R.Type [DotEmu] - $1.99

DotEmu. Over the years they’ve built up a very solid and strong fan-base in the iOS and Android gaming worlds. And now, just the mention of their name will have a lot of gamers screaming ‘instabuy’ and ‘take my money’. Their ports are some of the best in the AppStore and the added little perks and different settings options have secured their place in the porting world as ‘one of the best’. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out their work, you won’t regret it. Raiden Legacy, The Last Express, King Of Fighters, Metal Slug and others are just waiting to be snatched up by eager old-school gamers like yourself. Now, if the mention of those titles do bring back unforgettable gaming memories, their latest release will need no introduction. R-Type is a classic in the retro gaming world. Released on just about every single old-school gaming platform there was back in the late 80’s and early 90’s and has also been ported to the PC, XBLA and has spawned numerous sequels. 

Set in the 22nd century, your mission is to take out the evil Bydo Empire. There’s not much more to it than that. After each stage is beat, the game will count up your score and you’ll go on to the next. What R-Type is probably most famous for is it’s difficulty. It earned a 7th position spot on IGN’s top 10 most difficult games, and while it can be quite easy for someone who’s learned the ins and outs of the game, actually getting to that level will take more than just a couple of deaths to accomplish. While this is now a staple of the SHMUP world, endless replayability because of heightened difficulties and score chasing, don’t let that turn you off if you’re not really a big shoot-em-up gamer. DotEmu has added an Unlimited Mode in this version, allowing for infinite lives so that you can learn the game and make it through no matter your skill level. 

There are 8 stages, each with a crazy looking boss at the end. One of my favorite memories of the first time I played R-Type when I was younger was how shocked I was at the boss’s designs and models. This, along with the mesh of organic and synthetic material in the level designs and enemies also give R-Type a distinctive feeling and atmosphere that’s hard to forget. To this day the whole graphic design of the game stands as one of the most original, interesting, innovative and visually appealing in the shmup gaming world. 

There are 4 different shot types that you’ll be able to pick up as you progress throughout the game; your original one projectile shot type, a 3 way laser, a beam shot that takes a circular pattern and a ‘wall shot’ which fires out of the top and bottom of your ship and crawls along the walls. While in-game, little robot orbs with feet will be mixed in with the enemies and destroying these will let loose a power-up. If you don’t have a power-up equipped yet, you’ll receive your ‘Force Orb’. This is one aspect of R-Type that really makes it stand out above other shmups of the time period. You can either equip your Force Orb on the front or back of your ship as well as have it maneuver throughout the levels on its own. Mastering the Force Orb is something that you’ll need to do in order to complete the game and adds another layer to form the very cohesive whole that is R-Type. 

There are two control options; Relative Touch and a Virtual Joystick. Both work exceedingly well, and while both have two additional icons, one for controlling an add-on power-up core and another for charging up your charged shot, everything can be moved around anywhere on the screen to fit your play-style and device. You can also turn auto-fire on or off while off will have you mashing on the charge shot icon to fire. There are two options for screen-size, full screen, or boxed and like most other DotEmu ports, you can turn the video filter on or off, making the edges jagged (original look) or smoothed out (more modern look) and add scan-lines to the game as well. Other awesome additions/features are 10 languages, Retina display (as well as on the iPad, since this new R-Type build is Universal), iCade support and an extra Insane difficulty mode that unlocks once you beat the game on Normal difficulty.

To top it all off, DotEmu has dumped the OpenFeint support that came with the older version and added GameCenter with 11 achievements and 2 leaderboards (one for Normal and one for Insane). All of this packed into a nice little package and with a price point of only $1.99, it’s insane to not recommend this to any and all shooter and retro gaming fans out there. Even if you own the old EA published version, this new version has enough perks to throw down the two bucks. If you’ve never played R-Type before, you’re in for one hell of a treat, as it has been, and always will be, one of my favorite shooters of all time. It’s not one to be missed.

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Review Rewind: Neoteria

There's very few games that have been transferred over to my iPhone 5 that have not been updated to fit the 4'' screen. However, there are some games that are just so freak'n good that half-inch be damned, they're still worth having, even in their 3.5'' states. OrangePixel's games definitely fall into this category... and just about one year ago we happened to review their first SHMUP title; Neoteria. Even though we didn't find it as great as their trademark platformers, we still found Neoteria to be a blast, and gave it a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Now, it's today's Review Rewind, and if you're a SHMUP fan who doesn't own this one yet, you should... even if you only have a new 4'' device.

