Astro Tripper Review
And so it was, on one rainy February weekday afternoon with nothing to do having finished all of the major 'Holiday '08' releases I wanted to play, I found myself perusing the Playstation Store for a small morsel of gaming pleasure to tide me over until the next major release, and then I found Astro Tripper. Having played and loved every second of both Pom-Pom's Mutant Storm games on Xbox LIVE Arcade, namely Reloaded and Empire I found myself literally salivating at the prospect of another one of their games to sink my teeth into. If you've also played both of these games you will be instantly at home with the art style and sound design, Astro Tripper recalled memories of Mutant Storm Empire in particular. The levels have the same close up perspective which really shows off the gorgeous texture work and little graphical flourishes while the enemies have the same chunky aesthetic and the manner in which they move, sound and explode really makes it all feel like Pom-Pom's unique universe. What really sets this game apart however is the way in which it controls as this is no twin stick shooter. The game instead is based around corridors with you only being able to fire to the left or the right with a button to switch between the two. This game for me seems the very definition of crowd control as more often than not you will be controlling enemies on both sides constantly flipping between the two, it can get incredibly hectic at times. Additional depth is provided by the intelligent weapon system. With a press of a button you can switch between a single laser which fires straight ahead form the centre of your ship and dual laser which fires out from the edges of your ship towards the levels edge before moving back into a path more parallel with your ship. Both weapons can be upgraded however destroyed enemies will only drop upgrades for the weapon with which they were killed forcing you to be constantly aware of the weapon you are using and the upgrade path best suited for the enemies to come. The game offers Adventure mode as the primary game mode with three levels of difficulty to unlock and master and challenge mode which takes several scenarios from the main game and turns them into single life high score challenges. There are also leader boards and trophies to earn which charge you with tasks totally outside of the in game goals, killing a certain amount of one type of enemy in sequence or destroy a boss without destroying any of it's guns first as examples. Now I suppose what really shocks most about this game is the asking price for this package. At £3.19/$5.00 I find it nigh on impossible not to recommend this game to anyone with a PS3, and if you do own one, you owe it to yourself to experience this superb little game, you won't be disappointed.