Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a modernization of the classic Space Invaders game developed by the TAITO Corporation.

The Game

Classic Space Invaders becomes…

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is not your typical old school Space Invaders game. It looks like it during the first few moments, but as Charles Darwin would say, the game “evolves.” The game starts evolving into a scrolling shooter, like Raiden Fighters, after playing through a few levels. Evolution is how the game expands. Sometimes this gives the option to increase your lives, new ships with new weapons, or bonus levels, just to name a few of them. The levels each have a few evolution branches that require multiple playthroughs to unlock each of the evolutions. To do this, you need to fill up the Gene gauge by playing through the levels. It doesn’t take too long, so filling the gauge never really feels like a grind. All of the unlocks increase the lasting appeal of the game because most of them are actually worth unlocking.

The gameplay of Space Invaders Infinity Gene is exceptional. In order to move, you just drag your finger anywhere on the screen to navigate the ship. The ship will shoot automatically, so you don’t need to worry about that. I never felt like my finger or hand obstructed my view of the game, which is very important in this genre. There is quite a variety of weapons available to your arsenal; from the simple Rapid Shot, which is self explanatory, to Gravity, which absorbs enemy bullets. The types of weapons all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses against particular ships. Gravity may be good against small ships, but should you be fighting bosses, Lock-On is the way to go. Space Invaders Infinity Gene never got to the point of difficulty where I wanted to throw my iPhone against the ground; which other shoot’em up games often invoke. Since quitting out of rage is almost non-existent in Space Invaders Infinity Gene, the time you spend playing the game will be enjoyable. Fun fact, you can rotate the iPhone/iPod to play more like a horizontal shooter.

…Space Invaders Infinity Gene!

Graphics

Space Invaders Infinity Gene has great graphics in its own particular way due to it holding onto the retro feel from the original game. Most of the sprites in the game come from Space Invaders, but the newer sprites created for Infinity Gene remain true to the retro theme of Infinity Gene. The only color in the game comes from the backgrounds in the later levels and while there really isn’t a lack of diversity, despite it seeming that way.

Sound

Guess what? Space Invaders Infinity Gene has many sound effects similar to the ones found in the classic Space Invaders. The soundtrack is fantastic, and the other sounds work together perfectly. Much like the graphics, the sound will definitely be appreciated by some people more than others. There really isn’t much else to say other than it has that old school feel; just like everything else.

FIRE EVERYTHING!

Additional Comments

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a great game that sucks you in. You can easily consume large amounts of time playing through the main game by itself, but prepare to lose more of your life in attempting to unlock all of the different evolutions. The tremendous amount of content gives this game a huge amount of replayability; those not obsessed with getting 100% completion will still be tempted to unlock all of the unlockables. There was so much with this game that I did not expect; Space Invaders Infinity Gene was such a fantastic experience.

Conclusion

Most people who do buy this version of Space Invaders will have a fantastic time from start to finish. For some, the $4.99 USD price point will be a turn-off, but I think that the price tag is perfect, maybe even too low. They could have easily charged a few more dollars, and it would still have been worth it. I highly recommend Space Invaders Infinity Gene to anyone who likes shoot’em up games, or just video games in general.

Score

MustTap Score: Golden Tap

The best of the best; everything about this is perfect.

Bottom Line
If you like a good shooter or something that will last you for awhile, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a fantastic game to play.

Screenshots

Doodle Flight is a shoot’em up developed by independent developer j2sighte.

The Game

Killer cloud.

The recipe for Doodle Flight is simple: fill pan with shoot’em up, layer with tilt controls, and decorate with an art style true to the namesake. Your first taste of it probably reminds you of everything good about hardware specific controls and independent developers. You tilt your phone to guide your auto-firing ship through a field of projectile spewing doodle monsters who aren’t particularly concerned with aiming. Pencils, in-theme, attach to your ship and provide additional firepower. Homing rockets curve wildly from your ship towards unsuspecting drawings. A boss fires waves of predictable yellow balls that you weave between. It’s classic shmup gameplay, through and through.

While the difficulty ramps up considerably between the first and second levels, the formula stays the same. Different enemies fire the same yellow balls as the others, with the same inaccuracy (save for Hard difficulty, in which hyper-offensive enemies angrily shove their projectiles down your unsuspecting throat.) Eventually you might notice that your ship is definitely getting hit, but you’re not taking damage. The questionable hitbox doesn’t adapt to the various ships. Instead there is a universal area within the center of each that acts as it.  This might explain the developer’s willingness to add an option to draw your own ship.

Not everyone can be an artist.

Customization adds to the “everything is drawn” theme, but any fledgling Doodle Flight artist will quickly realize that without a stylus, drawing with any concern for detail is out of the question. While this failing can’t be attributed to the developer, it certainly takes some of the “draw” of the feature away. I’m skeptical that the developer drew the default ships with this tool. Maybe you’d be better off drawing a ship the shape of the hitbox and playing with that.

Your gamewinning ship with a proper hitbox won’t do much for you, though – the high score list is depressingly unpopulated. In fact, at the time of typing this, I’ve got the high score.

Graphics

The enemies and background are true to the doodle theme of Doodle Flight, giving it the quirky style it aims for. Every level introduces new baddies, so by the end there’s proper variation. Despite such flavor, all those enemies only shoot different colored balls and missiles. Doodle Flight does spice things up a bit with enemy deaths; they explode into a short rainbow colored animation.

Sound

The in game music seems delightfully appropriate until it loops for the first time. The options allow you to turn the only the music off, but you’ll probably want to spare yourself the rhythmic beeps of your stream of bullets too.

Additional Comments

The options allow you to calibrate what the tilt control treats as neutral, so after you’ve hunched over your phone for a few minutes trying to play with it flat, you can switch to a much less backbreaking angle of 45 degrees. The tilting controls seem to be very accurate in relation to your calibration, as well. It does, however, crash often on my 3G.

Conclusion

Doodle Flight delivers exactly what you’d expect, and nothing more. Your first few minutes of playtime might remind you of a better game you’ve played, but those pleasing memories fade quickly as Doodle Flight reminds you why that game was better.

Score

MustTap Score: Iron Tap

It's technically solid, but what comes out is pretty plain.

Bottom Line
For the price, DoodleFlight delivers what you'd expect: a quick burst of mobile fun. Unfortunately, it doesn't deliver much else.

Screenshots