This is a game that really, really shouldn’t work on an iPhone. it’s a twin-stick shooter on a system with no sticks. Doomed to failure, right?


Well, surprisingly, no. The virtual pads are responsive and you can set them up to follow your thumbs around, so you never lose them. It’s an intelligent and workable system. It’s never going to be as natural as, say, an Xbox 360 pad, but the game knows this, giving you small amounts of enemies to hit and making them more difficult, rather than just throwing a million easy enemies at you. Sometimes, yes, I feel like the controls let me down, but less often than in, say, Geometry Wars on the DS.


What really gives the game legs, though, is leveling system. Like an RPG, you gain experience points and money as you play. Money is used to purchase new levels, ships and upgrades, experience is used to improve your stats. It’s a system that means that unfair deaths aren’t as infuriating as they otherwise might be, because every go gets you experience and money.

I played the Lite version for a long time. I then upgraded and I’ve played the full version a lot. It’s a brilliant, unexpected gem of a game. There’s a very generous Lite version of the game available and I thoroughly recommend giving it a go.

(If you do buy the full version, though, don’t delete the Lite version first. Once the full game is on your iPhone, start the Lite version and find the menu option to transfer your progress – that way you’ll start the full version with a huge load of credits.)