**NOTE** This review was written after playing Version 1.0.0

OrangePixel has proven, with their mobile game releases, that they are kings of the retro gaming world. Their lineup of Meganoid, Stardash, INC, Super Drill Panic and more now have another title that’ll eat up gamers lives; Neoteria, an arcade inspired retro shoot-em-up with the difficulty level fans of OrangePixel have come to love and respect. And really, OrangePixel development merged with shmup gameplay… a pretty hardcore fan of both couldn’t ask for more.

In the game, you’ll start off with only Easy Mode selectable. As you progress through the first world, you’ll unlock Normal Mode, and once you complete the first world on Normal, you unlock Hard Mode, which, if you’re familiar with OrangePixel’s games, is basically where the hardcore gamers will spend most of their time. You’re given little snippets of the story as you make your way from world to world. The outer mining settlement is under alien attack, and it’s up to you to stop them.

There are checkpoints throughout each world, set up kind of like levels. Each has 3 stars which you can earn by playing on all 3 difficulties. The first star is for beating the level on Easy, second star for Normal, and third for Hard. There are different paths which you can play through on your way through each world, with each path leading to the same end boss. You are able to go back and replay previously beaten stages if you’d like to power-up your weapon, which you do by collecting the blue crystals that enemies leave behind, or if you’d like to try and travel through all the paths in each world.

As with other OrangePixel games, Neoteria is done in a retro style that looks fantastic. However, there is one little drawback. On the iPad, the graphics have a little blur behind them whenever objects are moving. This includes the backgrounds, environments, player ship, enemies, and projectiles. It’s not too much of an issue, because most of the time, you’ll be focusing on the crazy amount of enemies coming at you, and trying to survive, but it is there. I’m not sure if it’s there on the iPod, because of the smaller screen, but if it is, it’s not noticeable.

The controls for Neoteria aren’t really what you would expect from a shooter like this, and it’s where the arcade inspiration really becomes apparent. On the left side of the screen, you’re given two buttons for movement of your ship up and down, and on the right side, there’s a fire button, but you can tap anywhere on the right side of the screen to fire. There is no auto-fire, so you’ll constantly be tapping on the right side of the screen to shoot. Here’s where those quick tapping abilities all you old-school gamers should still have come in handy.

In the Controls Menu, you’re able to move the buttons around as you see fit, which definitely comes in handy if you’re playing on an iPad. However, the touch detection area is pretty small, and does not go outside of the buttons at all. This can result in your ship not going up or down because your thumb is the slightest little bit off. This is understandable, since you are able to move the buttons around, and could potentially have the up button pretty much touching the down button, and you wouldn’t want the detection area to overlap. Being able to make the buttons bigger would be a nice way of fixing this, especially since they go invisible after a short time, and obscuring the gameplay area wouldn’t really be an issue with it.

To top it off, it’s also iCade and Joypad supported!

Neoteria does not really have a whole lot of content, especially when compared to the insane amount of levels in OrangePixel‘s other titles. 3 worlds, each with 8 pretty short levels in them. I’m hoping that like their other games, Neoteria will get some nice content updates in the future. But like other shmups, the value is really in the replay value, not necessarily in the content, and Neoteria has it in spades. Yes, there are only 24 short levels in the game, but you’ll be able to play through them with each of the 3 characters, and finding out how to make it into the hidden paths could take a while.

There’s also the scoring system. At the end of each level, your score is based on the percentage of the level’s enemies that you wiped out, your shot accuracy, and the score you built up while playing through the level. This does add an extra level of replay value, as the first couple times you play through the game, you’ll probably be pounding away on the fire button, and then start trying to increase your score by getting higher accuracy percentages.

Neoteria is also supported by OpenFeint and GameCenter, with 12 achievements, and 3 leaderboards, one for each character (difficulty). So if you’re a high-score chaser, battling for a higher position on the leaderboards is sure to keep you busy for some time. Getting all of the achievements should also take a while, as a lot of them are for finding the secret paths, and 100% completing each difficulty.

Granted, Neoteria isn’t OrangePixel’s best release to date, but I’m ecstatic that one of my favorite development teams released a shmup, one of my favorite type of games (yeah, I’m a platformer/shmup/strategy fanatic). The developers have said that they’re working on another control scheme, as a few players aren’t really comfortable with the current set-up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it got a few content updates as well. OrangePixel’s other titles have also been known to get very fleshed out/extremely polished based on player feedback, so the distortion with the graphics, touchy controls, and any other issues that there might be, have a very good chance of being dealt with.

