WAR AGAINST BLOCKS. AS STUPID AS IT SOUNDS
TRASHSTORM IS NOT A REAL STORY.
IS NOT EVEN GOOD FICTION.
IS TRASH GAME REVIEWS.
ALL OF THE GAMES FEATURED WOULD CAUSE A PERSON DISAPPOINTMENT,
ANGER, FRUSTRATION, DEPRESSION, MONEY LOSS INCLUDED.
TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.
Stupidity never cease to amaze me. Even when I've saw the bottom line of videogame idiocy with Breakthrough Gaming, Pix Arts, Smobile and Webnetic, there's always other layers of stupidity that are waiting to be explored, and the following shmup is one of them.
In between the lowest point and the trash game purgatory, lies Shooting Blocks from Webnetic.
Block'em Up?
Just like Shmoup, Shooting Blocks is an arena shooter which, fortunately addresses some of the fuckups we've saw on Shmoup. Why?, Because it has weapons, a total of four switchable weapons right out of the start which you'll be able to give a try.
GUN: Your basic weapon. It has a small blast radius to take smaller targets and a considerable firing rate.
CANNON: A stronger variation of the gun, it sacrifies firing rate in exchange of a stronger and larger blast radius.
MISSILE: The homing shot. Fires bullets that track your targets and also has a blast radius.
ICE: This is more of a defensive weapon. It freezes your enemies without causing damages. This is also the only weapon unable to be leveled up.
The idea of Shooting Blocks is to survive as long as possible, but in this case, you have much better chances of staying alive for much longer. That's because you're given weapons and these can be powered up. Not by picking items, but by leveling them up by destroying blocks in pure RPG style (think Jaleco's E.D.F. which used the Experience Point based system), by leveling up, you'll increase the firing rate of your weapons along with its strength. Firing rate in Shooting Block's case is "How many bullets can be fired on screen as fast as you push the R2 button". That's quite a problem, lacking of an autofire function that would be more comfortable than pressing R2 like crazy. But that would be the least of our problems. As another instance of "Indie shmup done on the cheap" it has its dose of problems. The worst of all is the recoil effect in ALL the weapons. Firing a single bullet will push you back, and keep in mind, this is an arena shooter where you're in constant movement trying to avoid contact with an enemy or an obstacle, in this case is the rotating bars which will destroy your bullets, making them indestructible. One of the dumbest ideas of this game was that if you touch the edge of the screen you'll die. At first I've thought that it was because an enemy spawned right on the spot, but believe it or not, you'll die with nothing by reaching the edge of the screen. I guess Webnetic was trying to counter the trick of preventing the players from confining on a corner to make attacks easier, that was a classic tactic in these kind of games, but in this case it looks stupid, especially with the recoil effect against you, making you feel like your deaths weren't your fault at all, but from cheapness.
Trophy progression is dull and not even challenging: Accumulate a total of 950 points, along with "Get to Wave 8" & "Die 10 Times" (deliberated or not) and there you go, a fucking Platinum for your PlayStation profile. I feel sorry if you've bought this shit for the Switch, 'cos Nintendo's portable console lacks of trophy support.
The epithome of videogame diarrhea
Graphically, its pathetic. You're a white square with a colored square that differs its color based on which weapon you're using, and your enemies are squares with different size and numbers. The idea here is that the numbers represent their total HP and the block will shrink as it takes damage. Embarrassing to see, humilliating to play. Just, no.
The music is one single electronic song that plays again and again and when it loops you can hear when it briefly stops and plays again rather than looping on a specific points to make it sound like an "infinite" song.
SHOOTING CURIOSITIES
- Like in Shmoup, the Options menu only works for toggle music on or off.
Yes please. Quitting from this game is better than suffering more of this catastrophe.
Shooting Blocks is another addition to the list of trash that keeps plaguing Nintendo and Sony alike. ¿Where the fuck is the quality control when we need it?
Being a political prisoner is more entertaining than playing this game.
Looks like we've got another game that earned a Crying Eda as a result of this atrocity.