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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Action Developer: Coreplay Publisher: Black Inc. |
The game that has taken hints from these games of the past is “Ion Assault,” the Xbox Live Arcade exclusive game that blends together the psychedelic look of “Geometry Wars” is its vast amount of particle effects with
a similar game play methods to what was seen in “Asteroids.” The result of this combination is an extremely fun top to bottom arcade shooter that offers its audience a great game, despite some issues that it may have.
For those who have ever played around with any of the many versions of the game of “Asteroids,” and who hasn’t, will be instantly at home with this much more visually stunning and faster paced rendition of the game.
Players take on the part of a lowly spaceship that moves around a square perimeter sucking up ion which the player is then able to use to shoot at large chucks of asteroids. Blasting the floating masses of asteroid rock
breaks them up into several smaller pieces and they will need to destroy every single little piece to complete each stage of the game. Of course, that would be a little bit too easy, so to slow down the players a little bit
are numerous enemies that warp into the level that will need to be taken out with either the ship’s standard ion blaster or one of the handful of power ups that players will be able to find scattered throughout space.
The first thing that players are going to notice about “Ion Assault” when they are warped into a level is that the screen has the potential to get extremely cluttered with all of the particles and enemies that they are going to
encounter. Holding the left trigger to charge the ion cannon creates a sort of orange ion storm around the player’s ship that can be used as a type of shield while also producing a very impressive visual display to enjoy.
A large hurdle and change for those who have ever played “Geometry Wars” is the aiming, and sadly it is much worse this time around. Instead of having the player’s targeting laser instantly warp to the position of their
right analog stick player will need to swivel it around the ship using different directions. It is much more cumbersome for no real reason and it is a huge change from what has worked so well in the past with games of
this type.
The game play mechanic of having to charge up ion instead of firing a stream of bullets out of the ship does a good job of differentiating “Ion Assault” from other arcade shooters that are controlled from the top down. It
keeps players moving around the screen at all times and the fact that players are able to bounce shots off of the border of the stage creates a nice strategic element in the game. Power-ups also force players to use a
lot more strategy ahead of time as to how to attack a variety of different situations instead of simply shooting and hoping that everyone is destroyed. It would have been a lot better if there would have been a few more
power-ups available for each of the four levels in the game, each level having five stages and a boss battle, but those that are present in the game do a good job of changing the standard game play and making it more
enjoyable for players.
Once player are done with the relatively short single player campaign they will want to check out multiplayer. It comes in two different varieties, cooperative mode which puts players and their friends against the five
levels of the campaign and versus which is an entirely different way of playing “Ion Assault.” It is quite unfortunate that cooperative mode is limited to local play and can’t be played through Xbox Live Arcade, for that
players will want to turn to the competitive mode. Here players and up to three of their friends are in a base battle against each other. Players fly their ships around the stage and call of friendly ships to attack enemy
bases. Other players are able to destroy the player’s ship and work towards attacking the main base. It is a nice change from the usual game play of “Ion Assault,” even if it isn’t nearly as visually stimulating.
The graphics in “Ion Assault” are both a positive and negative to the game. It is a great sight to see when the screen is filled with glowing orange particles and exploding enemies and rocks, but it can be a little chaotic
at times. There were several instances where players will lose their ship in all of the action going on in the level, only to see it explode into bits when hit by an object. There is no doubt that the chaos id amazing to look
at, but it would be nice to be able to see the ship in the battle.
Overall, “Ion Assault” is a very well put together arcade shooter. It takes elements of many famous games, new and old, and creates a new game in the process. However, because of the frustrating controls, short
campaign and the extreme chaos that comes with the action, only fans of the genre should be willing to pay for this game. Still, this doesn’t mean that “Ion Assault” won’t offer players a lot of fun in a far away galaxy.
a similar game play methods to what was seen in “Asteroids.” The result of this combination is an extremely fun top to bottom arcade shooter that offers its audience a great game, despite some issues that it may have.
For those who have ever played around with any of the many versions of the game of “Asteroids,” and who hasn’t, will be instantly at home with this much more visually stunning and faster paced rendition of the game.
Players take on the part of a lowly spaceship that moves around a square perimeter sucking up ion which the player is then able to use to shoot at large chucks of asteroids. Blasting the floating masses of asteroid rock
breaks them up into several smaller pieces and they will need to destroy every single little piece to complete each stage of the game. Of course, that would be a little bit too easy, so to slow down the players a little bit
are numerous enemies that warp into the level that will need to be taken out with either the ship’s standard ion blaster or one of the handful of power ups that players will be able to find scattered throughout space.
The first thing that players are going to notice about “Ion Assault” when they are warped into a level is that the screen has the potential to get extremely cluttered with all of the particles and enemies that they are going to
encounter. Holding the left trigger to charge the ion cannon creates a sort of orange ion storm around the player’s ship that can be used as a type of shield while also producing a very impressive visual display to enjoy.
A large hurdle and change for those who have ever played “Geometry Wars” is the aiming, and sadly it is much worse this time around. Instead of having the player’s targeting laser instantly warp to the position of their
right analog stick player will need to swivel it around the ship using different directions. It is much more cumbersome for no real reason and it is a huge change from what has worked so well in the past with games of
this type.
The game play mechanic of having to charge up ion instead of firing a stream of bullets out of the ship does a good job of differentiating “Ion Assault” from other arcade shooters that are controlled from the top down. It
keeps players moving around the screen at all times and the fact that players are able to bounce shots off of the border of the stage creates a nice strategic element in the game. Power-ups also force players to use a
lot more strategy ahead of time as to how to attack a variety of different situations instead of simply shooting and hoping that everyone is destroyed. It would have been a lot better if there would have been a few more
power-ups available for each of the four levels in the game, each level having five stages and a boss battle, but those that are present in the game do a good job of changing the standard game play and making it more
enjoyable for players.
Once player are done with the relatively short single player campaign they will want to check out multiplayer. It comes in two different varieties, cooperative mode which puts players and their friends against the five
levels of the campaign and versus which is an entirely different way of playing “Ion Assault.” It is quite unfortunate that cooperative mode is limited to local play and can’t be played through Xbox Live Arcade, for that
players will want to turn to the competitive mode. Here players and up to three of their friends are in a base battle against each other. Players fly their ships around the stage and call of friendly ships to attack enemy
bases. Other players are able to destroy the player’s ship and work towards attacking the main base. It is a nice change from the usual game play of “Ion Assault,” even if it isn’t nearly as visually stimulating.
The graphics in “Ion Assault” are both a positive and negative to the game. It is a great sight to see when the screen is filled with glowing orange particles and exploding enemies and rocks, but it can be a little chaotic
at times. There were several instances where players will lose their ship in all of the action going on in the level, only to see it explode into bits when hit by an object. There is no doubt that the chaos id amazing to look
at, but it would be nice to be able to see the ship in the battle.
Overall, “Ion Assault” is a very well put together arcade shooter. It takes elements of many famous games, new and old, and creates a new game in the process. However, because of the frustrating controls, short
campaign and the extreme chaos that comes with the action, only fans of the genre should be willing to pay for this game. Still, this doesn’t mean that “Ion Assault” won’t offer players a lot of fun in a far away galaxy.
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