Blue Attack!

John Kooistra, the developer behind one of my favorite iPhone games yet, Blue Defense, has released the follow up, Blue Attack! This is a nice counterpart to Blue Defense where you are now on the offense attacking the red planet.

One of the things that sets this game apart from others is the great graphic style of the game. It has a sort-of neon look to it. It may not be as graphically detailed as some other shooters, but the gameplay doesn't suffer from that, perhaps it even improves the gameplay.

This game features two main play modes -- endless and a campaign mode. In the campaign mode, you are working your way through levels to get to the final defenses and finally to the red planet itself. Endless mode is just as you would expect -- endless wave after increasingly difficult wave of ships from the red planet.

When you finish a level, you have the option to use the resources you have accumulated to add power-ups. Power-ups are varied in this game with 15 different things you can add including extra wingmen, faster movement, faster shooting, bombs, etc. Some of the power-ups are triggered by hitting the on screen buttons while others are full time enhancements. The game has a really good tutorial that walks you through this system, and when you select a power-up, you get full details on what it does. You also have the option to quickly upgrade automatically which picks the best power-ups for the amount of resources you have.

The controls in this game are pretty spot on. You have the choice of either accelerometer controls or using the touch screen. In testing it seems as though the touch screen is the better way to go. When using the accelerometer it can be hard to control the ships in some of the tight spots they will get into. Great calibration is available if you do go with the accelerometer -- you can calibrate it to play in any position you wish.

The only thing that gets me down about this game is that the screen seems a little cramped at times. Some of the enemy ships you will come up against can be, it seems, five times the size of the screen. While you get used to navigating around these ships pretty quickly, especially when using the touch controls, I miss the dynamic camera movements of the original game and think that this could add to this game.

Here's the original trailer from the developer for the game. It gives you a good idea how the graphic style and the gameplay.

[youtube JQqh8Jns-Pg]

Blue Attack! is a nearly perfect shooter. It's a graphically unique, intense, and engaging shooter. It features some wonderfully varied gameplay, great power-up system, and great options. Even the tutorial is good. I can't say enough good things about this game. Very highly recommended. Might be the best $2 you've spent in a while.