Rodeo Stampede

Rodeo Stampede

Amidst such an expansive and dynamic environment such as the App Store, it’s extremely easy to look for comparisons between different games as a means to gauge interest and also articulate your opinions on an app with a brevity that a thousand word review could never achieve. It would be extremely easy to attempt to draw parallels to the graphical style and arcade mechanics of Crossy Road, the animal collecting elements of Disco Zoo, slap on a score out of 5 and call it a day, and allow readers to use these facts to draw their own preconceptions, for better or for worse. However, this would be a great disservice to Rodeo Stampede. While not necessarily particularly innovative, the vibrant and eclectic merger of ideas betrays a depth that truly epitomises the ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ cliche.

Despite this, even when taken at surface level, developers Featherweight Games and Yodo1, with assistance from Fruit Ninja artist Dan Graf, have crafted an exceptionally entertaining experience that is extremely difficult to put down. You play as a budding animal aficionado, who is looking to turn his aircraft carrier into a zoo and collect numerous animals from varied locations such as the savannah and the jungle. Borrowing tried and true auto runner mechanics, your character rides the back of one of many wild beasts - the options encountered range from buffalos to elephants and later even alligators and gorillas - and must navigate the stampede of animals ahead while avoiding obstacles such as rocks and trees. However, there is a catch - after a set period of time while riding the animal, they will become angry and react in different ways which are designed to make staying on the brute and beating your distance high score more difficult. Instead, you have the option to jump off the creature and land onto another significantly less aggravated one.

At its most basic level, that sums up the core mechanics of Rodeo Stampede, and if it were to end there it wouldn’t be a particularly noteworthy experience. Thankfully, there are many more dimensions to the game that allow numerous strategies to make it truly interesting. Firstly, after every jump the targeting circle of the lasso used to land on other animals becomes smaller. While this can be alleviated for certain animals such as the zebra while upgrading the zoo, this leads to a dilemma on how often to jump and when. This is made even more significant by the varied nature of all the different animals within each region, and the developers must be commended for giving each one their own unique traits and characteristics. Some, such as the Giraffe, can launch you far into the distance. Others like the elephant run down everything within their path, yet have a relatively short patience and are not always the easiest to use to propel to another animal afterwards.

There is also a significant variance in the angry states of each critter. Some buck around yet can reward you coins for doing so, others speed up and a few even eat (or sit on) you to permanently end your run. Therefore, there is the tactical choice in deciding to risk staying on a buffalo for extra coins and a bigger targeting area the next time a jump is made at the cost of potentially crashing and burning as the animal speeds up and gets harder to control. I found for much of the early game I rode an ostrich, which dramatically accelerates as it becomes more irate to get to significant distances quickly, yet sudden obstacles in the impressive dynamically changing environments occasionally made this an unwise decision. This degree of variance in the styles of play puts it a level above many similar arcade games, as it conjures up a sense of depth that significantly extends its longevity and will keep you playing for weeks on end. Missions, such as riding a certain amount of one type of animal or jumping a certain distance also go far in making Rodeo Stampede not simply a repetitive high score romp, and are certainly a welcome presence.

This is further emphasised by the varied environments the game offers. While only two at the time of release in the savannah and the jungle, they are not merely a palette change - both the obstacles and pacing is different, and the animals to be befriended share mutually exclusive attributes that make it more than a repetition of past ideas. The jungle deviates from the fast paced nature of the savannah through adding two elements that proved to be the bane of my avatar’s existence - swamp and alligators. The former is spread around the level, and for half the animals significantly slows down their progress, which can be both a blessing and a hindrance if you are looking to make a jump off your ride. However, the remaining cast are actually entirely dependent on the water. For example, Hippos appear to lack the traditional anger state seen on the other animals in the game, and instead use the swamp as a means to recharge their speed; when they come to a stop from too much land-based travelling, the run comes to an end. Alligators are also important in making the jungle such a different experience, as unlike virtually every other animal in the game, they do not stampede up the screen. Instead, they prove to be obstacles in their own right and attempt to eat other animals - including the one you are riding on. They must then be looked out for amidst the camouflage of the lakes, and either navigated or landed upon. Despite the outrage they caused in ending way too many of my runs prematurely, I appreciated their presence as running as fast as you can on autopilot as was second nature on the savannah level was no longer a viable option.

