Super Ox Wars (Llamasoft) (iOS)

[KidQuaalude]

Jeff minters new game for iPhone/iPad is 'Super Ox Wars' a polarity based shooter inpsired by Star Force and Ikaruga.

Video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 97eU7H5hBs

More Info here : http://s349909351.websitehome.co.uk/blog/?p=238

Already submitted to Apple so should be out very soon.

[Jelloman581]

iCade compatible! More shooters need to be compatible with it (are you listening CAVE???). I'll be peeping this one out.

[KidQuaalude]

Out now

iTunes link : http://itunes.apple.com/app/super-ox-wa ... 31380?mt=8

http://toucharcade.com/2012/07/09/get-y ... r-ox-wars/

[Marc]

Enjoying this. Seems you can ignore all the polarity stuff if you're that way inclined, it all reminds me of an old Speccy game.

[NAVVARR]

That looks pretty poor- Llamasoft used to make ultrafast hardcore shootemups with amazing sonix.- Games like Matrix, Hellgate and Lazerzone.

That looks crap- and sounds like an episode of 'The good life'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVQIxK_R3kI

[KidQuaalude]

I take it you haven't played his latest version of Gridrunner then. It is absolutely the opposite of what you are saying. It's my favourite shmup in years. Since Mushihimesama Futari in fact.

Jeff has changed his game designs/difficulty curves to encourage more casual players but trust me, his new games can get pretty hardcore as they go on and his 'resume best' feature in all his new games allows you to jump right into the hard stuff.

[astroid]

KidQuaalude, Controls in this game is the same as in Gridrunner? Gridrunner's sensitivity makes me stuck, I cant control ship as I want, it slides away!! But game is amazing, its true.

[Nick420]

Picked this up yesterday. I like the game but I don't really like the controls. I much preferred the controls in gridrunner than this. Don't really get the polarity thing either. Are you just supposed to aim for one colour? If so that's kinda dumb since you can't even stop firing, or have I just missed something completely?

[Op Intensify]

I wish Jeff would take his time to make one really deep, full-featured game instead of a constant trickle of disposable ones.

For my money, Space Giraffe was the best game available for XBLA at the time of its release.

[Nick420]

I take it back. I don't like this game. The game forces you to kill some of the enemies at very close range, these enemies then explode with a burst of suicide bullets. This requires good controls to dodge. Unfortunately the controls just aren't up to the gameplay. There's other examples of similar problems.
It's a shame because theres alot of potential for a fun game here but it just winds up being frustrating. Serious lack of any kind of a soundtrack aswell. :-/

[NAVVARR]

I take it you haven't played his latest version of Gridrunner then. It is absolutely the opposite of what you are saying. It's my favourite shmup in years. Since Mushihimesama Futari in fact.

Jeff has changed his game designs/difficulty curves to encourage more casual players but trust me, his new games can get pretty hardcore as they go on and his 'resume best' feature in all his new games allows you to jump right into the hard stuff.

I was a massive fan of Minters earlier work- got all his old 8bit classics and I've also downloaded and played a lot of his 'updates'. Can't say I've played his latest Gridrunner- how many is that now?- must be about 6 versions.
I'm not having a go at the man- he's trying to diversify into a new market and attract new people to shoot em ups- its not a bad thing. But as one of this Llamas might say- its all a bit 'meh'.

I've lost interest in his work and I wouldn't bother downloading his games now.

I still do occasionally fire up my old Vic20 and have a game of LazerZone -those graphics and sounds were brilliant- still are.

[Op Intensify]

I'm not having a go at the man- he's trying to diversify into a new market and attract new people to shoot em ups- its not a bad thing.

And this is why Space Giraffe was so awesome, it was exactly the opposite of that. With its retina-melting, gameplay-obscuring light effects, insane stage designs, brutal difficulty, and frequently changing (with no indication) level objectives, it was the equivalent of a strongly worded "fuck you, you suck" to the player. Which is what I should ask to hear from any great game.

Yeah, I know the PC version lets you tone down the light show. That's missing the point.

[Marc]

Except his 'fuck you' game had shit collision detection, background graphics that actually his vital info, webs that could barely be seen at times and enemies that changed behaviour patterns. At random. With no warning. Space Giraffe could be something awesome with a patch.

Oh and To whoever asked above the point of Ox Wars is that the longer you stick to one polarity, the more regularly you earn extra lives to compensate you for your risk. doesn't matter what you shoot, just that you ignore power ups of the opposite colour, as far as I can tell.

[Nick420]

Hey, thanks for that. That has helped me enjoy it a bit more. But there are things you shoot that effect the position of the bulls at the top of the screen. So it seems you have to push the bulls as far to one side of the screen by only collecting and shooting one colour power ups. And I think there are sections with more of one colour than the other. So if your going red it might be bennificial to switch to blue for a bit to maximise score. Still not sure about this though.
Anyways the game seems more fun now that I know what's going on a bit so it's all good