Based on our reader responses to StarSmasher and SolarBlaster, it seems clear there’s an untapped iPhone market for 3D first person space shooters.
Tonight, Wretched Games released their take on the 3D Shooter with Venger [App Store]. The developer describes their game:
An exciting action packed 3D shooter, spread across 20 frenzied levels. Use the accelerometer to steer your spaceship through trenches, tunnels and asteroid fields. Use the touch pad to blast UFOs and turrets with your lasers, or turbo boost through timed traps. Each level ends in an epic boss battle where you must take out the boss space station defenses while blasting its defense UFOs.
As said, the game is comprised of 20 different levels in which you fly a ship to destroy the enemy UFOs, surface to air turrets and avoid obstacles. At the end of each level, there is a “boss" fight against a space station.
The game vaguely reminds me of a 3D version of Zaxxon, in the way the levels, enemies and force fields are depicted. But, to be honest, I don’t remember enough of the original Zaxxon to know if the similarities extend beyond that.
The ship is piloted with the iPhone’s accelerometer and uses a somewhat loose but comfortable control system. The iPhone’s position can be calibrated so that you can play in any position. Shooting is accomplished by tapping on either side of the screen which activate your lasers. You can play on “normal" difficulty and there is also a locked “insane" difficulty which is presumably available after you complete the 20 levels.
Unfortunately the game comes with no in-game documentation so you are left guessing as to some of the gameplay and enemies. A speed boost button is found at the bottom of the screen which can help you accelerate your way between blinking force fields.
While the mechanics of the game are fun, the levels and especially the boss fights quickly become repetitive. Boss fights appear to simply be harder variants of the same two space stations, though, admittedly I have not yet made it through level 20. For fans of the 3D Space Shooter genre, this is likely the best version out there, but it does come at what is now considered a premium price ($6.99).
This gameplay video shows the entirety of level one (including boss fight) and part of level 2:
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