Of course, the prominent zookeeping aspect of the game must be mentioned, however anyone expecting it to make up half the game is likely to be disappointed. Don’t go into Rodeo Stampede thinking it’s the next Zoo Tycoon - in reality, the giant floating animal containment platform is really a glorified menu to allow you to upgrade the abilities of numerous creatures while displaying the varied beasts found throughout the environments. At the end of a certain period of time, you can open the zoo to customers to receive a hefty entry fee which is affected by the number of animals that have been caught. You can also extend the ship to allow you to capture new animals and fly to different habitats, however that essentially sums up the extent of the zoo management aspect of the game. Despite this, it is a charming way to encapsulate the concept of the game, which is further extended by being able to reminisce over the different panned photographs of the rare animals you have captured throughout your career. And at the very least, seeing your zoo expand and become full of colourful creatures is enjoyable to witness.

One of the main ways Rodeo Stampede manages to make animal riding and collecting so much fun is with its extremely vibrant and eccentric graphical style. While from a glance it may appear to be yet another voxel-style Crossy Road clone, it goes a level above with significant attention to detail, which is most evident in the rare creatures that are found throughout the game. Of each core beast, there are numerous, slightly less realistic variants such as an ostrich in knight's armor, a wild boar in office clothes or a particular highlight, the Psychadeliphant - amongst many, many more. Most of these are found at later distances in the stampede, however some only appear when certain hidden objectives have been achieved, such as riding every single critter in turn or eating thirty animals on top of a lion. The graphical style accentuates the individuality of each variant extremely well, and specific features such as fire coming out of the back of a flaming buffalo as it bucks adds that attention to detail that makes animal collection perhaps the highlight of the game. It would save a bit of frustration having some sort of list of the animals that have been caught and what the conditions are to unlock those that haven’t to make it less of a shot in the dark in unlocking some of the wildlife, however this is a really minor qualm, as finding that elusive Trojan Zebra is an extremely satisfying feeling.

If anything, Rodeo Stampede only stumbles in its attempts to try and lengthen the content over a longer period of time than most gamers will give it. For example, a select cast of critters are only found through boss missions, which are in turn unlocked by completing a large number of regular missions. I found the variance in puzzles and obstacles that the boss challenges offered a refreshing change of pace, however after many hours within the game I have only encountered two, which is a shame as they are seeming not replayable. The missions are also heavily affected by the free to play monetisation of the game. I must stress that Rodeo Stampede is a fantastic title that does not restrict your play through obstructive ads or timers - but if you’re looking to progress to new areas quickly, you’ll be watching a lot of in game videos to reset the mission timer or double coins. While the developers have already said they will address this on our forms, and there are some in app purchases for a coin doubler and even rare animals that you haven’t been able to befriend yet, it does mean anyone not willing to slowly progress over the course of many weeks may be somewhat disappointed. A change of the audio track for each successive area would also go far to satiate my only other minor issues with Rodeo Stampede, but even these did not prevent me having a very enjoyable experience.

There is a large chance that many gamers will take one glance at Rodeo Stampede and ignore it because of similarities to other apps or their preconceptions of what such a graphical style and monetisation system may entail. By doing so, they would miss out on one of the best games on the App Store this year - with a surprising amount of depth coupled with interesting and unique ideas that will only grow with developer support over time, Rodeo Stampede is essential for anyone looking for a casual experience that is hard to master and even harder to put down.

Super Stickman Golf 3

Super Stickman Golf 3

It's been a few years since Super Stickman Golf 2  first released, and there's been plenty of time for that game to kind of fade into memories to a certain degree, what with the constant deluge of releases that mobile gamers are beset by. So even huge fans of that game might have forgotten just why it was so much fun. And really, that's what Super Stickman Golf 3 does best: it advances the franchise with its new spin mechanic, but also shows just how solid the core established by earlier games was. It's just better than ever.

If you haven't played a game in the Stickman Golf franchise, well, this is as good a time as any, particularly with the game being free-to-play, but far from annoying about it. This is 2D physics-based golf as always, where you set your shot angle, your power, and traverse courses both vertical and horizontally-arranged in order to try and get in the hole in as few strokes as possible. It is a golf game, after all. But you get all sorts of powerups that you can earn and deploy to help get around the very difficult courses. There are new courses with new tricks, but the core game itself is largely unchanged. It's a formula that leads to plenty of wacky happenings, can test you immensely, but lead to amazing rewards when you hit that perfect shot. Oh, and if you land cleanly in the hole, you lose a stroke. Prepare to go mad, high score chasers, and turn-based players who lose by one stroke due to a perfect swish. Noodlecake did not mess with the core of what works.

