Side-scrolling shoot-em-ups are typically exercises in excess. You have no shortage of enemies, power-ups, or ridiculously large bosses, and most importantly, you have all the bullets you’ll ever need. Just hit the button anytime, and bullets come out. That’s how it works.
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $0.99 (promotional price)
“Oh, really?” says Exodite. “How about if it didn’t?” And that’s when things get a little weird.
By limiting your ammo, Exodite brazenly defies decades of tradition. And it’s kind of brilliant for that.
The game tells the story of Shillem, a freelance mailman whose latest cargo throws him into a series of bullet-riddled skirmishes. But the main thing is that a lot of ships are trying to destroy you, and you should probably defend yourself — or at least get really good at dodging bullets.
Exodite offers two control schemes: a virtual joystick and a relative drag that lets you move your ship by putting your finger anywhere on the screen. I prefer the latter because it provides more flexibility and even lets me switch thumbs as needed. My ship invariably ended up in the area of the virtual joystick, which meant that I couldn’t see it. And that’s a bit of a problem when approximately a hojillion bullets are flying around at any given moment.
Exodite brazenly defies decades of tradition.
As far as your own projectiles go: Like I said before, you only have so many. You toggle your guns on and off with a button in the lower-right corner of the screen. You’ll just fire steadily until you turn them back off, so your job becomes moving your ship into a position that those shots get where you need them to be. You can upgrade your ship and weapons using credits that enemies drop, which is what this game does instead of having you catch power-ups during the level.
So it’s a shooter with a slight resource-management aspect, which is certainly a different way of doing things.
Game Name: : Exodite The Good: Looks good, plays well, and it has the audacity to limit your ammo. The Bad: Neither control scheme is ideal (although you can get used to either). The Verdict: It would be a competent shoot-em-up without the ammo hook, but that little wrinkle lends strategy to a genre that’s always been about filling space with burning-hot plasma. So it’s good. Buy from: App Store – Exodite – Afrodude Works |