Tag: Dual-stick shooter »

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*

2012 is the year for re-released dual-stick shooters to appear on iOS. Sure, the list is just Radiangames’ Inferno+ and Ballistic SE and now Mutant Storm, but I’m not going to let the facts get in the way of a good story. Originally released on the Xbox 360 in 2005, Mutant Storm (exclusively for the iPad) throws players into more than 80 levels of dual-stick shooter action, full of enemies to take out. While each individual level is structured the same on each play, the player’s performance can make the game harder. There rae two main game modes: an adventure mode that starts the player out either from the beginning, or from every 10 levels once unlocked, and a tally mode where players try to score highly on an individual level.

Mutant Storm is at its best when it is enjoyed from level 1 and played straight through. Starting at the beginning allows the game’s difficulty curve to ramp up appropriately, and just helps get me engrossed in a way that starting from a random wave doesn’t. Is progressing and unlocking new waves quicker by starting from later waves? Yes. Is it as fun? No. That may be the issue: ramping up the difficulty right from the start just makes the game not as much fun. Getting into the groove, watching the difficulty ramp up, now that is an enjoyable experience.

Mutant Storm would do well to explain what is going on with its belt system. From what I can surmise, it appears to be a difficulty modifier and ranking method, but I wouldn’t know from playing the game. As well, there’s the ability to choose different ships, but do they do anything? Good question! Having even rudimentary explanations would be great. The controls made a great transition to the touch screen, as there is no on-screen joystick to worry about, it’s based largely on swiping and adjusting direction through natural motion.

Mutant Storm doesn’t light the world on fire, but even as a 2005 re-release, it does some things differently enough on a structural level that it should engross fans of the dual-stick shooter.

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.

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.

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.