iPhone Game Review: Phoenix

iPhone Game Review: Phoenix

Price: $0.99

Version: 1.1.2

  

  Phoenix is a game where you aim to kill as many enemies as possible without dying. As you progress you will gain weapon power ups, super power ups, rings, and sometimes health. The game itself reminds me of the flash game Raiden X. However, it is a stripped down version of Raiden X which runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
 The game is fast and requires precision movement to keep your ship from dying. Though sometimes I have found it almost impossible not to get hit by projectiles. You play as a ship, seen in the picture to the top left, and you are trying to keep yourself alive from the oncoming attack. There a multiple types of enemies, each of which require a specific way to kill them. While playing, you control your ship with your finger. You can hold down anywhere on the screen to move your ship around. My only gripe with that is many times my finger ends up covering the ship; thus, I take damage because I can't judge where the enemy projectiles are in relation to my ship. This could easily be remedied by giving more options to control the ship with. For example, placing buttons along each side of the screen which you can then press to move your ship left, righ, up, or down. Another remedy would be accelerometer movement. By that I mean the ship moves when you tilt the game.

This is a quick edit to show what I meant by adding buttons. Note: Those buttons are not actually in game

  Overall the game looks fantastic and is a blast to play. There are five levels of difficulty to choose from, each one posing a greater challenge for the player. Plus, there are leaderboards so you can share your score with the world. One thing I would add is a sixth level of difficulty, where the ship does not constantly fire. As of now, while you are playing, the ship is constantly firing. This sixth level would make the player fire when needed and cause the game to become more challenging. It is not a big gripe, but definitely something which would enhance the game in my opinion.

  Though it may come as a turn off to some people, this game does not have multiplayer at all. I find the game fun without multiplayer, and don't see it as a necessity. However, if the company were to add multiplayer I would hope it be something well thought out. If it were me adding the multiplayer, here is what I would do. First, I would allow it to be over wifi so you can play with someone on your GameCenter friends list. Next, the game mode would be a score battle. However, each player would take turns. Here is the fun part, I would make it so one player would send the enemy ships to destroy the other player, while the other player tries to get the highest score. Then, when the other player dies, they switch places and the second player tries to aim for a high score. Again, this is just my thoughts. As I said before the game is great without multiplayer.

Boss battles and explosions! What could be better?

  For $0.99, this is a great game. I highly recommend it to people who like top down shooters. Minus the gripes, this game is still great to play. This game has great graphics, good gameplay, and is a challenge. It will definitely keep you busy for quite a while.

~Dave