The spin mechanic is what is new in Super Stickman Golf 3, and it is an amazing addition to the game. It's a feature that more traditional golf games have had, but it makes major changes to how you approach holes with various shots. The obvious application is if, say, your shot is short on the green, you apply forward spin and you get it in the hole, or you stop a shot dead in its tracks with backspin. Many balls that would just die short of the hole now make their way in thanks to the spinning. You can alter the trajectory of shots with backspin and forespin, of course, particularly when launching vertically. But hitting the ball off of ceilings, and walls – learning how to use these effects to your advantage is the key. And what the spin does is that it makes many shots that were impossible, with intense angles, within the realm of possibility. A few holes have shots where if you can bounce on a small platform, and apply some appropriate spin, you can get right on the green with a shot that was otherwise impossible. Of course, some of the holes start to take advantage of the fact you have the spin, and makes it such that you need to at least learn how the mechanic works to do well at them.

Thankfully, Super Stickman Golf 3 skips any annoying tutorial to teach you the spin. There's a course that is centered around the spin, called Spin Land appropriately enough. While it teaches you the myriad ways to use spinning, the game makes the spin mechanic available before you unlock this course. And the Spin Land course is just like Portal Land, or other similar courses built around a particular gimmick, rather than feeling like a tutorial level you'd never play again. I will say that while spinning is available from the beginning, you will have to unlock all the powerups just as in SSG2. The downside to this is in competitive modes, where some of the powerups might not be available to you, but available to other players, creating an uneven playing field, though this is mostly just a matter of working to unlock them. You can upgrade a few of the powerups by finding them in card packs, but all must be unlocked through gameplay.

You do have 20 courses to play through at launch, each with the goals to get a certain score to get a bronze, silver, or gold star, along with the "clean ball" challenge where you have to get par without powerups. Easier said than done on most courses. But the experience rewards for completing the later courses are well worth it, as they help you level up and unlock new features. The course creator isn't done yet, but it will be available soon, with the infrastructure for the feature already in the game. A new daily race mode allows you to go up against several ghosts on a single hole in order to try and get in first place, netting bux for you, and an eventual card pack for winning 5 days in a row. Not only is there the completion of courses (and work to unlock them all) to do, but you can also compete against friends for high scores on the various courses, and there's the exploration aspect of the bux, along with some hidden portals worth discovering. The courses are some of the best of the series – there's not a clunker in the bunch, they're all fun to play and each one feels like it has a unique theme and purpose in the game.

The multiplayer modes are back in Super Stickman Golf 3, and while the turn-based mode is still a bunch of fun, the race mode is worthy of the most noteworthy commentary. The reason being not only that it's still a fun alteration of the game, making the way that you tackle courses and use powerups so much different than it was before. But also, because of the many new game modes that have been added in. You have to unlock them by finding them in card packs, but modes like unlimited nitro balls, and even a Flappy Golf  mode add a lot of spice to the proceedings. Oh, and you can play with no powerups at all, but where's the fun in that? Well, if you're really good and your opponent leans on the powerups too much, I guess it's fun to watch them flail about, eh? The turn-based mode offers both powerup and no-powerup modes, and offers a fun twist where you can wager bux against the other player. Don't let those matches lapse, that's for sure!

So, Super Stickman Golf 3 is free-to-play, though for most people, the permanent unlocks are the way to go. The premium mode is a must-get as it disables ads, unlocks the downloadable courses (5 of which are available at launch, with more available through the custom course creator when it's finished), and gives you 5 card packs off the bat. Then, there's the $1.99 XP doubler which is well worth getting, and the $1.99 last shot indicator which is helpful if not explicitly necessary. You can buy more of the game's currency, bux, or buy card packs as IAP. However, you'll get card packs for completing courses for the first time (including at least the downloadable courses that are available at launch made by Noodlecake), for winning the daily race mode for 5 days in a row, or by just spending 40 bux. Your rate of earning card packs will slow down, but in my experience, this is far from a practical problem, as you get bux through other methods. The downside is that there are some features that can be earned only through the card packs, and some upgrades to the powerups have to be earned through cards. Still, this is 2016, and the game gives you a lot for very little contribution.

Time Locker

Time Locker

"Good artists copy, great artists steal." It's a line that essentially means that explicitly mimicking something is easy enough to do – making a clone of a game is simple enough. But it's another thing to take the ideas of one game and use them in another to create something that is original all in itself. Time Locker explicitly steals the gimmick of Superhot, the first-person shooter where time only moves when the player moves. It even uses a very similar low-poly graphics style. But instead, it turns the game into a shoot 'em up with some hints of Crossy Road to feel like a unique iteration on previous ideas, one that uses existing concepts liberally, but to form its own thing that stands on its own merits.