At $1.99, being Universal, having iCade and Joypad compatibility, as well as the crazy high replay value that comes along with shmups and games having GameCenter and OpenFeint support, not to mention, it’s ORANGEPIXEL, it’s a great buy.

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Review Rewind: DariusBurst SP

So, we haven't had a review rewind in a while - but here's a title that has stuck with us for the last year, and will, most likely, stick with us for years to come. Taito's DariusBurst SP. Unfortunately, DBSP hasn't been updated to fit the iPhone/iPod 5's widescreen, but it still plays beautifully on the new hardware, and if you have a 3.5 inch screen device, or an iPad (yes, DariusBurst SP is Universal), this is definitely a game that shines on the iOS's touchscreen, and should be owned by every single hardcore gamer out there. Better yet, with Danmaku Unlimited 2 just released, we've been in a shmup mood lately, and this has definitely come back into play. 

**Note: This review was written after playing Version 1.0.1

With the hardware for iDevices getting more powerful year after year, it’s no surprise that iOS gamers are seeing more and more games ported over from other platforms. Luckily, quite a few of these games that are being ported over, are getting enhancements, and cost a fraction of their original price. Taito, recently bringing RayForce, a shmup from the early 90’s, released in Arcades, on the Sega Saturn, and Windows, over to the iOS, also decided to port over one of their newer titles, DariusBurst, a PSP and Arcade game, released only in Japan. Taito has also added quite a few features to the iOS version, giving it an all new SP Mode with new enemy patterns, and revised boss battles, as well as the Assault ship from the arcade version of the game, and new music.

With DariusBurst SP (Second Prologue) the setting switches between under-water and space levels, with the bosses being mechanical sea-creatures. This makes for 8 possible run-throughs of the game, and is a great change of pace from the standard World War/Vietnam shoot-em-ups that have cluttered the AppStore over the last couple years.

You’re able to choose between 4 ships, with 2 being locked when you first start the game. To unlock these, you’ll need to do a full run-through of the game in either Original or SP Mode, and to get the second locked ship, you’ll need to unlock Mission Mode, and complete 2 missions in Level 3. Each ship has their own strengths, multipliers, and burst shots.

Like other Darius games, you’re able to choose 5 stages while progressing through a pyramid set-up, having 11 levels in total. While blasting away, you’ll come across various enemies that will be colored either red, blue, or green, each powering up your shot, shield, and missiles.

There are 3 different gaming modes; Original, SP, and Mission. With Original Mode, you’ll be able to experience the original PSP version of the game, with the same enemy patterns and music. The SP Mode gives you a chance to blast through different enemy patterns, and revised boss battles, and all with a remixed soundtrack. With Mission Mode, you’re given 8 different levels to play through, each with 4 missions. You’re only given one life, and are put up either against a regular level without a boss, or only a boss battle, and are set to try and score as high as you can within those parameters. Mission Mode is unlocked once you’ve completed two different paths through the game in either Original or SP mode.

The scoring system in DariusBurst is fairly simple, at least, compared to some of the other depthy scoring mechanics some other Bullet Hell titles have. You’re given a Shot Multiplier which increases as you take out enemies throughout the level and each time you’re hit, your Shot Multiplier goes down. The fastest way to increase the Shot Multiplier is to take out large groups of enemies with your burst shot.

Each ship has their own Burst Multiplier, which is added on to the Shot Multiplier. Each ship has their own Burst Multiplier. For instance, Legend and Next Zero ships both have a 6x Burst Multiplier, giving them a top multiplier of 96x. The Assault ship has a 7x Burst Multiplier, topping out at 112x. To take advantage of this, killing the last enemy in a formation, as well as the mid-bosses, bosses, boss pieces and large enemies will give you the highest scores.

You’re also given bonus points at the end of the game for the amount of ships that you have, getting 10 million bonus points for not dying once. There are also some routes that will give players more points than others. Basically, use your Burst to take out large groups of enemies, large enemies, mid and end level bosses, and try to not get hit or die, and you’ll score big.

The graphics in DariusBurst are fantastic. 2.5D gameplay adds more depth than you would think, with ships able to fly by on the “right” and “left” sides of your ship before coming into “firing view”, and the backgrounds that move alongside the foregrounds where the gameplay is taking place looks gorgeous. There’s also areas where you might get dizzy because of the speed and way that the background moves about, giving the illusion of the ship turning down a 3D corridor, and out into space. Animations for the enemies, especially bosses, as well as the explosions, all look incredible. With the game being Universal, it really shines on the iPad 2, with crystal clear and very crisp visuals, it’s definitely one of the best looking games I’ve had the pleasure of playing on an iDevice over the last couple years.

