Review: Battle Bears -1 - A Worthy Prequel?
by Staff Writer
June 24, 2010
Overview
Battle Bears is a shooter game that is packed with style, and is most known for killing cute cuddly bears and hilarious cut scenes. The game had success on the App Store allowing for a prequel in Battle Bears -1 which presents a whole new game. Rather than a stationary drag and shoot game it's now a third person dual stick shooter.
The story begins similar to Star Wars with the opening story flying upwards, and then you’re on a ship with huggables coming to take it down. You have to battle through the sectors of the ship to finally reach the boss, dispose of him, and then the story connects to Battle Bears where you're taking off to the planet surface.
Features
The main part of the game is the campaign mode which has you maneuvering from room to room trying to take the shortest route to get to the x on the map which is the boss battle. A survival mode is included where you try to go to as many rooms as you can, and only advance once you kill all e huggable in the previous room. OpenFeint is included for online high scores and achievements, and there is a $0.99 in app purchase for Riggs campaign.
The Good
The best aspect of Battle Bears -1 is the new dual stick control style that presents so much more fun than the stationary drag and shoot, though that was definitely fun in the original. The game now gives you free range to move about the cargo rooms, and you face hundreds of huggables per level. There is an absolute overload of action with more bright colored bears keep entering the various rooms all the time.
The campaign mode leaves it up to you which path you want to take though the goal is the fastest path. There is one large boss battle that is definitely challenging, and the entire game offers a load of challenge if you’re even on normal difficulty never the less hard difficulty. The survival mode could be a standalone game as you clear all the huggables from room to room trying to clear the most rooms.
The survival mode only allows for one death while you get three lives in campaign mode. As stated the game is challenging which comes from the variety and sheer numbers of enemy bears. There are the regular pink bears, but also speedy red and orange bears, and huge blue bears.
The toughest bear is the big green bear which can explode when you get too close, but it can be used in your favor if you can detonate it with a lot of enemy bears, and run out of the way. The small green bears are also tough as they fire their heads at you which explode on contact so you always need to keep an eye out for them. The biggest challenge is that most bears take a lot of hits before going down so that you'll be firing feverishly and still have so many bears to go through.
There are tons of power-ups that drop from killed bears, and you'll need every last one of them to survive in either mode. The game controls effortlessly as dual sticks usually provide, and it's a wonderful change of pace for Battle Bears. The included soundtrack is so intricately deluxe, is action packed and a joy to listen to.
The great art style of Battle Bears is back, but further streamlined with sharper 3D modeling. The game can handle so many bears on screen at once, and it's great to see the dead bear bodies last on screen for a bit to truly see the path of your destruction. The same great rainbow explosion is included when you take off a head of a huggable, and the cut scenes are always wonderful to watch.
The Bad
The game is far shorter than the original with only one boss battle. There are only a few cut scenes as well which is the best part of the game. The game gives plenty for $0.99, but they already set such a high standard with the first that it pales in comparison.
The campaign mode has many rooms you can go into, but the high scores are based on time alone so you'll want to find the quickest route. It would be nice to go for the most killed huggables or some other stat to have incentive to replay campaign mode. In total the game takes about ten to fifteen minutes once through as you will play seven or eight rooms and one boss battle.
The Verdict
Battle Bears -1 is an outstanding follow up to Battle Bears that makes it even more fun with the control change. The same great style is maintained with just a ton more action. The game doesn't have nearly as much content as the original, but gives plenty to make it worth only $1 with the campaign and survival modes.
Battle Bears -1 is a should buy for $0.99, that will have you loving killing cute things.
