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Space Trooper USA is a new dual-stick shooter from Bento Studio. From the start menu, after a loading screen which gives you a little bit of background, you’re thrown right into the action where you fight off wave after wave of enemies that get increasingly more difficult as you progress. Meteors crash down onto the asteroid that you’re on in random areas, releasing enemies and one big mother enemy that will keep spitting out a certain number of enemies until you kill it. The further you get into the game, the harder the enemies, and the more meteors crash into the asteroid.

This game is a high-scoring affair from the start, and the scoring system is pretty decent. You can get combos for killing enemies in quick succession, and there’s also power-ups, some of which give you a faster firing rate, or more points for each kill. There is only one mode, and that’s the endless wave mode. There’s also no options available, making this a bare-bones kind of game.

But what is here in Space Trooper USA is an action filled dual-stick gunning rampage with great looking visuals. The game is not supported by retina display, which is pretty upsetting, because the dark and atmospheric asteroid is constantly being destructed by your plasma shots, meteors, and exploding enemies, and reconstructed with a power-up that makes you invincible and restores the asteroid to it’s normal state, and these destruction and reconstruction physics look great, even without HD graphics. The music and effects also add quite a bit to the atmosphere of the game, making it even more intense and dark.

The enemies increase in difficulty as you progress from wave to wave, and there’s a lot of variation with them as well. The artificial intelligence for them isn‘t really anything special, they really just follow you around and go to the point where you‘re standing, but with the rate at which you can kill them, and they‘re spit out of the mother enemies, you will constantly be backed into a pack of enemies by another pack coming right at you. It gives the impression that the aliens are working in packs against you.

The power-ups in ST USA are great, and have quite a bit of variety. There’s 7 different power-ups, each of which are permanent, except for the invincibility/asteroid regeneration upgrade. There’s health, plasma shots, fire rate and speed increases, shot power increases, and score increase power-ups. Each of which effects how you play pretty significantly. Each time you kill a mother enemy, a power-up is dropped, and it will be one of 3 groups of power-ups, which change every couple seconds to a different power-up. Getting to the power-ups before they disappear can prove to be very dangerous later in the game, and grabbing the power-up you want can be even more difficult because you might have to wait until it changes into the power-up you’re trying to get. Bento Studio did a great job with this, as it does add quite a bit of strategy and tactical gameplay to Space Trooper USA.

Controls are your typical dual-stick controls, they are very responsive, and work extremely well. To use a plasma shot, you double tap your right stick, charging the shot, and then aim with the stick, and release to fire, and regeneration of the asteroid is done by holding down on the right stick as well. This lets the game flow really well, and you really don’t need to think about what your fingers are doing while in the heat of battle.

All-n-all, Space Trooper USA is a solid dual-stick shooter that could use some options, more info on the story, and maybe another mode or two, along with an HD graphics update. Though none of this really hurts the game much, they are things which would be great additions for future updates. With the game only being $0.99, it’s well worth the purchase, as a pretty hectic high-score battle has already started on the GameCenter leaderboards. If you’re looking for an intense, dual-stick, action-arcade game, Space Trooper USA will get your heart pounding, and give you hours of great high-scoring entertainment.

I’m giving Space Trooper USA a score of 8/10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-trooper-usa/id439890015?mt=8

Mighty Fin is a new arcade game from Launching Pad Games. In it, you’ll control a fish named Fin by tapping to dive, and letting go to fly up in the air. The further you dive down, the higher up in the air you’ll go, all the while collecting bubbles, and costume pieces, while avoiding obstacles, sharks, lobsters, and more. There’s 16 levels that change up each time you play them, meaning that you’ll never play the exact same level twice.

The gameplay is a lot like Tiny Wings, which means that yes, this game is great for everyone, from hardcore gamers to casual gamers, and everyone in-between. With 16 levels, each randomly generated, you also get Survival and Endless Modes with each one of them, meaning that there’s essentially endless replay value with Mighty Fin, and that’s always a great selling point. Each of the levels has scores for bronze, silver and gold medals, and a bubble path for you to try and follow, along with gold bubbles that help boost your score, and 60 different costumes to find and unlock so you can dress Fin up throughout the game.
The graphics in Mighty Fin are outstanding. Very polished, and very cute. Along with great animations for each object and life-form, the whole world of Fin is one that’s very vibrant and colorful, and pops with retina supported devices. The controls are tight and very responsive, and along with the physics, it makes for a game full of great arcade type action and you’ll never experience accidental deaths at the hands of the game.

The endless and survival modes for the beginning of the game can be quite easy, but don’t let that turn you off from the modes, because once you unlock some of the later levels, you’ll have your hands full trying to climb your way up the 24 GameCenter leaderboards. There are, however, no achievements, which is strange, because this game could have quite a few challenges that would be great if added to an achievement list.
The latest update for Mighty Fin was HUGE, doubling the size of the game. This gives me loads of hope for the future of Fin, especially if the developers keep adding content like this. It has certainly become a game that every gamer should have, joining the ranks of Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, Cut The Rope and Fruit Ninja, which is quite the achievement for any company. Being Universal, priced only at a buck, and full of content and endless replayability, it’s definitely worth more than you’ll pay for it.

I’m giving Mighty Fin a score of 5/5, and it’s really a game that’s recommended to everyone.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mighty-fin/id434539624?mt=8

Zombie Slaughter is a new swiping action game from Tapkee Games. In it, you will fight wave after wave of zombies. You’re given 3 difficulties, Easy, Medium, and Hard. On Medium and Hard Modes, you’ll need to figure out strategies to take out the hordes of zombies in order to beat the game, but in Easy mode, you can pretty much just learn the movements, and how to play the game without too much of a challenge.
There is no story in the game, and very little environmental change. As you progress through the levels of 3 waves each, the platforms you can jump on will grow, but apart from that, you won’t see much different between the levels. There’s 1 health pick-up for each wave you’ll go through, and once you reach level 2, you’ll be able to pick up a sword and slice away at the zombies for a limited amount of swipes. This lack of story, or extra modes can put some people off of the game, especially since there’s no online leaderboards, achievements, and actually, no scoring system at all.

This lack of content could very well be the downfall of the game. Which is sad, because Tapkee Games has built up a very decent base for a game. The rag doll physics work extremely well with the animations, and gravity + swipe physics of the game, and the random zombie spawning leads to different types of gameplay with each and every game. But it’s plat former aspect also makes me wish that the developer would have added some virtual buttons along with the current swipe controls, and Zombie Slaughter could also use some power-ups and maybe even a shop. If all of this was added, Tapkee Games would have one hell of a game on their hands.
The lack of content can be overlooked by the amazing, addictive, action-filled gameplay, but not for too long. The developer has realized this, and has mentioned on the Touch Arcade Forums that he will be adding more content, different environments, achievements, item-drops and more weapons, as well as an endless mode.

The game, right now, is $0.99, the perfect price for a “let’s check it out” kind of attitude, and it is worth checking out. The developer has given me 5 promo codes to share with our readers, so if you’re slightly interested in the game, and are one of the first to be reading this review, you can try and snag one of ‘em;

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I am looking forward to future updates, and hope that this game gets more content. As it is now, I’m going to give it a rating of 2.5/5, but it has the potential to be a 4 or even 5 star game if the developer keeps working on it like he’s promised. Here’s hoping this game doesn’t fall into the huge bundle of games that have been forgotten by developers over the years.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zombie-slaughter/id457408130?mt=8