PewPew

Literally a poor man’s Geometry Wars – it’s free!

It was Xbox Live’s Geometry Wars that rekindled the interests of the masses when it comes to arcade-style top-down space shooters, and ever since it’s 2005 release gamers across every platform, iPhone included, have found themselves awash with the things. ‘Pew Pew’, the creation of Jean-Francois Geyelin, a first time App Store developer who obviously has a knack for naming his games, is very much in this vain of cosmic shooter. At least it’s not a tower defense. So what differentiates this game from the many? Read on to find out.

PewPew has the same charming look to it as games like Geometry Wars

Let’s start with the basics. At this point in time, although the developers have promised to introduce more in the future, PewPew features a mere two gameplay modes: Dodge this and Assault. Dodge this has you in a small green enclosure collecting red boxes to score points, while also (not surprisingly) dodging an increasing number of hostile green and white “doo-hickeys” that deal you damage upon collision. Assault, on the other hand, has you in a blue enclosure of roughly the same size, scoring points by firing lasers at, and destroying, hordes of entirely different “doo-hickeys”, these ones being blue and white, that damage you in the same way.

In addition to this, both game modes also feature a number of power-ups that randomly materialize throughout play. There’s a yellow box that offers additional ‘shield’ (basically another life) and a blue power-up that gives players increased multipliers, allowing them to reach high scores faster. It’s basic, and I’d certainly like to see an increase in variety, but at least all the essentials are there.

A look at the 'Assault' game mode

Similarly basic are the graphics, which appear very much inspired by games like Geometry Wars, although without some of the more psychedelic and intense effects, such as those seen in Geometry’s explosions. While they’re not without their charm and they certainly run with extreme smoothness, they nevertheless abide by what seems to be the game’s general mantra of ‘basically good, but not especially great’.

Sound is another area where the game achieves a pass, but only just, barely in fact. There’s just the one song that plays throughout the game, no sound effects and no option to play your own music. It isn’t a bad song, but the constant repetition is a disappointment. I wasn’t expecting a huge playlist of licensed tracks, but it seems to defy reason that the option to listen to your own music wasn’t included. Hopefully, a future update will solve this problem.

Dodgin' myself some doo-hickeys

Thankfully, the main areas of the game that buck this general trend of mediocrity are its controls and gameplay. You move your little spaceship with an onscreen joystick in the bottom left hand corner and fire using a similar joystick in the bottom right. These sticks are both well-calibrated and offer a surprising amount of intricacy to your movement and firing.

It gets a lot more hectic than this...

As the game continues and your enemies increase in number, so too does the general intensity of the game. In the later stages you find yourself frenetically dodging enemies and struggling to keep yourself afloat. While it may not compare to the likes of the already too frequently mentioned Geometry Wars, it does provide something of a substitute. Put simply, it’s fun.

When a game finishes you have to option to record your score, which is a nice touch. Unfortunetly this isn’t tied into to any online leaderboards, so you only have yourself to compare to. However, what redeems the game in this regard is the fact that it allows you to view videos of your past glories directly from the scoreboard. To see this in action, you might want to take a peek at our gameplay videos by clicking here.

The Last Word

PewPew is, at its core, a good game. While it may be missing some of the expected trimmings and extras, such as the ability to listen to your own music during play, this by no means ruins the experience and I’m sure some of those features will be included in upcoming releases. With the promise of additional game modes going into the future, I’m almost tempted to reward a few extra points based purely on potential. The price is certainly right, and everybody should be giving this a download.

Screenshots don’t really do this game justice, so you may want to head over to our youtube channel to view our video of the game in action by clicking here.

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