'Meteor Blitz' – Dual Stick Space Shooting Goodness
posted by arn on September 16th, 2009 2:34 AM EDT in $1.99, 5 stars, Reviews, Shooter, iPhone games, iPod touch games
I'm not sure what it is about dual-stick shooters, but these games seem to generate huge followings on the iPhone platform. It may just be that the multi-touch screen suits the control system so well. Regardless, the latest dual stick shooter to make a big splash in the App Store is Alley Labs' Meteor Blitz [$1.99].
The game bears more than a passing resemblance to Super Stardust HD for the Playstation 3, so if you loved Super Stardust HD, that would be a very good thing.
Meteor Blitz is a dual-stick asteroid shooter that offers both Arcade and Survival modes. The game centers around your ship which can fire a variety of different weapons. The standard projectile weapons include a plasma gun, flamethrower, and ice cannon. Different weapons are better for use against specific obstacles. Ice meteors respond best to the flamethrower, while the fire meteors succumb easiest to the ice cannon. Other weapons at your disposal include screen-clearing bombs as well as the gravity gun which can be used to slingshot meteors into enemies causing massive damange. See this video showing the gravity gun in action.
As you destroy enemies and asteroids, coins are collected for weapons and ship upgrades. Meanwhile, in game bonuses give you extra lives, bombs, shields, enemy slow down or the ability to attract coins.
Aside from the onslaught of meteors, enemy ships constantly descend into the game field requiring near constant movement to avoid death.
The game's control system is the typical dual analog stick control system with spot on sensitivities. Weapon switching and bomb triggering are done with nearby buttons at the top right and bottom left corners of your right controller, while speed boost is triggered by tapping your left controller. There is no way to flip the control system left/right. See this video:
As you can see, the art and animation are top notch with all the flourishes you'd expect. The developers also seem to have paid a lot of attention to some other details in the game that are worth pointing out. Pulling your fingers off the dual pads will automatically pause the game. The game also features practically no load times. This YouTube video shows initial launch and the near instant resume on relaunch. And finally, your global rank is given to you in real time as you play (video).
Overall, Meteor Blitz is one of the highest quality space shooters we've seen for the iPhone. It delivers 6 unlockable worlds with a good variety of enemies, excellent controls, and a lot of fun. At only $1.99, this one comes highly recommended.
App Store Link: Meteor Blitz, $1.99
TouchArcade Rating:
This looks like a really good game. Hopefully there will be a lite version. I just have not been able to get my self to buy a topdown space shooter, yet.
You weren't joking when you compared it to super stardust…..a good thing for me as I loved the game but I daubt the originals devs will be very happy about it. I'm gonna snap this up quick before its taken down.
I was involved in making the Versus Mode for Super Stardust HD on PS3. While I can't speak for the original developer Housemarque, I do recognize a *lot* of familiar designs in this especially when comparing to the PSP version. I hope nobody gets upset and regards this more as a tribute to how solid the original's design was.
At least this looks like it's well executed with solid gameplay, and since SSHD is now a Sony brand it's not exactly in direct competition.
Even our own game, Minigore, owes a bit to Super Stardust in how the dual stick controls work and larger monsters split to smaller ones. If you changed the furries into asteroids in Minigore, it would be pretty close.
That video link to the ultra-quick startup is a killer feature. Might have to buy it just for that!!!
i love super stardust!!!!, an absolute must have game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow somebody call the lawyers. Even some of the sound effects sound the same. Surprised they didn't call it Super Spacedust.
I suspect the asteroid animations are lifted directly from the PSP ROM.
This one has certainly crossed the line from 'heavily inspired' to piracy.
This game is awesome. As soon as I saw the review I downloaded the game and started playing. Great game. The controls are nice and the weapon types are great.
For those who are tired of asteroid shooters, Sky Force Reloaded is now 99 cents! W00T! Go get yourselves a proper shmup today!
Thanks, picked up Meteor Blitz AND Skyforce. I'm in shooter heaven!
It would be more fair to say that this is like the PSP version of SuperStardust (made by the same people who made PS3 original). But yeah, you weren't joking when you said it's like that.
This is gonna get pulled. It's not far from a pixel for pixel clone of Super Stardust.
iPhone plagiarism really is out of control now.
As long at it produces games of this quality on my platform of choice, I've got no problem with it. Sony could have ported Super Stardust to the iPhone. I chose not to so.
Oh, and the chances that this will get pulled? Zilch.
EA had a Tetris clone pulled from the store. It looks like this copy actually uses assets directly from Super Stardust, in which case this is piracy, not just plagiarism.
Tetris is a special case, because the The Tetris Company (not EA) holds a copyright on the actual gameplay of Tetris — something that is legally questionable, but has not been tested in court (see the Tetris Wikipedia page for more info). Sony does not own a copyright for the Asteroids-style gameplay of Super Stardust, or for its Geometry War-style graphics. As long as Alley Labs didn't use the direct assets (a pretty serous accusation, by the way) and didn't give it a name that has potential for confusion (which they didn't), it would be tough to make a case for trademark infringement. By the way, looking at actual footage of Super Stardust PSP, I don't really see what "direct assets" you are talking about.
This game – very much like Super Stardust HD (PS3) and Super Stardust Portable (PSP) – is awesome. One of the best buys in the App Store.
Get it.
top fun. As a causal gamer (not correlated) this is a minute of lightning that files an hour away