But those merits have to be defined first. Because part of the issue is that Superhot has been cloned several times since its original 2013 game jam edition. And several clones of Superhot have shown up on the App Store. But the difficulty is not necessarily in replicating an idea, it's in creating it in the first place. Figuring out the concept of Superhot and implementing it into a fully-formed package took a lot of time! And sure, it's possible for unscrupulous developers to replicate it. Unity and other engines have made that super-easy.

But what about a developer like Time Locker's Sotaro Otsuka who pretty clearly decided to adapt this time-freeze system for his own game? Well, that's pretty much the basis of video games. Superhot is of course the byproduct of years of first-person shooter advances. Crossy Road is Frogger but adapted into an endless format, with the voxel visuals. Candy Crush Saga? Well, it's not like Bejeweled and other countless match-3 games didn't exist beforehand, but King made the content and structure that turned it into a smash hit. I had a CEO once angrily email me after I referred to a game his company released on mobile in the context of Clash of Clans when he claims they were doing the concept first. Maybe so, but originality is secondary to execution of a concept. And if an artist can iterate on a concept while clearly showing the strengths of the ideas they were inspired by, what is the issue?

I firmly believe that Time Locker should stand on its own, despite the parts to the equation that makes it up being plainly apparent. It turns out that adapting this time-freeze system into a shoot 'em up is a genius idea. It manages to combine the chaos of a real-time shoot 'em up, with the accessibility of artful skill that only the best players have, while utilizing its unique structure to its advantages. It's possible to take stock of your surroundings, to see where the danger is coming from and act accordingly. And it makes you feel really cool for doing so. But then there's that ever-present black wave of creeping death. It moves even when time is frozen, giving you leeway to move backwards if necessary, and not rush into danger, but not to dawdle at all. And the further you get, the more you'll have to deal with as enemy and bullet counts get more numerous, and the hazards more obstructive. You get this peculiar balance of feeling pressure to act while simultaneously having to be smart about what you're doing.

Even if you ignored the time-freeze feature and just looked at Time Locker in the context of a standard shoot 'em up, Time Locker feels unique because of the way that it plays. Enemy formations in particular feel different, as you often you deal with large packs that cross your path both vertically and horizontally. You also have a wide plane of lateral movement to play with; You can dodge horizontally, you can go around enemies and obstructions, and sometimes you'll have to go a long way laterally to take out something like a cannon obstructing your path. It feels unique even of itself, and it'd be interesting to play a game like this that didn't have the start-stop system, if it was just a shoot 'em up with the creeping death to compel you to advance. I think the game would have to be far less chaotic; Time Locker gets away with more hairy situations that I think a free-moving game wouldn't be able to pull off. Regardless, this game has a lot going on beyond its most obvious inspirations.

The developer has also done a great job at making a game that feels good to physcally play. The controls work really well, as you can swipe anywhere on screen to move your character without being obscured at all. The sound effects with the pops that indicate when you're moving help out a lot with the feel of the game, and the subtleties of moving slowly when you choose to do so. You have that simulated tactility on a device where there is none. And the clicks when you hit enemies are similarly satisfying. I also find myself fascinated by the game thematically. Many of the enemies are low-poly animals, and it seems kind of absurd to be chased by a giant orange elephant. And then occasionally there's like a tank to destroy or a helicopter that flies by. It's a game that's committed to this weird absurdity that yet feels consistent.

Time Locker is free without in-app purchases, as you can earn coins while playing, and spend them on a powerup for your next round, or on buying a random character with a special weapon for 3 rounds. You can spend coins to continue, but never a huge amount, or you can watch an ad. Plus, the game gives you video ads for more coins, and the occasional free gift. You will likely never be lacking for coins, at least not for long. It's definitely something where I like getting a lot of game for such a minimal cost, but I'd love something to support the developer a bit more directly, especially as this game is quite worthy of it. But there's a crowd that might find this to be the near-ideal game as far as what they have to pay goes, and hey, I say enjoy it. With that lack of cost, this is a must-download.

Snakebird

Snakebird

Some mascots are better than others. Bubsy didn't really work out so well. What did we see in him so many years back? Did we see anything at all, and were we just hungry for mascots? I don't know, but I feel like someone needs to apologize. Ratchet? He's done some fine work and has survived for many years. Crash? He's back from the dead it seems, even if one part of his return involves a cameo in a Skylanders game.

