I do love a good SHMUP, and a classic old-school style SHMUP with hand-painted visuals appeals to me even more. It probably appeals to a lot of people, actually, which might have something to do with why publisher Lace Mamba Global and developer Firepixels is bringing Solar Wings to the App Store.

Players will get to blow up all manner of fancy-looking enemy ships as they fight their way through five different worlds. Each with a collection of tough/large bosses and vessels. Power-ups are on hand, naturally, as well as a total of three selectable characters with their own personal ships, although the third character needs to be unlocked before they can be used. And it’s all depicted in that colorful hand-painted style I mentioned. Sounds tasty, right?

Solar Wings should be sitting pretty on the App Store come Saturday, July 28th. Any SHMUP fans can nab it for a very reasonable $0.99, assuming there’s no accident with the listing like there was for the game’s Desura release.

*Note: Images are from the PC version*

I had a good amount of fun with the original release of Monster Shooter. It was a solid twin-stick shooter with a few minor issues, most of which have been addressed with updates, but it did have one major drawback. I’m referring to the ads, naturally. I mean it is a freemium title.

But just in case anyone considered the advertisements to be too much of a bother, Gamelion has been working on a new-ish paid version. Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels does away with the pesky pop-ups, sure, but there’s a bit more to it than that. More meaning more enemies, more levels, and more guns. For those keeping scor this puts the bullet point tally up to 60 levels, 12 weapons, 100+ missions, 3 planets, and 80+ Game Center achievements.

Having messed around with it a bit already, I can attest to the wonderful lack of ads. Personally I think that alone makes it worth the asking price. But it also seems to be a bit more generous with the cash (which could just be my imagination). Either way, it’s available on the App Store right now for $0.99. Assuming nobody’s dumped a bunch of real money into the freemium purchases, it should definitely be worth the trade up from free to paid.

$2.99

Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-05-10 :: Category: Games

FREE!

Monster Shooter - Dual-Stick Mayhem Perfected!

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-08 :: Category: Games

Gamelion has launched a new free to play shooter called Monster Shooter. The title is something of a double entendre: it is both a game where monsters are being shot, as well as a game where a monster is shooting. How can this be?! Players control the monster who is shooting, as it tries to rescue its beloved kitty who has been kidnapped by other monsters. Or perhaps they’re aliens, as they escape with the kitty to the moon. The original monster follows along, because it has a spaceship too, and once it reaches the moon, it starts killing those other monsters. Using dual-stick controls, players exact some vengeance for the theft of this monster’s kitty, shooting enemies in either a level-based story mode, or in a survival mode. Temporary perks can be earned by killing enemies, adding skills such as faster fire rates and laser sights. The game is free to play, and players can acquire MonsterBucks through either gameplay or in-app purchases to buy new weapons, ammo, health packs, and permanent upgrades. It’s also a universal app, so monster shooting by a monster can be accomplished on the iPad’s big screen. Monster Shooter is available now.

FREE!

Monster Shooter - Dual-Stick Mayhem Perfected!

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-08 :: Category: Games

It’s one thing for slimy, slobbering aliens to go around stealing livestock. It’s something else entirely when they start pilfering cute little kitties. That’s crossing a line. On the other side of that line is a vengeance-fueled engine of mayhem and destruction hell-bent on recovering his lost friend while making his antagonizers wish they were never born. Or spawned. Or whatever the heck aliens do to reproduce. And his name is Dum Dum.

Gamelion has recently announced Monster Shooter, a soon to be released twin-stick shooter. Players will blast their way through all sorts of alien scum on three distinct worlds, featuring a humorous story and lots and lots of shooting. If they grow tired of the plot or structured level progression, there’s also a Survival Mode to put their skills to the test. And yes, the developers have mentioned that they’re already working on additional content which will be released as free updates in the future.

There’s no exact date for Monster Shooter‘s release just yet, but it should be out sometime this month. “… Within the next few weeks,” is the best I’ve got at the moment. Still, it looks funny and sounds entertaining. That combined with a non-existent price (read: it’s going to be free) makes it absolutely worth an inquisitive glance or two. Once it finally gets here, of course.

Chillingo and ForzeField’s Infinity Field, the dual-stick shooter released earlier this year for the iPad, has finally made its way to the iPhone and iPod touch. This version of the game contains the same features as the iPad version, including six game modes, three weapons, and a Campaign mode that will put players through the rigors of the game. The game has been otherwise tweaked to play better on the smaller screen size of iPhones and iPod touches, though the game does support the Retina Display on the iPod touch 4 and iPhone 4.

The now-retitled Infinity Field HD has been recently updated as well, adding new enhanced visual effects for iPad 2 owners. If and when Apple announces a next generation iPhone, developer ForzeField is planning to update the game to support similar visual effects on that device, presuming it does in fact contain an A5 chip similar to the iPad 2′s, according to their Twitter account. Until then, we’ll just have to put up with our pithy A4 devices.

$0.99

Infinity Field

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-08-25 :: Category: Games

$1.99

Infinity Field HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-01-27 :: Category: Games