You all are probably familiar with developer Paul Pridham, aka Madgarden, through his collaboration work with Rocketcat Games on titles such as Punch Quest (Free) and Death Road to Canada ($14.99), but did you know this one man wonder has also been making and releasing solo projects for many years now? It’s true! One such project is the extremely laid back space shooter Chillaxian ($1.99), which he originally launched back in July of 2013. As you might have guessed from the game’s title, this is an homage to the classic arcade shooter Galaxian, but like… more chill, maannnn. Move back and forth across the bottom of the screen as you fire at waves of enemies at the top of the screen. However, in Chillaxian these groups of enemies are much more lively and expand and contract in a mesmerizing–and yes, chill–kind of way. Blast through as many levels as you can, with checkpoints every ten levels and boss fights every 5 waves. It’s simple, relaxed alien blasting that we really enjoyed in our original review from 2013.
Well, if you were a Chillaxian fan back in the day then you may have noticed it got swept up in the great 32-bit Appocalypse of 2017. Madgarden isn’t going to let that slide though, and so this past Friday he released a brand new update to the game bringing it compliant with 64-bit and iOS 11 requirements. But wait, there’s more! He also added full screen support for the iPhone X, added some new enemy types and special effects, added humans that are floating through space for some reason which can be collected for extra points, and revamped the whole power-up system. Now you can actually scavenge and collect various power-up parts which can be combined to create a variety of unique setups. Hey, I would have taken iOS 11 and iPhone X support and been perfectly happy, but WHATEVER Madgarden go ahead and add new features if you must. I’m happy seeing such a fun space shooter continuing to live on, so if you’ve missed out on this one before definitely give it a look and if you’re already an iOS 11 sporting Chillaxian owner, hey, you can play the game again!