is evidenced by the recent release of Sky Force Reloaded and now Hotfield from C2Matrix. There have certainly been prior entries such as rRootage, Space Deadbeef, Sentry Alpha and Sky Thunder but IMO none have offered the complete experience of the early 90′s arcade shooters…until now.
So HotField then is a vertical scrolling shmup in the classic style and with a whole bucketful of features, to whit:
- 3 ships to choose from with lots of weapon powerups
- 6 missions with unique graphics and bosses
- some actual 3D graphics
- 5 difficulty levels
- awesome chip-tune soundtrack
- the ability to record and playback your game, awesome!
- a boss mode so you can just fight bossses if you like pain
You can control the game in 2 -ways: using a touch interface or virtual d-pad. In my experience the d-pad was basically unplayable but I applaud the effort of its inclusion nonetheless. So for me that leaves the touch interface which fortunately works fairly well. Touch or drag your finger onscreen and your ship will follow; firing is thankfully automatic. Putting a second finger on the screen and holding charges up your limited-use mega-laser and when you release it’s good night bad guys. As expected, certain combinations of destroyed enemies release powerups that will beef up your main weapon, increase your health meter or grant a free life. You can also pick up ‘star points’ left behind by downed enemies and when using the mega-laser (which converts enemy shots to star points), enough of which can also get you a free life. You also have a bullet-time option, accessed with a double-touch-and-hold, which slows everything down but you for a short time. Beyond that it’s total blast-a-thon goodness, shooting absolutely everything that moves until you reach the infamous boss fight. Boss fights get progressively harder and all provide the now-ubiquitous ‘bullet carpet’ where you have to dodge waves of bullets that change regularly in pattern. Also in classic fashion, bosses take forever to kill (sigh).
The game has an amusing anime-inspired story (really just banter between 2 big-eyed opponents) which plays out as you go that’s nothing deep but nonetheless entertaining. The gameplay is well-paced and the bosses difficult, pretty much right on par with the classic shmup formula. The graphics and sound are a dead ringer for 90′s retro shmup’s and the BGM is an excellent selection of chip tunes that definitely enhance the period feel.
However, I have some gripes. Whereas control with the arcade shooters was spot-on, this is unfortunately where HotField falters. In general, there are 2 schools of thought on how to handle ship control in an iPhone shmup. First is a 1 to 1 scheme where the ship follows your finger movements instantly, like a mouse pointer for example (think rRootage). Second is a relative scheme where the ship is a few milliseconds behind, basically intentionally trailing your finger. HotField takes the latter stance and unfortunately the overall effect can best be described as ‘laggy’. This is only amplified by the fact that the game very often gets bogged down in graphics rendering, slowing everything down which makes controlling the ship a chore and leads to ship damage/deaths that wouldn’t normally happen. Also an issue with the touch interface is that your finger is very often in the way, especially if you’re fat fingered. I wouldn’t normally fault the game for this since it’s not their fault the iPhone uses a touchscreen but the game inexplicably features enemies that come up from the bottom of the screen and this simply becomes much harder than it needs to be as a result. Adding to this problem is an overlay status bar at the bottom of the screen that will actually cover up your ship if you move to the extreme bottom, adding even more unnecessary difficulty.
If I could only make 1 suggestion, it would be to instate a 1 to 1 control scheme, at least for the boss fights. Since I can make as many as I want though, I also ask that the game be further optimized to reduce the render lag and fix the bottom status overlay thing.
As it is, the game has everything a classic shmup should and is lots of fun. If the developer will pledge their support with some updates to address the issues above this game will be best of class; as is it’s still recommended because of all the other things it does right.
Version reviewed – 1.0
Reviewed on – iPhone 3G 8GB 2.2.1
Global scoreboard – yes
iTunes music support – no
Lite version available – no
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- D-pad control = not so good
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- I defeat you haha! No, I defeat YOU haha!
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- Some elements are truly 3D-rendered
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- Respect the bullet carpet yo
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- Megaaaaaaa....LASER! SHOOM!
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- Suck it down, boss
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- Yikes, this boss is a real butt-kicker
Tags: $2.99, hotfield, shmup, shooter, Swain Valasek
