IShoot Review

It has been 13 years since a game called Worms was released on Personal Computers. This game, developed by Team 17, became a smash hit and led to many sequels. Naughty Bits Software has developed iShoot for iPhone/ iPod and this game closely resembles the core idea of Worms. Make no mistake, this game is not a copy of Worms. Rather, the basic concept of tank warfare is common for both these games. What makes these games even more similar is that both have 2D environment that can be affected and even destroyed by the gameplay. This game has been aggressively marketed and this has led to high hopes from this $2.99 game.

iShoot has a very simple menu. The no frills menu consists of just two options. You can either start a new game or opt for instructions. The latter gives you a quick tutorial on the game while the former command takes you to the game. Up to four tanks can be controlled by humans while all remaining tanks are controlled by the game. Unlike other games, the AI in this game is not very tough to beat until you play the toughest version of the game. Even the hard computer can be beaten with a good effort. However, only a superlative effort can destroy the extreme computer. Every blow by the AI falls right on target at this level.

The gameplay is turn based and each player has been given the control of a tank to take out the opponents. When playing this game, your objective is to destroy the other tank using all means possible. You have a lot of weapons at your disposal. The impact of the weapon is felt not just on the tank but also on the terrain. Higher your inaccuracy, harder will it be to aim accurately as the terrain would no longer be very smooth. This feature often leads to piquant situation where all it takes to destroy or be destroyed is a single hit which neither tank is able to achieve.

One of the most important characteristic of this game is its weapons. Had the weapons been boring, this game would have been a disaster. Thankfully, that is not the case. Each player is allocated a fixed amount of funds to buy weapons before each round. There is a lot of choice available for the players. You can opt for nuclear bombs or machine guns or even the extremely expensive Shiva Bomb. The choice of weapons is an important tactical decision that must be made with foresight. Should you use the nuclear bomb to dump your opponent into a crater or should you preserve it for your killing blow? The developers have incorporated terrain modifying weapon as well. You can often add mounds and walls to the map using these weapons. This can be used to restrict the tank to a specific sector so that it can be destroyed at leisure. The variety of weapons and the difference in its impact adds value to the game.

iShoot offers a wide variety of unique maps from relatively simple hill maps to more complex ones such as fighting on top of Mount Rushmore. Unfortunately, the developers didn’t include a way to select a map which means that you’ll just have to fight on whatever the game randomly assigns you. This becomes a little frustrating as the more you play the game, the more you’ll develop a preference for one or two styles of maps. Yet, because of the non-inclusion of a simple map selector, you can’t fight on your favorite maps.

iShoot’s 2D graphics are average for a game like this. The tanks are small and not very detailed. The environments are well designed and often very vibrant. Perhaps the most inexcusable graphical issue is the fact that there can be periodic frame rate slowdowns. Now, it’s not like this game is heavily dependent on a solid frame rate, but the fact that the frame rate even stutters in a 2D game shows some really lazy coding on the part of the developer. Hopefully a future iteration will fix this problem.

The sound is also lacking on iShoot. There is no background music - simply the sounds made during the firing of and explosions by the various weapons in the game. If this game was only a dollar, then this point would seem less poignant, but for a three dollar app, the inclusion of some sort of a background track is a no brainer.

If this game has to be described in a single word, one would have to call it a fun game. However, its high price is a dampener on an otherwise good game. The price seems very high considering the fact that the developers have not provided for a real menu design, a good background music score and different modes of playing the game. The developers ought to put more effort in these areas. The work done on the wide range of weapons and maps is not enough to justify its high price. However, if you can afford this game, you should go for it as it will make a great addition to your iPhone/iPod gaming library.

Score: 7.5 / 10