BoomsticK review

Yes, we finally got a review! Done by SuitedCriminal over at GIFlux.

This shooter, developed by innercircus, from Abduction Studios Inc., is one of my personal favourites – not only because I like saying “boomstick” (I like doing redneck impressions: “Martha! GIT ME MAH BOOMSTICK!!! Etc). Its gameplay is very simple; control your character (who to me looks like a sort of astronaut/ninja), shoot your shotgun’s glowing squares at the floating, and also glowing, shapes, and collect the ammo they drop. Each kill drops much needed ammo – quickly grab it before it disappears and your ammo runs out or it will be game over for you. The art style on this game is very simple, yet very professional – the glowing effects on the enemies and the bullets is like a miniature light show, and you can’t help but try to create the best display while playing the game.

The game is very addictive; the simple controls, the amazing graphics and the brilliant music and sound effects all combine to form an enjoyable experience, blasting the evil floating shapes. The accuracy and rank you attain, displayed after every round, make you want to improve your ranking, if only to brag that you managed to get over 200% accuracy (which I have done! Check the screenshot!). Although the shapes can’t hurt you until later in the game when they sometimes fire red lasers at you (getting hit by these lasers makes you lose 5 of your precious ammo) or the purple balls try to squash you, your main problem is the lack of ammo. Blasting away at the shapes in the sky, you tend to forget you have limited ammunition and run out, losing the game.

The music’s electronic sounds are futuristic – techno music suits the game perfectly – the whole art style and the music go together very well making the game a visual and aural treat.

Now for the criticisms: the lack of ammo offers a challenge but if you blast away in the first tier, you have ruined the game for yourself, ensuring a game over in the next few levels, for new players this may seem “stupid” and they may just change games because it is too hard for them. Also, the fact that you have to click the menu button to pause instead of just pressing P is very annoying, especially when you click to shoot; accidentally miss the menu button by the tiniest gap and you have wasted your ammo – the same goes for the level select and unpausing the game – a possible solution could be a delay before allowing the player to shoot when choosing the level, and pressing P to pause instead of clicking. The game could also have more variety; there could be options to change your character, change the colour of the bullets you fire, change the background… but these do not make the game any less brilliant. The repetitiveness of the game is also an issue, it is just a case of shooting and moving around to pick up the ammo the enemies drop, more powerups could change this however.

Overall - 11/15