I keep getting pulled in by these shooters which are becoming a dime a dozen for the Android Market and keep leaving unfulfilled. While the genre is well represented there are only a handful of really good ones. Blastotsis is not among them.
First, the developer does the right thing by offloading most game data to the SD card. In fact, that was probably the catalyst that inspired me to download this game. But then the game has this goofy method of having a Lite Demo and a separate key app to unlock it versus a separate full version. This results in it consuming two icons worth of space in my programs. But that's not a problem with the game itself... and perhaps problem is harsh. This game isn't horrible either... it's just "meh".The graphics are nice and one thing I did appreciate is that while using the touch screen to control my ship it positions my ship slightly above where I touch so that I can actually see it. Genius! I say that tongue in cheek as too many other developers decide to hide my ship from me. The sound effects are pretty decent too. However, the game seems to suffer from a bit of jerkiness... just enough to be annoying. The graphics also seem to use a very primitive collision detection as it's almost as if circular objects have a square around them based on how objects are hit... very unsmooth. And the words that appear use this font that isn't spaced properly which isn't a show stopper, but is a nuisance and screams amateur.
Back to the plus side, is that the game features several different power-ups that add some interest to the game along with shields and little starts to collect after destroying the larger enemies. The game is presently on sale in the Android Market for $1.49 and, as stated, has a lite version that provides the first level of the game for free. It's a game that has potential... fix the smoothness issues, make the collision detection look better, fix the font, and all in all polish this game up and it could be a winner. For now it's just average... 3/5 stars.
@Alster
ReplyDeleteYou seem to keep reviewing shooter games and that's fine. It's your blog so you can review whatever you want... All I request is that you go to the market and search "Radiant" then download it and play it. No need to review it (I already know its the best shooter on Android). Just play it... It is actually kinda depressing watching you review all these mediocre shooters while completely ignoring "Radiant." Just my $0.02...
Paper Toss (my review prior to this one), Paddlewar 360, and Fire Helicopter are shooters?
ReplyDeleteAnd I've tried the demo for Radiant and didn't care for it. Once again... not horrible, not great. It played smooth, had the cute little pseudo-synthesized speech and all... but the game play wasn't anything special for me. I'd agree that it's certainly better than most of what I've reviewed, though. Glad you and many others enjoy it. But I try and avoid doing reviews on "pay for the full version" games that I haven't purchased and played in full so that's why a review of it is absent. Not to mention there are lots and lots of games to review and I average about one per weekday.
Thanks for the feedback, though. Not everyone is going to agree with me and I'm also open to posting reviews from others if YOU'D like to write a glowing review of Radiant.
Thanks for the response Alster! I actually have this site bookmarked on my Hero and I check it periodically to see what games I should get. I picked up "River Blast" based on your review. I guess my point is that your site is really the only credible source for Android game reviews and what you say about games influences whether I give a game a chance or not. "Radiant" may not be everyone's thing but I guarantee if you review it then people will try it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it isn't your fault that Android market isn't as elegant as the Apple App store, your reviews make it less of a hassle to find good games on the Android market (Android's market set up is unintuitive, and poorly organized but I digress...). In my opinion "Radiant" (or any of Hexage.net's games) deserves the visibility that a review on your site offers. Perhaps, you have underestimated your influence Alster! Anyways, keep up the great work! Your blog is a valuable resource and I appreciate the time you put into it!
P.S. Have you played "Raging Thunder 2" and "Asphalt" yet? If so which one is "better?"
Thanks for the kind words. I doubt I underestimate my influence with just a couple hundred readers per day, but I continue to hope that this grows especially once the new system is in place. I have reviewed Raging Thunder 2 back in early March (and that's one of the reasons for the makeover... finding past reviews on this blog just plain stinks). I'll go and take another look at Radiant and an Asphalt review is in the works. I'm also hoping to do some 'top games' type list soon to help these 'cream of the crop' games get more exposure. I still love Panzer Panic and it bugs me that fewer than 500 of that prime title have sold. I want more games from folks like that and they're just not going to come when they make less than $2,000 off of all that work.
ReplyDeleteI think you are doing a great of of reviewing the games but annoyed at the seeming tone from comments like James. Secondly, I won't say Radiant is the 'best' shoot game out there but one of the best. I actually prefer Sky Force.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to have battles between readers. Ultimately I appreciate ANY constructive comments. Sometimes text/email comments can be completely misterpreted as harsh because of the lack of any body language. I get into trouble with that pretty regularly :-) And also this is just a review site with just my opinion. I'm going to like some games that my readers don't and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as my review said, I like Sky Force too. It's just in a slightly different category than Radiant. Radiant is more of a Space Invaders/Galaxian/Galaga shooter (actually Astrosmash from the Intellivision is what it reminded me most of) and Sky Force is more of a Xevious (or vertical scrolling) shooter. But the core goal of both is to avoid the obstacles and shoot the baddies.