I’ve said it many times before, but it’s a great era for shoot ’em ups. The ease of development for the mobile platform has allowed for so many classics to arrive overseas, as well as a number of other excellent, original works. Coming off of the high of Operation Dracula I was pretty excited to give Lightning Duru ($0.99) a shot, but came away less than impressed.

The name is derived from the two ships that are playable, “Lightning" and “Duru." The former has blue bullets at its disposal, and the latter’s are coated in red. Lightning has more of a straight-shot at the start that is more damaging, with the option for a backwards shot later on, and Duru is focused more-so on a larger, area-of-effect spread. I tended to side with Duru, as it felt a bit more original both in terms of aesthetic value and gameplay.

While Lightning Duru sports a pretty nifty soundtrack reminiscent of the Mega Man X series and other classic SNES games, the rest of the presentation falls flat. Every asset, from the enemy ships to the bland UI, to the tiny crystals that pop out of enemies for points, are uninspired.

There really isn’t a whole lot of depth either. While Lightning Duru does work as a basic shoot ’em up, the extent of the game’s tactics essentially amount to shooting and occasionally using a bomb item to clear the screen. There’s no advanced combo system, no real emphasis on points, or variety in general to speak of. Enemies tend to display inventive patterns from time to time, keeping you on your toes, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.

It’s also not ideal that there is any IAP system of any kind involved. Players can spend 300 crystals to retry a level mid-session, but they’re also available by way of the in-game store at a rate of 3000 per $0.99. You can also convert crystals into bombs, at a rate of 300 per. Given that it’s a premium app for $0.99 to begin with, I didn’t really like seeing these options in there, especially later on in the game when the difficulty ramps up.

Lightning Duru has some basic shooter mechanics going for it, but beyond that, I’d only recommend it to someone who has played everything in the genre, and then some. If this was released during the retro area, it would have likely been forgotten down the line.