Shane McCafferty’s dreadnought-destroying shoot ’em up Starseed: Origin ($2.99), published by Crescent Moon Games is now available on the App Store, out a little ahead of the normal Thursday release day. Possibly due to iOS 9’s release on Wednesday? Who knows. All we know is that Starseed is out now. I don’t know why it has the “Origin" unless there were issues with Starseed Pilgrim, maybe? Why not Starseed B.C, then, as many metal bands tend to do, like the bands Bison and Ghost have done? I mention this because metal influences are all over Starseed, including a ship named Dimebag (rest in peace), and a ship named the Sabbath. It’s not completely metal, as there’s a ship called Prodigy, but Prodigy’s still awesome, so it works.

This shoot ’em up boasts a unique style visually where there are flat 2D objects on a 3D world, with your ship coming into orbit with the station, before you then blow it up. There’s a Jeff Minter-esque progression here, where your lives carry over from one level to the next, and by doing better in previous levels, you can improve your lives count in future levels. Just a heads up that this game isn’t universal yet, so caveat emptor, iPad owners.