Looking at the titular Snakebird from Noumenon Games, I was highly dubious. But after spending hours pondering the inquiry -- is it a snake or is it a bird -by playing the game, I've decided that I don't care. Snakebird just is, and it is great.

Snakebird was originally released on the PC, but it feels meant for mobile devices. Simple swipes will send your...thing...slithering in that direction, pinching will zoom, and that's really it. On a meta level there's a "back" button that rewinds a move, and a complete refresh button that instantly queues a complete restart. Your goal is to collect each piece of fruit in a level (which is not timed or scored in any way), then make your way unharmed to the goal. Sound easy? It's not.

Yet, it's  hard to get mad at the little guy for flipping on his back and completely whiffing an area when he looks so cute. That, and the aforementioned meta concessions will severely cut down on your frustration factor, even if some of the later stages are particularly devious. Like snake, additional girth by way of acquiring each pickup is a blessing and a curse. Players can choose to slink around small openings with a smaller size, but might find themselves getting stuck if they're too large.

This simple concept funnels you into concise ways to approach puzzles, and even the earlier stages can be taxing when struggling with this mechanic. That's mostly because you'll need to go all out with your basic movement abilities to succeed, including learning different strategies like the "hook," which can save your Snakebird from death when moving off cliffs to chomp on some out of reach fruit. it gets even more complicated once more birds are added into the mix. Oh, and the fact that you need to completely learn new concepts from scratch, like slithering on top of fruit without eating it to use it as a makeshift platform.

The nuances in the animation aren't something that's easily missed too. Your character eyes fruit when approaching it, even going as far as to leer in its direction after passing it up (or alternatively, look concerned when passing over spikes or another hazard). Their tails shake when idle. It's the little things, and the old school soundtrack only adds to the adorableness. The same goes for the detailed backgrounds, which often have neutral characters swimming about or clouds passing by.

Given its cheap price on Steam, it was expected that a similar pricing scheme would make it to mobile. In short, you're downloading a demo for free, before deciding to drop $3.99 on the whole shebang. That's it -- no ads, no IAP, or any other daily login nonsense. You just buy the premium product, and you're set. And if it's not clear in this case, it's worth every penny. Even at roughly 50 puzzles to solve, it will take hours upon hours to clear them all.

It must be said outright though -- this game is tough. If you're looking for an easy breezy game to pass the time during a stressful commute on public transportation, I wouldn't necessarily spring for Snakebird unless you're a puzzle savant. I'm pretty big on a lack of direction for games as I feel like there is way too much handholding, but a lot of you may not feel the same way. If the demo is grinding your gears, odds are the rest of the premium levels will too.

I'm not just addicted to Snakebird, I'm in love with the beautiful art style and endearing design of the character itself. I'd love to see an expansion, a sequel, and a spinoff -- at this point, I'm all in.

Bullet Hell Monday

Bullet Hell Monday

Last year, we were treated to a pair of excellent shooters by Japanese indie developer Masayuki Ito. Titled .Decluster and .Decluster Zero, these shoot-em-ups combined a unique visual style with tense bullet-hell action. The scoring mechanisms largely surrounded the ability to cancel enemy bullets. The more bullets you canceled, the more points you would earn. This encouraged you to use risky strategies, making for some seriously thrilling close calls. The stage designs and enemy placements in the games were top-notch, too. The .Decluster games were sold as paid games with no IAPs, and that's probably one of the biggest points where Ito's latest shooter, Bullet Hell Monday, diverges from his previous titles.

Yes, Bullet Hell Monday is a free-to-play game. It features IAPs and incentivized ads. This would be a scarier prospect if iOS didn't already have a few examples of shoot-em-ups doing free-to-play in a relatively friendly way. Even in recent months, we've seen Sky Force Reloaded and Phoenix 2 offering plenty of fun in player-friendly free-to-play models. I think it's safe to say that we can add another game to that list, because Bullet Hell Monday hits just about every high note the .Decluster games did, and does so with an extremely friendly monetization system.

Let's talk about that monetization system first, since it's probably of greatest interest to many readers. Bullet Hell Monday, in its fully free form, gives you access to all of the stages of the game and two of the ship types. You'll have to earn enough points to buy the second ship, but it's not a terribly high wall to climb over. The remaining ships are only available as IAPs, with the price ranging from one or two dollars per ship, depending on which one you're buying. These ships feature their own weapons, but I'm not sure I'd say that they're necessarily better than the free ships as opposed to just playing a little differently. Basically, if you enjoy the game, you can buy another ship and have some new strategies to play around with. There is one advantage to owning more ship types, but I'll get to that later.

