Roswell Fighter Reloaded Review

Our Review by Blake Grundman on July 9th, 2013

Rating:

:: FIRE AWAY!

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It may not reinvent the wheel, but sometimes maintaining the status quo is all a polished game needs to succeed.

Developer: Ganymede Sp z o.o.
Price: $0.99
Version: 1.1
App Reviewed on: iPad 2G

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Let’s face it, iOS is the perfect platform for the shoot-em-up. As long as a developer can track a finger press and draw a flying craft of some sort on screen, they are well on their way towards creating gaming gold. One such title vying for attention is Roswell Fighter Reloaded. Can this newcomer ward of the alien invasion from afar, or does the gameplay end up exploding before it even leaves the tarmac?

It is rare that a relative newcomer to a genre comes right out of the gate, swinging for the fences. Roswell Fighter Reloaded managed to do that, without feeling the necessity to redefine the player’s expectations of a schmup. Instead of focusing on new gimmicks or visual tricks, the game instead throws wave after wave of well-tuned bullet-hell madness onto the screen, issuing a silently implied challenge of, “good luck, sucker.”

With the pretense of raising the bar tossed aside, the title focuses on its strong suit: finely polished mechanics. Enemies might occasionally opt to take an alternate flight plan than what most would be accustomed to, but for the most part Roswell Fighter Reloaded is all about maintaining the status quo. A task which it pulls off extremely proficiently.

Do early stages look a bit too similar? Sure. Does the repetitive soundtrack start to grate the nerves? Without a doubt. But what it lacks in overall variety, it more than makes up for in length. The eleven stages feel like they will go on forever, but never in a bad way. Level after level will fly by before players even begin to notice that over an hour of high-quality schmup action has consumed their free time with reckless abandon. It is also worth noting that the higher difficulty levels can also help amplify the overall challenge and playtime to boot.

For the modest sticker price of only $0.99, Roswell Fighter Reloaded is a bargain that is well worth investing in. As long as the expectations for innovation are managed, there is more than enough fun to be found in this interstellar flight plan.