It has been 13 years since a game called Worms was released on Personal Computers. This game, developed by Team 17, became a smash hit and led to many sequels. Naughty Bits Software has developed iShoot for iPhone/ iPod and this game closely resembles the core idea of Worms. Make no mistake, this game is not a copy of Worms. Rather, the basic concept of tank warfare is common for both these games. What makes these games even more similar is that both have 2D environment that can be affected and even destroyed by the gameplay. This game has been aggressively marketed and this has led to high hopes from this $2.99 game.
What will appeal to many gamers is that iShoot has a very simple menu. Either you opt for the tutorial or you start playing the game. There are no other options. The instructions provided are sufficient to understand how the game works. A maximum of four tanks are available for manual control. All remaining tanks are controlled by AI. The AI player is not very tough to beat. Only the Extreme level AI is almost impossible to beat because of its accuracy. Otherwise, even the hard AI can be beaten in this game without breaking a sweat. This is a good thing as we all love beating the AI no matter how dumb it is.
The gameplay itself is turn-based with each player controlling their own tank. The objective of iShoot is to launch whatever weapon you choose and have that shot hit the other tank. Most weapons not only do damage to your opponent, but also destroy the terrain. That means that every hit you take will require you to adjust the angle and speed of your shot accordingly. The relative balancing of weapons makes for some nail-biting matches. You’ll often find yourself at the end against an opponent, both at very low health, trying to get that last hit to win the game.
One of the most important characteristic of this game is its weapons. Had the weapons been boring, this game would have been a disaster. Thankfully, that is not the case. Each player is allocated a fixed amount of funds to buy weapons before each round. There is a lot of choice available for the players. You can opt for nuclear bombs or machine guns or even the extremely expensive Shiva Bomb. The choice of weapons is an important tactical decision that must be made with foresight. Should you use the nuclear bomb to dump your opponent into a crater or should you preserve it for your killing blow? The developers have incorporated terrain modifying weapon as well. You can often add mounds and walls to the map using these weapons. This can be used to restrict the tank to a specific sector so that it can be destroyed at leisure. The variety of weapons and the difference in its impact adds value to the game.
Weapons apart, the maps available in this game constitute its second plus point. You can play this game on a simple hill where it is not very difficult to get the angle of the attack right. Or you could opt to play this game on Mount Rushmore where aiming accurately is the most important thing. This game would have been even better had the players been permitted to choose the map of their choice. Right now, they have no option but to play on the map assigned to them.
iShoot’s 2D graphics are average for a game like this. The tanks are small and not very detailed. The environments are well designed and often very vibrant. Perhaps the most inexcusable graphical issue is the fact that there can be periodic frame rate slowdowns. Now, it’s not like this game is heavily dependent on a solid frame rate, but the fact that the frame rate even stutters in a 2D game shows some really lazy coding on the part of the developer. Hopefully a future iteration will fix this problem.
Another disappointment is the lack of background music on iShoot. The only sounds that you get to hear on this game are those of firing and explosions. Absence of a background score is considered acceptable for a $1 game. However, a good quality back ground score is required for this game considering that this is a $3 game.
Overall, this game can safely be described as a fun game. The only drawback is its price which seems a bit high considering what it offers to the gamers. The absence of other gaming modes, music and a real menu design negates the wonderful work done by the developers as far as the weapons and maps are concerned. It is as if the developers simply ignored the menu, background music and the gaming modes. Its high price brings its rating down. If you are ready to ignore its high cost, you certainly shall have a lot of fun playing this game. This will definitely be a good addition to your gaming library.
