Apple App Store shmups roundup

[Thunder Force]

Update: A couple of rock-breaker shmups have been seen in recent weeks on the App Store which are worth mentioning.

First is titled 'Shockwave' - a slick, mildly updated implementation of the original 'Asteroids' formula, but well executed running at 60 frames per second, and offers progressive achievements.

The second is titled 'Meteor Blitz', and this App Store release is in essence a blatant plagarism of Housemarque's Super Stardust games on PlayStation platforms. I had considered not mentioning it due to the plagarism element, but such cloning is all too frequent on the App Store in all genres as Apple seems to allow it. Although this 'Meteor Blitz' clone is nowhere near the overall quality of Housemarque's PS3 & PSP SSD games, but by iTouch/iPhone shmup standards it's above-average.

[druuna]

Yeahh...HotField looks quite interesting but Space Invaders InfinityGene it's on another planet.
I suggest Infinity Gene to anyone with a touch or iphone...great game and fantastic music...and perfect controls
One of my favorite portable shmups ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShO9rtyIX-0

[spadgy]

I certainly really recommend Space Invaders Infinity for the price. And once you've 'completed' it, the new hard setting opens up a far more satisfying, mildly tough challenge, and more bonus levels than you first think. Great stuff

[Thunder Force]

A new vertical shmup came out today, 'SkySmash 1918'. (haven't tested this one yet, but some folks seem to think it's worthwhile)

[spadgy]

A new vertical shmup came out today, 'SkySmash 1918'. (haven't tested this one yet, but some folks seem to think it's worthwhile)

I just had a very brief go - it plays a little loose, but it looks lovely. Worth 99c/59p I'm sure...

[Kaspal]

it does indeed looks lovely... things like this make me wish i had an iPhone or iTouch.

[kccttzj]

Awesome thread, thanks guys. Got my phone not too long ago and just saw this. Exactly what I was looking for.

[spadgy]

Well, I played a fair bit of SkySmash 1918 last night, and while it's a bit Euroshmuppy, it's good fun. Funny mission based level structure, where some levels have certain criteria to beat, or you have to start again. (For example: 'destroy 75 per cent of enemies', 'defend your general's aircraft'. On the latter, you can, for one level only, destroy bullets with your own firepower, playing escort to a separate ship).

You can tackle levels as you choose once you've opened them, but playing it from the start does mean you get a cumulative score. I take back what I said about it being floaty, as I'd accidentally turned on some weird control setting. The WWI theme is awesome, and the SFX great, but its OST is severely lacking. Bullet patterns are generally uninspired, but not awful. The difficulty curve is sporadic, but for the price, it's a great little shooter. I think it's up there with iFighter in all regards, apart from general level design.

[Thunder Force]

Speaking of danmaku - Noiz2sa has been released today for iPhone / iPod Touch... however I have to warn potential buyers that it appears to be a sloppy port with a practically unplayable framerate... nowhere near as good as it is on PSP. Hopefully a future update will fix this version, or someone else will release a better port to the App Store...

UPDATE!

Several months after the above mentioned terrible Noiz2sa port was initially released on the App Store, there is now finally a worthwhile version of Noiz2sa available. The new version of Noiz2sa released yesterday, titled 'Noiz2sa Free', runs smoothly and was seperately developed by another programmer who also previously ported rRootage successfully to iPhone/iTouch.

In summary - to avoid confusion, here's how you distinguish between the similarly named ports of Noiz2sa currently on the App Store:

App titled 'Noiz2sa': Broken port of Noiz2sa - unplayable mess, avoid at all costs.
App titled 'Noiz2sa Free': New improved port of Noiz2sa - grab it if your eyes are good enough to see tiny bullets on a 3.5" screen.

EDIT: I just noticed you can angle your shots in different ways using multitouch... Also saw the following blog comment posted by the developer:

I'll submit an update when I add online high scores Can't believe some people have rated this 1* in itunes !! really !?

[spadgy]

R-Type's coming:

http://dotemu.com/r-type/

[Thunder Force]

The widely anticipated Taito shmup "Space Invaders Inifinity Gene" is now available on the Apple App Store.

