Galactic Gunner - Space 'Splosions

Once upon a time, there was an entertainment forum called an arcade. Arcades are dying, of late, but Ezone is trying to save some of what made arcades great. Remember how there used to be those arcade shooter games where you would go into this cockpit/cabin and would have a blast playing the immersive shooter experience?

Well, Galactic gunner smacks of those shooters. It also smacks of Starfox 64. If you like both of those, you will love Galactic Gunner. Even if you don’t know what Starfox is and have never been in an arcade, you may still love Galactic Gunner. Galactic Gunner is an on-rails, tap-shooter done with a great deal of care in the classic style of shooter games.

The Premise is somewhat sound. You are a gunner, and gunner only, no flying for you. Your pilot is an ace leaving you to concentrate on the shooting. The game takes you through 6 story missions, each of which has you destroy different targets. In the training levels, you blast apart asteroids so your ship can pass through. In my personal favorite missions, your job is to eliminate all Trepidoids squadrons around you. Each successful mission may not unlock the next. The way each mission unlocks is by achieving certain accuracy landmarks, such as 75% on the ateroids. The game also has a survival mode which is unlocked last and is exactly what you think it is. Throughout the game you will go up in rank which is represented by a colored medal in the corner of the main screen, that is the extent of that feature. Kind of superfluous, don’t you think?

Galactic Gunner features nice graphics, and appropriate sound though I think they nailed the sound of the blasters. The sound effect for the blaster is reminiscent of the classic Star Wars sound. Each of the different enemies look nice and I noticed no slowdown, even with multiple explosions on the screen. The gameplay is fluid and smooth and completely on-rails. Don’t go play this game with the illusion that you’re doing the steering. The tap to shoot gameplay mechanic works well in this game.

There are some issues. There are only six missions and one survival mode, albeit the game is only .99 cents but some might find it a small portion. Also there are some issues with regards to the tapping recognition. There were times when I was positive I tapped on all the enemies and yet when the explosions cleared, most of the ships came flying through as if I had never tapped on them. Lastly, the accuracy requirements for unlocking the levels, I think is a bit too high. Just to unlock the fourth level you need an accuracy of 80 percent which may not seem so bad but in the vastness of space, If your tap misses by of a fraction of an inch, the shot is wasted.

Those issues aside, seeing as how they can all be fixed with an update or two, this game is an absolute blast at its introductory price of .99 cents. If you love space battles, get it. If you liked Starfox or classic arcade shooters, get it. If you just want pick up and play explosions, get it. Galactic Gunner, by Ezone, packs a pretty significant amount of fun into a tiny package.