As with most other shmups, DariusBurst comes along with a huge amount of replay value, especially with the Mission Mode Stages. There’s 3 difficulties, selectable in the Options Menu, GameCenter support with 17 leaderboards, and a whopping 59 achievements. With all 4 of the ships having different types of play, learning how to best play with each of them, along with the different paths you can choose from in both Original and SP Modes, the amount of replay value is extremely high, especially if you’re a completionist who’ll go after all 59 of the achievements.

DariusBurst is set up like a quarter sucking arcade game, and because of that, it has the potential of staying on your device forever.

Taito’s release of RayForce had quite a few fans of the shmup genre worried, as the controls were sketchy, and the gameplay not differing at all between iPhone and Arcade modes, but with the release of DariusBurst, and all of the extra effort that went into creating a special game for the device, Taito has re-claimed a spot directly under Cave on my favorite shmup+bullet hell developers list. The price of $10.99 is a GREAT deal, especially considering the PSP version is selling between $30 and a whopping $120, and doesn’t contain all the extras that the iOS version has. If you’re a fan of shmups, DariusBurst is a MUST BUY. Being Universal, beautiful on the iPad, smooth as butter on the iPod, and just a blast to play, Taito deserves to be supported for this. Hopefully other development companies see the support Taito is getting, and will take the iDevice more seriously. It’s games like this that push the AppStore forward, and give me hope that the device I use as my main gaming console will grow above and beyond ‘real’ gaming platforms.

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Danmaku Unlimited 2 [Doragon] - $4.99

If you aren’t an avid reader of our little review site here, or don’t know me from the Touch Arcade Forums, you might not know that I’m a HUGE Bullet-Hell fanatic. So with this in mind, it’s really no surprise that when Danmaku Unlimited 2 was announced last October, I just about crapped my pants in excitement. Now that it’s here, we get to see if we’ve hyped it up in our brains to the point where there’s no way it could compare with our hopes, or if it lives up to everything we hoped for and more. I’ll give you a hint; this review is going to be glowing. 

For those of you familiar with the original Danmaku Unlimited, DU2 not only adds some new scoring mechanics, but an entirely new mode all-together; Burst Mode. We’ll get into the scoring mechanics of Burst Mode in a sec, but first, Classic Mode. There have been some pretty big changes in the scoring for the Classic Mode in DU2. Right off the bat, you are able to graze bullets to help increase your score. However, here, grazing bullets does not effect your multiplier. Instead, it charges your Trance Meter and gives you a grazing bonus. While your Trance Meter does recharge on its own, slowly, grazing bullets and destroying enemies will speed this up quite a bit. Now, how do you raise your multiplier, you ask? Well, it’s a lot like DoDonPachi Maximum’s multiplier raising; you’ll need to collect gems dropped by enemies, however, the closer you are to an enemy, the more gems they’ll drop. So the closer you are to enemies when you destroy them, the more gems you’ll collect, and the higher your multiplier will go. Nifty, huh? We sure thought so! Once you enter Trance Mode, an initial blast will discharge converting all bullets on screen into multiplier gems. Also, all enemies and their bullets (once destroyed) will turn into precious gold stars that really bump up your score. 

Now, Burst Mode scoring. In Burst Mode, grazing is still on the menu as something that gives you a bonus and raises your Trance Meter. However, it does not raise your Trance Meter at the same rate that it does in the Classic Mode, here, it’s a bit slower. However, this is done for a very good reason. If you can pull this next move off right, your multiplier will SOAR. Burst Mode also utilizes the up-close-and-personal mechanics of Classic Mode, except here, while you’re up against enemies they will drop items that raise your Burst Gauge. Once your bar is about 20% full, you’ll be able to enable it and cancel out any bullets that the Burst Laser comes into contact with. The cancelled bullets, as well as destroyed enemies, turn into gems which, when collected, will raise your multiplier. Needless to say, you will be cancelling a LOT of bullets, especially on the harder difficulties. Another huge difference between Burst Mode and Classic Mode? In Burst Mode, entering Trance Mode will, get this, multiply your multiplier by 4X. That’s right. If you activate Trance Mode when your multiplier is at 100X, during Trance Mode your multiplier will hit 400X. This makes for some incredibly high scoring. 

