Mutant Storm Reloaded - Xbox Live Arcade review

Few games can still launch you into "the zone" - that magical place where the real world melts away and all you see, hear and perceive is the game in front of you. Mutant Storm Reloaded easily brings that trancelike state by surrounding your tiny, floating ship with relentless waves of morphing mutant monstrosities.

Fans of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved will instantly recognize the setup. Move your ship with the right stick, point the left stick in the direction you want something to die.  Every so often a power-up will spill out from the vaporized puddle of colorful monster-gore - your chance to really tear stuff up. They only last for a few seconds, but that's all you really need out of a spinning, shredding halo of discs.

There are 89 super-quick levels of this stuff, and you'd think after so long it would get pretty damn boring. But it can't. As soon as you get used to the crawling bug things in level one, they start shooting back in the fifth. By 20, they're teleporting in by the truckload, launching missiles and exploding into a thousand tiny critters, each of which can take you out in one hit. Translation: sweaty palms, unblinking eyes.