Alien Abuse

Category: games, sidescroller, shooter, aliens
Price: $0.99
App Store Link: [Full] / No Lite Version

Review: Like it
Recommendation: Fun game easily worth $0.99. Great for fans of the PC/Mac OS version. Be warned, however, that the aiming controls leave something to be desired (but developers have already promised an update fix).
Replay: High

Some gamers may already be familiar with this 90's classic, then called simply Abuse. Originally developed by Crack Dot Com and published for DOS and eventually remastered for Mac OS (by Bungie), Abuse became something of a cult classic and eventually fell into the public domain. Now Abuse has officially made its way to the iPhone and iPod Touch, renamed as Alien Abuse.
Gameplay is simple and straight forward, lacking any kind of storyline or depth other than to simply survive the maze-like levels and destroy aliens, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Abuse is a fun and easy to get into sidescroller that offers lots of "run and shoot" action. Players can collect many different and unique weapons and power-ups, including grenade launchers, heat-seeking rockets, plasma rifles, and "Death Frisbees,"as they attempt to progress through the levels and activate save points. According the the developers, Alien Abuse has more than 20 hours of gameplay packed in its $0.99 asking price (which is why replay value is rated as high).

Currently, the game suffers from somewhat clunky on-screen joystick controls that, honestly, work fine most of the time except for aiming. Alien Abuse uses a unique aiming mechanic for the sidescroller genre that dynamically allows players to shoot in virtually any direction on-screen, but unfortunately, with the current control setup , this feature is more of a hindrance than anything else. The clumsy on-screen joystick often causes it to be impossible to aim straight ahead--a necessity in Alien Abuse. Luckily, the developers have already promised that a software update is on the way to resolve the control issues. Possibly the most obvious control solution would be to use tilt for movement and joystick to aim weapons.

In any case, Alien Abuse is a fun, action-packed sidescroller and, in my opinion, worth the $0.99. As long as the developers make good on their promise, Alien Abuse is bound to only get better. That said, because of the retro feel and lack of depth, there may be some gamers who find themselves less than impressed by this title if they're expecting more than simply a decent run-and-shoot game.

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What we'd like to see in future updates: Control fixes: tilt movement; scoring system & leaderboards; multiplayer modes (like the Bungie version).

~M@