As far as bullet patterns go, Danmaku Unlimited 2 has quite a few interesting combinations. Better yet, there’s a very good mix of bullets that are aimed directly at you and bullets that fly out in pre-determined patterns no matter where you are on-screen. The build up in the number of projectiles between difficulties is great, and with 4 difficulties, there’s definitely something for everyone no matter your skill set when it comes to SHMUPs. 

All of this sounds well and good and already stands out as a top notch bullet curtain title, but something that also makes it stand out above and beyond others? Kind of like the shop in the original Danmaku Unlimited, DU2 has an upgrade, experience and leveling system. That’s right, you’ll be earning experience in each game that you play that’s tacked on to your total experience and builds up your ships level. For each level that you achieve, you’re awarded points which you can use in the game’s shop. Here, you can change your shot type between focused, tracking and wide, with each shot type upgradeable to level 3. Even cooler; you can mix and match shot types. If you’re willing to dump points into shot types, you can even go into games with all 3 shot types active once you have enough points. Points can also be spent on bombs, lives and continues. Even better? Points are permanent. Once you earn them, you own them and can distribute them however you see fit. There are no IAPs, so purchasing points is not an option, meaning that players can’t just buy their way onto the leaderboards. Once you’re at the top level, you can mix and match and figure out what the best set-up is for what you’re trying to do during your run; going on a score-chasing run or trying to just complete the game. 

The controls are another huge plus. DU2 is free of all on-screen buttons. To do this, Doragon has made it so that entering Burst and Trance Modes, as well as switching from your regular shot type to the laser shot type, in Classic Mode, is all done by either swiping up (to enter Trance Mode) or down (to enter Burst Mode or change to your laser shot). You’re also able to customize the relative touch ratio from anywhere between 1:1 to 2:1, adjust the size of the gaming screen, change Trance Mode from auto to manual and on the iPhone, switch between normal and iPhone aspect ratios (in the iPhone aspect ratio, the screen will be able to scroll left and right instead of having everything smaller and centered). And yes, you can also adjust the music and sound effects separately. All-together, along with the game’s upgrade shop, this has made Danmaku Unlimited 2 a customizers paradise. 

Graphically, DU2 picks up where the original left off; exaggerated neon projectiles with huge ships and loads of items on the screen at almost all times. Your ships hit-box is very easy to see as the dot in the middle of your ship, even when things get insanely hectic. There have been some complaints that the Burst Mode orbs look very similar to the Track shot’s tracking missiles. Personally, I don’t see the issue with it, as your missiles go up towards the enemies and you never need to worry about collecting anything that’s going up. There’s also a few shades of color difference between the two, and doesn’t really distract from the game at all. But I thought it was worth bringing up since there are some people who are obviously having an issue with it. Hopefully Doragon can come up with an elegant solution for this; maybe making the Track shots missiles more missile like - long and straight - instead of tracking orbs. I don’t know. 

The background music is done by the same artist that did the music for Doragon’s previous bullet hell title, Storm Strikers, and fits the game beautifully. The mix of electronica and metal definitely adds to the intensity of the gameplay no matter what mode or difficulty you’re playing on. Animations also add quite a bit to the gameplay, with huge explosions and item movement all fitting together to create a visually intense gaming experience. All of it running at a smooth 60 frames per second too, which is very impressive. 

And, like any other SHMUP, DU2 wouldn’t be fully complete without GameCenter leaderboards. There are separate boards for each mode and each difficulty, as well as boards for your total combined scores for all difficulties in both Classic and Burst Modes. On top of that, there’s also leaderboards for the Boss Rush Classic and Boss Rush Burst Modes that are unlocked once you complete the game. There are also 30 achievements to snag, all adding to the already crazy high replay value. 

All of this is put together in a Universal and iPhone/iPod 5 widescreen supported package priced at $4.99. Considering the price of similar games (I’m looking at you Cave) it’s a real steal. Doragon has definitely cemented their place in the iOS bullet hell genre and hopefully we’ll be able to see more from this incredibly talented one-man development studio in the future. If you’re a fan of the genre, Danmaku Unlimited 2 is a must own. I really can’t recommend it enough, and if this glowing review isn’t enough to win you over, you can check out the lite version of the game which contains the first level in both of the game’s amazing modes. You’ll also have access to the game’s upgrade and shop system, which is a pretty cool thing to get acquainted with if you’re still on the edge of deciding whether or not to throw down the $5 for the full version. 