The other support for the game is in incentivized ads. You'll occasionally be given an offer to check out an ad. In exchange, the game will give you your choice of some upgrade points or mission points. Both of these types of points can be earned through skillful play or even grinding in some cases, but it never hurts to have more. The ad offers don't come up terribly often, and when they do, it's in a fairly unobtrusive way. Just a small red icon that you can tap to bring up your options. The game won't hassle you about it if you choose to just tap those away. That's all there is to it, really. There aren't any stamina meters, gatcha-style random draws, or forced ads.

In Bullet Hell Monday, you need to work your way through more than 50 stages of vertical shooting action. It's not enough to simply survive the level, in most cases. You can only proceed to the next stage if you've earned enough mission points. Those points are earned by achieving certain goals on each stage, such as getting a certain score, defeating a particular percentage of enemies, or finishing the stage in a short period of time. You don't have to do everything in one go, mind you. As long as you eventually clear enough goals individually, you can try a stage as many times as you need to. At first, it's a breeze to rack up enough mission points, but by the time you're into the second set of stages, you're going to need to come to terms with the mechanics of the game. Dodging bullets and shooting back will no longer cut it.

Just as in the .Decluster games, much of the scoring system in Bullet Hell Monday centers around letting the screen fill up with as much deadly junk as possible before pulling off a move to negate it all and scooping up the sweet rewards. In this case, you'll be using your limited supply of bombs to turn the tides. Fire off a bomb at the right time and you'll not only take down a bunch of enemies, but you'll also earn a ton of items that boost your score. The stages are somewhat short, but bombs are always in fairly scarce supply. Adding more bombs to your ship is one of the costlier upgrades, behind adding additional ships and options.

Apart from knowing when and where to use your bombs, you'll also need the usual bullet hell skills. Your screen will often be full of moving objects that will kill you if they touch your hit box, so you need to be able to spot and move to the safe areas at a moment's notice. Sometimes going on the offensive is the best way to survive, and you'll need to do that if you want to get decent scores and earn mission points, but if your aim is just to survive, you can do so just by being good at dodging. The game will even intentionally slow down when enough enemies are firing at you, giving you a greater chance of pulling off some miracle plays.

Clearing goals, even if you've already beaten them in the past, will earn you ability points that you can use to upgrade your ships. Until you learn how to play effectively, the rate you earn these points will probably fall behind your stage progress, leading to some of the stages feeling like brick walls. You can replay earlier stages, however, and a quick jaunt through a chapter or two of previously-cleared levels can help you get your ship up to spec. There are quite a few upgrades to buy, with more unlocking as you play. You'll have to make careful choices about which things to buy, at least early on. Having another bomb is obviously useful, but is it better than the three or four upgrades to your main shot that you would otherwise be able to buy? Each ship has its own upgrades to consider, too. Luckily, the IAP ships also come with a chunk of ability points so that you can raise them up quickly.

The stage-based chapter mode offers multiple difficulty settings, though you'll still need to manage to earn those mission points in any case. Not far into the game, you'll also unlock a challenge mode. This mode allows you to test your skills on some really tough stages, with your best score recorded to compare against others through Game Center leaderboards. You won't earn any ability points here, so this is purely for the thrill of competition. You'll be graded based on your performance, pass or fail, so even if you're not into competing with other players, you can at least try to better your own scores.

Bullet Hell Monday's visuals are bold, clear, and vector-based. It's a step away from the unique style of the .Decluster games, but it still looks great. It's easy to distinguish what is dangerous at a glance, even if the bright arrays of colors and curtains of bullets can get a little overwhelming at times. The bullet patterns are almost hypnotic at times. What little music is in the game is good, but I would have enjoyed an extra track or two. The game offers support for MFi controllers, but even if you don't have one, the touch controls are easy to use. Slide a finger around to move your ship, and drop a second finger to use a bomb. Later, when you unlock the ability to switch ships on the fly, a double-tap will swap them out. It's simple, but it works.

Fair warning: Bullet Hell Monday takes its name seriously. Even on easy, it's going to heat up too quickly for many players. But if you've ever known the thrill of weaving through the tiny spaces in between sheets of bullets and emerging triumphantly, you'll have a fantastic time with this game. It demonstrates the same careful design sense as the .Decluster games, but with just enough of its own style to make it feel fresh. It's more than worth checking out, especially with how generous it is to free players.