Last month we posted some info on an upcoming bullet hell shooter from Firi Games called Phoenix. After going hands on with Phoenix, we ended up really liking the randomly generated nature of the game and were impressed with how well the scaling difficulty worked in practice. While the core gameplay was a lot of fun, Phoenix lacked graphical variety and overall had a rough around the edges feel. This last weekend Phoenix [99¢] was released into the App Store, and the final build of the game has a much more refined feel gameplay-wise but still has some minor issues that hold it back.
Each playthrough of Phoenix is one endless high score run with randomly generated small, medium, and large enemies. Opposing ships are comprised of many different pieces that can be put together in all sorts of ways, meaning you’ll be facing a lot of enemies that look similar but can have slight differences from one another. The bad guys have a nice variety of different bullet types, and it’s both fun and challenging to try and dodge the ridiculous amount that’s being fired at you at any given time. Even with all the action that is taking place on screen at one time, Phoenix still runs smoothly across all of the iOS devices.
Phoenix uses a scaling difficulty level, and the developers have implemented this in a really smart way to ensure that the game is approachable by players of any skill level. Destroying enemies during play will slowly add stars to a gauge in the upper left corner, up to five. The more stars you have the more difficult the enemies are, and the more points you earn. Each time you are hit by an enemy bullet you’ll lose a star and the game’s difficulty will drop down a notch. Before starting each game you can choose how many stars to begin with and during the course of that play the star level will not drop below what you choose even if you’re hit by enemy fire.
My biggest problem with Phoenix is one that remains from the preview build that we tried last month, and that is that the game’s graphics and environment get overly repetitive. There’s only one scrolling background in the game and nearly all the enemies use a similar color scheme and design so that they don’t really differentiate themselves from each other. The fact that the gameplay is so enjoyable makes this problem somewhat forgivable though, and I would bet that Firi Games will work on adding some visual variety to the game in future updates.
Note that this video is of the preview version of Phoenix, and the released version contains more sound effects and background music.
Phoenix is one of those games that really grows on you the more you play it. I love how it’s different each time you play and it captures that same type of magic of classic arcade-style high score games. There is regional and global online high score tracking using Firi’s own leaderboards in addition to Game Center leaderboard integration. Players in our forums are really digging Phoenix as well, and Firi Games is there actively collecting feedback for future update consideration. At the price of 99¢ if you like scrolling shmups, randomly generated games, high score challenges, or any combination of the three then you should definitely give Phoenix a look.
Even today I say that my favorite console of all time is the Dreamcast. And Chu Chu Rocket was on of my favorite games.
Now let's hope Sega Adapts Jet Set Radio (it was called Jet Grind Radio in the US I think), because that was, and still is, my favorite game of all time.
My dreams came true. I love this game. I also bought Ninja Stealth Missions while waiting this game to be released. It has a similar gameplay and is a great game to play with! Let's help those mouses to reach the rocket!!!
I picked up the iPad version of this, and I'm a little disappointed. Content wise it's pretty much all there, but I really liked the Dreamcast version, which is probably why I feel this way. If you never played the original you probably won't notice.
Things like the lack of 3d, the delay on some of the interface buttons, the lack of sound effect for every mouse entering the rocket. It just makes it all feel a bit unloved.
Anyway, it is still ChuChu Rocket and it's such a natural fit for a touch screen game. I fully concede it's probably just my over attention to detail and my memory of the dreamcast version. If you don't have OCD like me you'll probably love it ;)
The lack of sound effects definitely bothers me.
I didn't notice the lack of 3D. Which parts are 2D instead of 3D?
Also, the iPad version crashes a ton while loading levels, at least for me...
Yeah I've had some crashes too. The entire original dreamcast game was in 3d, all the characters in the iDevice versions are sprites. It doesn't really matter though, as the gameplay is 2d. It's just that it suprised me seeing as you would have thought the iPad could manage it.
I'm guessing though that all this was the result of it being a "traditional" mobile project. Someone at Sega starts talking about their hot IP they want on iDevice. Loads of dev companies compete to win the contract, the one that wins knows that they only won it cos they undercut everyone else and the project is gonna be extremely tight.
Haha listen to me, how cynical am I! It may not have happened this way at all ;) I'm just guessing though that it's most likely to be this as opposed to "bad programming".
To give one example, things like getting a sound effect to rapidly repeat (mouse entering rocket thing) in a way that doesn't involve pops/cracks involves some time and effort, both with the sample editing and the programming. It makes sense that when under a tight deadline you're gonne de-prioritise things like that.
Again I don't mean to be so critical. It's a decent enough port, and it's great to have ChuChu on touch screen. I just think when you see things like this it just highlights the time and effort that went into the original, and games like it. That level of polish is often taken for granted.
Good eyes. I'm still having trouble telling if the mice and rockets are 3D or not. They are definitely pretty good rendered sprites if they are. The sound effects are still bugging me... I'm hoping we get a decent patch after iOS 4.2 comes out that will give the iPad version game center, fix the crashes and fix the sound effects. I highly doubt we'll ever get online multiplayer, which is really sad :(
Can iPad users play with iphone ipod touch users locally?
I would also like to know the answer to this.
I would also like to know!
yes they can, although there's always a ton of lag, so it's a little hard to play...
iPad version needs some extra work. While Chu Chu is a classic game and very welcome on the iPad some interface elements are full res and some are blown up fuzzy pixels: why not take advantage of the iPad screen and make sure everything looks 1:1 nice? The delays are not good. It needs to be more responsive on the iPad and the multiplayer delays are very very very annoying. Cant they program that faster? (Im not a technical person so I guess thats a no).
Other than that Chu Chu is a blast. But the iPad version is still a bit rough around the edges and needs some more polishing in the responsveness and some of the graphics.
No online play? No sale. I figured the $5 price would be somewhat justified by the cost to run the online game servers. But if there is no online play then not only is that a huge omission, then the game is horribly overpriced as well.
Its a fantastic game, love it love it love it!!! Now that Amroc has mentioned it, there are small tiny details left out that i overlooked, and will probably constantly curse him for reminding me hahaha, but its still the same gameplay at heart!
Loved this back in the day, and it was free for the win. Don't mind dropping £3 on this. Hopefully there'll be free updates going forward.
Fan base aside, it's a puzzle game, so I'm going to wait until it hits 2.99, which will fall in line with the general price for a really good puzzler on the app store, Aqueduct and Osmos for example, not to mention the excellent No, Human at 1.99 and of course Helsing's Fire and Quell at 99 cents...
Well, I just played it again, and I swear that my ears can hear the mice entering the rockets.... ? Both in Puzzle mode and Battle mode. It's not for every mouse that goes in, especially when fast forwarded or in Mouse Mania mode, but its there....
I'll have to try recording a video of it to upload for you guys, otherwise I'm going to go on thinking there's something wrong with me!
As for the non-3D, it's not that bad... it does a convincing job that it's the same as original DC 3D, especially since its shaded very well, but I wouldn't say its a showstopper.
"the definitive version to own"
Yeah, if you've never heard of the GBA one with 25 times as much content.