Frantic Shooter review
:: SHOOTY GUNSPrice: Free
Version: 1.0.1
App Reviewed on: iPad Air 2
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Frantic Shootertakes the now ubiquitous Crossy Roadformula of free-to-play game design and applies it to the arena shooter genre (think Geometry Wars). While it's definitely not a bad-sounding idea, Frantic Shooterreally doesn't do a lot to make itself stand out in any particular way.
Shooty Arena
In Frantic Shooter, you control a character with a gun and slide it around an ever-changing, procedurally-generated arena that fills with enemies, power ups, and obstacles. If you take enough damage, you'll eventually die, and you can use coins that you've collected throughout your play-throughs to either respawn or save up to unlock new characters.
It's a fairly standard formula that borrows heavily from the aforementioned Crossy Roadalong with tons of titles nowadays like Ball King, Shooty Skies, Land Sliders, etc.
Aiming High
Speaking of Land Sliders, Frantic Shooteralso seems to borrow its movement system from that game, as you seemingly move the arena under your gunner's feet instead of the other way around.
To help simplify the experience, gunners fire of their own accord at the closest enemy to them, making the focus of the game on dodging enemies, weaving around flurries of bullets, and collecting coins, power ups, and experience to level up your gun.
The game's visual style is nice and colorful, but -- more importantly -- the game moves very smoothly, which helps make the action feel truly frantic. There are also nice visual touches like the slo-mo camera shots of bosses dying that break up the action and feel really gratifying.
Missing the Mark
On first blush, Frantic Shooterlooks and plays great. After a few rounds though, it starts feeling thin. As a derivative of Crossy Road's free-to-play structure, the progression system is tired, and as an arena shooter, it's fine, but doesn't feel quite as exciting or varied as others.
Further, Crossy Roadwas fun to play repeatedly because advancing just one more space past your previous record or your friends was a very clear (and fun) goal to chase. Unfortunately for Frantic Shooter, sliding around an arena and just trying to survive for longer than you did before isn't as compelling, particularly because it doesn't necessarily guarantee posting a better score than before.
The bottom line
There's nothing wrong with Frantic Shooterexcept for the fact that it isn't special in any particular way. It competently borrows from successful mobile arcade titles to create an arena shooter that feels like those games. If you've been pining for a Crossy Road-style arena shooter, by all means check out Frantic Shooter. Otherwise, you might be better off looking elsewhere.