Meteor Blitz: Shock and Awesome
Written: Oct 12 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: challenging, solid gameplay, fun, great graphics, great sound options
Cons: limited replay value, some responsiveness issues
The Bottom Line: One of the best values on the iTunes App Store.
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| kjell1979's Full Review: Meteor Blitz for iPhone |
Asteroids is a game that's surprisingly seldom copied. For a game that was immensely popular in its day, we've only seen a few remakes none of which have really set the world on fire as the original once did. Out of the various notable asteroid clones the ones that have stuck out the most were Maelstrom, a clone for the old Macintosh computers which was surprisingly good, and Armada which was more of an RPG adaptation that focused on same console multiplayer. Armada was later ported to the PC where it took on a MMORPG identity. Now Alley Labs has added their own variation on the classic space shooter. What they have up on the iPhone App Store is one of the best games you'll find for the iPhone.
Gameplay
Meteor Blitz has a great set of gameplay mechanics. The basic objective of the game is to destroy meteors, enemy ships, all while avoid being destroyed yourself. You start out with three lives and your ship's shields can take just one hit before your vulnerable just like in Ghouls and Ghosts or Ghouls and Goblins. You fight across 6 different worlds, each with 5 stages apiece. The game starts out with only one world unlocked but as you finish an unlocked world; a new one opens up for you to fight through. As you progress from stage to stage throughout the different worlds, the going gets more difficult. There are more and more asteroids and the game surprises you with unique ways to send enemies at you. You'll find yourself followed by falling meteorites, as well as being surrounded by new enemy ships. At the end of each stage there's a boss ship that uses steel balls to protect it as well as using them as projectiles to try and destroy your ship in the process.
You have a sizable arsenal at your disposal to deal with your enemies. You have a normal projectile weapon as well as a flamethrower that's particularly effective against ice asteroids, and an ice projectile weapon that takes apart fiery rocks with ease. There's also a bomb weapon that clears the screen as well as a gravity gun that propels meteors and steel balls in a particular direction at a high velocity.
Enemy ships and asteroids drop small rings. These rings can be gathered up and used to purchase upgrades for your weapons and ship. Most of your weapons have 6 upgrade levels that can cost quite a bit towards the later upgrade levels. You can also purchase more bombs, as well as greater ship speed that comes in handy on later levels.
There are also bonus ships that appear throughout the game too. They contain other random bonuses that help you along your way. Such items include extra lives, extra bombs, a replenishment of your ship's shield, a slowdown of the action for about 10 seconds, and the ability for your ship to pull in rings when they appear on screen.
While earlier worlds are pretty easy for most space shooter veterans, the game gets pretty hard by the time you reach the sixth world. I found myself dying quite a bit even on the third and fourth worlds and it took me a while before I even unlocked the 5th and 6th in general. Unlocking each world and finishing that 6th world is very satisfying even though it's not quite as difficult as other shooter games like Ikaruga. The key is to build up your score as high as you can to best your own high score, but you can also submit your scores to the game's online servers and compare your results with other players too. It's a nice feature for the game and allows you to claim bragging rights against your peers.
In addition to the stage-based arcade mode, there's also a survival mode. In survival mode you play on a single world and see how long you can last against wave after wave of enemies. Each wave gets harder and harder. The game is over when you eventually lose all your lives. It's a fun gameplay mode, but I end up playing the arcade mode more often.
Overall the gameplay in Meteor Blitz is the most compelling reason to purchase this game. There are plenty of weapons and ways to blast through your enemies. This is the type of game I will enjoy playing for some time to come.
Controls
The controls are one of the worst aspects of Meteor Blitz. The controls are a standard two analog stick scheme virtualized through the touch screen. The virtual sticks respond really well and are loose enough to enable you to perform some pretty nice maneuvers. The left stick moves your ship, while the right stick controls your direction of fire. By double tapping the left stick you can warp ahead one screen length in order to get out of trouble. There are also two buttons surrounding the right virtual stick. The one in the top right switches your type of weapon while the one on the bottom left drops a bomb that clears the screen of enemies.
The problem with these two buttons is that they're very unresponsive. It's often a more risky proposition to try and switch weapons or drop a bomb in a heated firefight because often it takes me two or three touches before it registers. This is almost certain death in the heated action in the game.
In addition, the menu controls are just as unresponsive. I often have to press some buttons in the menu a few times before it registers properly. It's a deeply disturbing flaw in an otherwise incredible game.
Graphics
The graphics in Meteor Blitz are very good. The graphics are sprite based. Your ship sits small on the screen and doesn't look too detailed, but the meteors, enemy ships, and the backgrounds all are delightfully detailed and colorful. One of the biggest drawbacks to the graphics is that for as large as some of the meteors and enemy ships, you don't see any epic explosions. Sure a large explosion would take away from the gameplay in situations where it would mask incoming enemies, but at least I would have liked to see a more satisfying explosion from the end of stage bosses.
Performance-wise the graphics are superior to many other iPhone games. Meteor Blitz allows for many different objects to race across the screen with no slowdown. This is even more impressive given that the more advanced levels not only send a ton of moving objects at you like enemies projectiles and other objects, but also the enemies move off-screen and while not rendered graphically, their positions must be continually recalculated on top of it. Graphically, it's hard to find a more superior game in this genre.
Sound
The audio is also one of the best aspects of Meteor Blitz. The music does have a pretty decent musical track that plays over and over. It's upbeat and helps to set the mood. The problem is that it gets really repetitive stage after stage. But that opens the door for something even better. You can play music from your iPhone or iPod which still plays while the game is playing. Thus you can pump The Crystal Method or something just as upbeat but with more variety.
The sound effects are also one of the stronger aspects of the game too. Explosions, ship fire, and other sounds have their unique identity. Asteroids explode with a different sound than enemy ships or enemy bosses. Each sound effect has a practical purpose in mind. Ring collection sounds are much duller because it allows for you to collect dozens of rings at a time without overwhelming your senses, but when you destroy an enemy ship the sound effect is sharper and easily identifiable.
Replay Value
Sadly as solid and fun the gameplay is, there isn't much in terms of replay value. Armada already established the online aspect in asteroid variants. So to see a game that's so simple where the only incentive to replay this game over and over is to beat your high score and others from across the world does leave you with a sense of disappointment. What kept me playing is almost exclusively the solid gameplay. The pace and frantic action is really addicting to gamers looking for that great gaming experience and Meteor Blitz does fill you with that sense of satisfaction.
Overall despite its flaws Meteor Blitz is one of the best games available on the iPhone. The gameplay is fantastic, and it comes at a very affordable price of $1.99. In fact it was on sale late last week for 99 cents which made it even harder to pass up. Despite only having the game for less than a week, I still ended up putting in more than a dozen hours into the game. If you're looking to play a great iPhone game, make sure you add Meteor Blitz to your wish list.
Recommended:
Yes
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kjell1979
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