My workmate tells me this is amazing - I'm yet to do the 3.0 update (which I have to pay for as a Touch user), so I can't play it yet!

Yeah, I finally bought the Apple OS 3.x for my iPod Touch this week, since most of software I'd previously purchased under 2.x now got compatibility updates to work with OS 3.0. So now that I can finally purchase apps that require 3.0 or above to run, one of the first things I bought this week was Space Invaders Inifinity Gene.

Really impressed with this downloadable title - could possibly even take the "best iPhone shmup" award away from HotField, imo. Although short the Zuntata tracks in this are among their best, in some kind of Rez meets Metal Black-ish sort of way... definitely worth plugging in the headphones and cranking up the volume for (best shmup soundtrack of the year?). The whole game is a really good portable shmup.

[spadgy]

I forgot to add Roswell fighter to this list, despite having had it for ages, and enjoyed it a fair bit. It's not amazing, but prettu good, and it has a great 1950's rock 'n' roll OST. Sadly, like so many iPhone shooters, it is blighted by the fact you are score individually for each level, rather than pursuing a total score (that point may be redundant if there's been an update recently. I haven't had my iPod Touch to hand for a few days.)



Also, on the subject of Space Invaders Infinity Gene, I interviewed the game's designer, and he had some very interesting stuff to say.

Here's the interview!


EDIT! Changed the screenshot to an actual screen, rather than that weird Arabic banner that snuck its way in!

[rancid3000]

So I just got a brand new 3rd generation iPod touch and for some reason rRootage runs extremely poorly. Once I hit play everything is extremely choppy. Noiz2sa Free runs fine though. Is anyone else having this problem?

[brokenhalo]

I've got an iPhone 3gs and rrootage runs like crap for me too.

[spadgy]

I've still not updated to 3GS and it runs just lovely. Hopefully an update will sort it out soon.

[Thunder Force]

Version 2.0 of Space Invaders Infinity Gene has been released! Just hit the "Updates Available" button in iTunes to get it. App Store description states:

- EVOLUTION -
The world spoke, and we listened! Expanded and improved!
An all-new version!!! ver.2.0.0

[spadgy]

Oops! I've now put a screenshot in my Roswell Fighter post above - rather than that strange banner that replaced my previous attempt!

The Infinity Gene update is great news. I needed something fresh in that game!

[TonK]

Looks like Cave is coming to the iPhone: http://kotaku.com/5437611/bullet-hell-s ... -to-iphone

[gs68]

iPhone games? Fuck that shit, I'm not paying money for even the best shmup in the world if it's gonna have the worst controls in the world.

[spadgy]

iPhone games? Fuck that shit, I'm not paying money for even the best shmup in the world if it's gonna have the worst controls in the world.

I know exactly where you're coming from, and iPhone shmups have a long way to go in terms of quality, but in recent months there has been a trend that has seen iPhone gaming leap up in quality. Initially, iPhone developers were trying to ape the form and function of typical handheld and console games. It didn't work, thanks largely to the control issues you mentioned. Now many of those same developers, and new ones too, are all trying a new approach to iPhone game design, by creating games that play on the strengths of the iPhone's inputs, and increasingly that approach is working.

MiniSquadron is a great example of this, and a shmup, and my favourite original IP on the iPhone.

It's a horizontal scrolling arena shmup based around dog fighting with waves of enemies. It used a simple thum control method, which works perfect with the games physics-based gravity system. I urge all iPhone users to try it. It's amazing, great looking, and hugely replayable.

Here's a screen:

[Thunder Force]

For anyone not keeping up, Apple just announced a new product with a larger screen that will play all their existing App Store shmups, which were previous iPod Touch & iPhone only. Link to Apple iPad. If anyone buys one (I'm not), then try some of these shmups on the device and let us know how it feels! This should at least resolve the issue of bullet hell patterns being too hard to see properly on the tiny iPod Touch & iPhone screen.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Space Invaders InfinityGene EVO (sequel to Space Invaders InfinityGene) coming April 3