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Syder Arcade [Studio Evil] - $0.99

If you’re a regular reader here on TAS, you know that one of our favorite genres is definitely Shoot-em-ups, and if you’re familiar with my own person favorites on the iOS, you might remember that Space Tripper was my #1 favorite game of 2011, and even after the intense and amazing year of 2012, is still one of my 3 favorite iOS games ever. So if you’re familiar with this next game, it should be no surprise to hear that I’m absolutely enjoying the heck out of it. Originally a PC/Mac title, Syder Arcade has been ported over to the iOS (and Android), and even with it’s virtual controls, feels right at home on the touch screen. 

Syder Arcade is described as a ‘free-scrolling, multi-directional shoot-em-up’ inspired by the hardcore old-school arcade games of the early 90’s. Like Space Tripper, you are able to switch the direction in which your ship is facing from left to right. This, along with some fairly large levels, kind of makes it feel like a sister game to Space Tripper. 

Containing 6 campaign levels, 1 endless, survival level, 4 difficulties and 3 ships, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, Syder Arcade has quite a bit of available gameplay. There is a pretty decent backstory which is touched on in the campaign’s 6 levels, unfortunately, this story is only available on Studio Evil’s website, and can not be found within the game. After months of war against an unknown enemy, you’ll be piloting a ship with Lieutenant Melville as you try and defend Captain Reyes’ fleet and make your way to their surprising technology and even more surprising fleet behind it. 

The controls work surprisingly well, considering it’s a SHMUP with no relative touch. Controlling your ship is done with a floating virtual joystick on the left side of the screen while flipping your ship is done with a virtual button on the right. You’re also given a v-button for your special shot which is placed under the button for ship direction. 

The reason the virtual controls work so well is because of the layouts of the levels. They do not automatically scroll from one side to the other, instead, your free to move about throughout a fairly large area and also have quite a bit of space to move up and down. The camera moves to always keep your ship on screen, and usually keeps enough space around the edges and bottom of the screen to keep your fingers out of the action, and give you ample time to react to enemies, their projectiles, and environmental hazards. 

Not only would relative touch controls ruin the gameplay, they would make some of the different ship stats obsolete. One of the biggest factors in which ship you choose will be its speed, which is different with each ship. As you play through the game, you’ll also earn stat increases that can increase your movement speed. All of this taken into consideration makes a virtual joystick fit perfectly with the gameplay. 

Along with the speed stat increases, you’ll be able to pick up projectile power-ups which will give you different types of projectiles on top of your ships basic shot, like a spread shot, plasma shot and machine gun. You’ll also be able to grab homing missiles along with side and rear shots as well. Mixed in with all of these are repair and shield items as well as items that boost up your special shot gauge, all of which will help you though some of the tougher parts of the game. 

Each one of the 6 stages has it’s own objective. In the first stage, you’ll need to catch up to the main fleet battleship. The second stage has you defending that battleship, while the third stage has you making sure that your battleship can repair itself before being taken out. I don’t want to mention the objectives in all of the levels just in case you’re interested in the story, but this should give you an idea of what you’ll be faced with. 

Now, as you’re blasting away enemy ships, you’ll also be able to earn medals for combos, consecutive shots, kills, powering up your ship and much more, that will help boost your score. Also adding to the challenge are 25 GameCenter achievements. Unfortunately, there’s currently a problem with them not unlocking at the moment, but the developers are aware of this issue and will hopefully have it fixed with the first update. 

Survival Mode is another great addition for gamers looking for that extra challenge, or just another gameplay mode that jumps right into the action. Here, you’re given one life and the ship of your choice with it’s basic level 1 weaponry to survive as long as you can while getting the best score that you can. While there is only one survival level, and the patterns for the enemies are the same every time, it does add to game and helps to round out the gameplay as well. 

Graphically, the game runs at a pretty solid 30 FPS, with the occasional drop, but nothing that effects the gameplay. The graphic design is great, especially with the backdrop for each stage adding a ton of extra depth to the look of it all. Now, I will admit that this is one SHMUP that I do not own on my PC, but it’s pretty clear from watching YouTube videos that the graphics have been brought down quite a bit, to the point where on the PC it looks like a possible PS3 title, while on the iOS it looks about PS2 quality. However, keeping in mind that this is able to run on your phone/tablet and that the price has been reduced from $8 down to $1 and is a game completely inspired by old-school Amiga games and was created for fans of those old-school games, the amount of flashy graphics, or lack there of, shouldn’t really bother too many people. The graphics and animations by iOS standards are still fairly impressive, and the mood created by the look, feel, and BGM contained within the game is fantastic. 

