The old argument of “Which one’s better?” may not be familiar to a younger generation, but Old School gamers remember. We remember the schoolyard fights over Mario and Sonic or talking about how many bits a given console had as though it were currency. Anyone who didn’t have enough bits was behind the times. A “loser,” of a sort. An outcast among their peers due to their archaic game machine.

I think Vetasoft remembers, too, and that’s why they’ve released 8-bit vs 16-bit on the App Store.

While the title is a tad misleading (the two measurements of bit depth aren’t actually fighting each other), it’s still quite the fun little arcade shooter. Horrible cosmic monsters trickle down the screen, as they tend to do, and players have to tap each of the little buggers before they reach the bottom. These beasties come in both 8-bit and 16-bit varieties, however, requiring players to quickly switch between both modes in order to take out the offending parties.

In practice it’s a frantic, goofy, fun mess. The good kind of mess. There are no power-ups to confuse things and no special conditions to meet. No bosses, no mini-bosses… In fact, there aren’t even any other kinds of enemies. It’s just the player and increasingly tough waves of baddies made up of varying degrees of bits. It’s the kind of simple that compliments iOS games quite well. Coupled with the kind of simple gameplay that keeps unsuspecting consumers from getting off the train at the correct stop or neglecting important things like bathing.

8-bit vs 16-bit is available right now in the App Store as both a free Lite version and a paid full version. I highly encourage everyone to take a look at the Lite version at the very least. Since it’s free and all. It probably won’t put the argument to rest for good, but it might get people to quiet down for a bit while they’re busy playing it.

[via Vetasoft]

$0.99

8-bit vs 16-bit

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-07-27 :: Category: Games