Xbox 360
Apple recently announced that a whopping 30,000 games are now available for download from the Appstore, which begs the question – how does a game manage to stand out in such a crowded marketplace? Perhaps it will boast revolutionary graphics or groundbreaking accelerometer controls. Once you hook up your headphones and delve into Circuit_Strike.One from h.grenade, there’s no end to the features that stand out in this futuristic space shooter.
The gameplay can be likened to the arcade classic Asteroids, while fans of Geometry Wars will be pleased by the neon graphical style. A top down view of the arena presents a 2.5D map for you to control your ship’s direction and cannon trajectory. Chaotic hoards of bad ass geometrical shapes swarm towards you as you weave your way around the screen in a bid to destroy each level’s data core. All you need to know about CS.One is in the game’s tagline: “Kill everything. Touch nothing.” The background textures are distractingly beautiful to say the least, and each level’s explosions are joyously burned onto your retina.
The game’s music, sound effects and voice samples are mixed in real time and triggered in sync with the gameplay. All noise ingeniously grinds to a halt when using the bullet-time hack, and it’s at those times that headphones make an incredible difference to the player’s immersion. The rhythmical interactive soundtrack written 3l3tronic can be forgiven for reprogramming your heart’s pulse rate. The seamless shift from one slick beat to the next compliments each tactical play, explosion and victory and the overall audio presentation has set a new bar for iPhone gaming.
On the face of it, Circuit_Strike.One is a simple arcade shooter. You would be forgiven for thinking that the game’s creators at h.grenade were aiming at the casual gamer, but the intense learning curve, brutal level of difficulty and l33t-speak suggest something else entirely. Sitting down for a quick blast isn’t a problem, but the game demands you put in the time beforehand to acclimatise to the controls and raw speed before you’ll manage a satisfying session of any kind.
This isn’t necessarily a negative to get bogged down by, there’s still plenty of rewards to reap from getting stuck right in, but those with short attention spans might want to think twice. There’s no room for n00bs in this war. All Ur Bases R Belong to CS.One.
Circuit_Strike.One may only be power-publisher Chillingo’s 43rd most popular game at the minute, but the chaotic strategy of the neon space shooter has already won over a loyal fanbase of consumers and industry professionals alike. Not content with the camaraderie of war, that said fanbase has already split into factions on internet forums. The fight for top spot on the online leaderboards is fierce, something that Shay Casey, top gun at h.grenade, hopes will heat up with each version update.
The online leaderboards add a final incentive to the whole package, and while the steep learning curve may put a lot of people off, those that persevere will be rewarded with a blistering space shooter that brings first class game immersion to the iPhone. Speed, haste and frantic death-defying manoevers: You’re going to be needing them all for Circuit_Strike.One.