With Syder Arcade being Universal and, as stated, priced at a measly $0.99, it’s a must-own for fans of old-school arcade titles and SHMUPs in general. There are a couple of issues with the dropped frame rates, and GameCenter problems, both of which the developers have said will be addressed in updates, there’s still not much along the negative side that I can say about Syder. It’s a challenging, well designed and just plain fun to play game on the iOS’s touch screen. There is one thing that I probably should state in this review; it’s only playable on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S or newer. But what Studio Evil has given iOS gamers is another console quality title on the mobile platform, and with no IAPs and for a buck, it’s incredibly easy to recommend. 

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Raiden Legacy [DotEmu] - $4.99

DotEmu is definitely up there on our list of developers who do an amazing job with porting games to the iOS. R-Type, King of Fighters, The Last Express, Metal Slug 3, Blazing Star, I could pretty much list their entire catalogue when talking about great ports available in the AppStore. Their most recent release is no exception, and this time around they’ve brought another classic to the touch screen with Raiden Legacy. Not only have they ported over this must-own shmup, but DotEmu has also included 3 other Raiden titles in the package; Fighters, Fighters 2 and Fighters Jet. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Radien, now is a great chance to get acquainted. Not only will you be able to see where quite a few other shmups were influenced from, but you’ll be exposed to a hardcore shmup on par difficulty wise with bullet-hell titles from the likes of Cave and Doragon (Sunny Tam), as well as many other titles from non-iOS development studios. It’s always great when games can still hold their own after 20+ years. 

Not only does Raiden feature stages packed full of power-ups, loads of enemies and quick action like just about every other shmup out there, but it also incorporates some great features that help it to stand out, like bullet grazing, quite a few on-screen projectiles (at the time of it’s original release, it was known for having ‘loads’ of bullets, and even today is considered one of the first steps that brought shmups towards the bullet-hell subgenre) and a nice scoring system that includes the bullet grazing along with medals, two ‘secret’ items; the Fairy and Miclus, and end of level bonuses that multiply your remaining bombs by the number of medals you’ve picked up in the stage. There are also other little features that make the gameplay more interesting; various enemy projectiles, some of which can be ‘absorbed’ by your own shots, quick moving ‘grouped’ projectiles reminiscent of bullet curtain shots and a larger-than-the-screen play area that you can use to your advantage, like being able to avoid enemies as enemies that are not on-screen can not shoot at you.

Along with the original Raiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2 and Raiden Fighters Jet are also included, all of which feature some of the same great mechanics as the original, including bullet grazing, medals and more. One of the major differences, aside from the graphical improvements, is the addition of numerous ships, each with their own strengths and weaknesses as well as some enhancements to the scoring system, charged shots and ‘slave’ ships that have a direct influence on the medal system. Needless to say, once you learn the ins and outs of each games scoring, they become a lot more difficult, as well as raise up the replay value and general fun factor of the games. 

Each of the 4 titles have the same game options. If you’re familiar with DotEmu’s previous releases, you pretty much know what to expect. You can change the game’s volume level (though you can’t change the sound effects and music volumes separately), turn video filtering off or on allowing for you to experience the games in their original pixilated graphics, or more ‘modern’ smoothed out graphics and switch the aspect ration between ‘original’, which puts a ‘dead zone’ at the bottom of the screen, and ‘full-screen’ which takes up the entire screen. You’re also able to adjust the controls by placing them anywhere on the screen, turn auto-fire on or off and switch between the original arcade ship speeds, adding quite a bit to the strategy and ship selection decisions, and fast touch, allowing for near 1:1 movement and speed. 

Along with the ‘typical’ DotEmu game options, you’re also able to choose between two difficulties for each game, Medium and Hard as well as play through the original Arcade Mode, Mission Mode which lets you play through single levels that you’ve unlocked by playing through Arcade Mode, and Training Mode, which gives you a chance to practice levels with unlimited continues. 

Of course, an iOS shmup isn’t really complete unless you’re able to chase other players high-scores. Raiden Legacy is supported by GameCenter and features 8 Leaderboards; two for each of the 4 titles, split up by difficulty. Along with the 8 Leaderboards there’s also 15 Achievements, most of which will take some pretty slick gaming to unlock. Along with all of this, Raiden Legacy also features iCade compatibility, giving players the opportunity to have an almost exact copy of the original arcade experience. 

There is one minor issue that I’ve run into while playing; starting the game back up after pausing it will give you a black screen for a second. During this second, the game has already started which can result in some very unnecessary deaths. But aside from this, Raiden Legacy is a near perfect port, as you might have expected coming from DotEmu. 

