WiiWare Shoot 'Em Up Game, Kyotokei, Comes To iOS
Kyotokei - Polarity Shooter ($1.99) by Vidia is an arcade shooter for iOS modeled after the Wii game. It's fast-paced and unique, in that you must change your shields to both master the game and survive attacks.
This is a typical "shoot 'em up" game (or shmup). You're riding a Chocobo-like thing in the air as you try to shoot enemies while simultaneously avoiding their fire.
There are three levels of difficulty of which you can choose to play, and five levels to survive under each, including boss fights.
You can choose to control your character with a joystick-like pad or by touching the screen to move around. I tried both ways of controlling Kyo, and the arcade style joystick is quite awkward, so I would suggest utilizing the touch controls.
Besides navigating your way through the constant bullets and enemies, the key ability you'll want to use is to switch the color of your shield. There are two colors the enemies can be: red or blue. All you need to do is tap the color change button to switch between shield colors. You will die if you get hit, head on, by any enemies, or if you get shot with bullets of the opposite color than your current shield. So, you see, it's very important to be paying close attention to the bullets flying your way and change your shields when needed.
Kyo only shoots as long as you have your finger on the screen; once lifted, the bullets stop flying. This can get in the way of seeing the big picture. It doesn't cause much disruption, but I can see it being an issue with some players.
Besides shooting, you sometimes have the ability to use homing missiles on your target as well; this surely comes in handy when fighting multiple enemies.
The graphics are done in a pixel-like anime style. They are sleek, but I wasn't super impressed with them. But overall the game is pretty challenging, and becomes even more difficult as you progress through the levels and go up against different bosses. Not to mention, mastering the shield changing becomes quite an art as it's an important aspect of the game.
Kyotokei is available in the App Store as a universal app for only $1.99. Although it was challenging, nothing about this game made it more engaging than other games of the genre. I cannot justify paying more than $0.99 for this game. I'd wait for a sale.