Priced at $4.99 and being Universal, Raiden Legacy is an incredible deal. If you told me years ago that I would be able to own Raiden for a mere 5 quarters, I would have laughed in your face. Shmup fans looking for a hardcore gaming experience up to par with the bullet hell titles available on the iOS would be doing themselves a favor picking this collection up. However, if you’re not very good at shmups, you should keep in mind that the Easy difficulty has been taken out of each of these games, so there just might be more frustration in here than you’re willing to deal with. With that in mind, it should also be said that DotEmu has done an incredible job in the past with adding tweaks and features to games based on customer and gamer feedback, so there is a real possibility that Easy could very well be added to the games in the future, so you just might want to keep an eye on the updates for Raiden Legacy in the future. Personally, I’ve got to put Raiden Legacy in my top 10 favorite iOS games of 2012, and it’s definitely a must-own for shmup lovers. 

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Review Rewind: EnbornX

It's kind of strange that we haven't had many new shmups hitting the AppStore lately. With the amount of them that were being released about 6 months to a year ago, it's just weird that we haven't had but a couple over the last 3 or 4 months. Well, one that's been on my device since it's release is Latansia's EnbornX. With it's endless gameplay and fantastically randomly designed enemies, I was hooked from the beginning. Since it's release it's received a couple of updates, one of which added relative touch controls into the mix. If you're a fan of wild way out there huge ass robot anime bad guys, you'll definitely wanna check this one out.

**Note: This review was written after playing Version 1.02

Shoot-em-up games have been making a huge comeback over the last couple years. Mainly because you can now play old favorites like R-Type, Earth Defense Force, Galaga and Battle Squadron as well as newer games, like Fast Striker, Deathsmiles, ESPGaluda and DoDonPachi all on a mobile device with touch screen controls that make previously hard to pull off with a joystick moves as easy as swiping your finger across a screen. Mixed in with these classics and new favorites, we’ve been given quite a few new and amazing bullet hell and shmup titles. Enborn-X, by Lantansia, is yet another example of this.  

This endless boss battle structured game is a blast to play. There’s two different control methods, both being tight and easy to use. One option is a joystick, while the other is relative touch control, and both have 3 different buttons for attack options. Each attack has it’s own percs as well as weaknesses. Your spread shot can cancel out certain types of shots from the bosses, while some projectile shots go right through your bullets, a laser that you need to charge while avoiding the onslaught of bullets coming your way, and an incredibly strong up close and personal punch attack that, well, you need to be up close and personal to use.

In order to max out your score against each boss, you’ll need to pick them apart, destroying them piece by piece. You can go straight for the middle of them, destroying them fairly quickly, but doing this will cause your score to suffer quite a bit, and in a high-scoring game like this, that’s a big no-no. For each piece of the boss you destroy, you’ll rack up points while shooting that piece, as well as get a bonus score for destroying it before moving on to the next piece. Starting at the edges and moving inward is essential, but also comes with quite a bit of risk. Generally, the edges of the boss are the pieces that shoot out the most bullets. This means you’ll need to get use to weaving in and out of them while attacking instead of staying in the middle and slightly moving to avoid the missiles and big lasers that you’ll usually find there.

The graphics and animations in Enborn-X are very exuberant, and it can sometimes be hard to focus when each new boss is spawned from the orb that you’ll be fighting. The animations for this are great, each bit being flung out of the last in true overdone anime style. In short, it looks awesome. The animations for your character are pretty typical of shooters, but match the style of the game very well. It would be nice to see one or two more moves incorporated to the melee attacking, as right now you punch twice over and over again, adding in a kick or super twirl punch or something would have been a great addition, but as it is, you’ll be focusing more on how much damage you’re doing with those punches than what your character looks like while pulling them off. The sounds and music go together with the anime style too, being full of energy, and adding to the overall feel of the game. 

Now, with the game being done in true anime style, it’s amazing that it’s only $1.99, as most anime entertainment is usually premium priced, and with the amount of replay value, and the sheer exaggerated amount of action that’s in the game, $1.99 is a great price. EnbornX is also Universal, and compatible with iCade, giving gamers even more reason to lay down a couple bucks for it. Of course, a high-scoring game like this wouldn’t be complete without OpenFeint and GameCenter leader boards, now would it? Highest score and highest stage boards are included, as well as having 15 different hard to snag achievements. Lantansia has proven that they can make an over the top game that fits within the growing genre as well as expands it. Hopefully we can see another mode or maybe more weapons and characters in future updates, but right now, if you’re a fan of the genre, Enborn-X is a great buy.

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