Fortitude! Is An Arcade Pleaser You Don't Need Quarters For
Fortitude! ($0.99) by Studio Piña is a unique combination of two of my favorite arcade games of all time. Even casual gamers will love this fun package. Fortitude combines a galactic shooter, like Space Invaders, with the color-filled game of Bubble Blaster. Awesome, right? I thought so.
One thousand years ago, autonomous weapon satellites invaded our homeland. We were overpowered, being forced to hand our world over with no fight. Now, with a new weapons system developed that can destroy the enemy’s defenses, we make our offensive stand and begin to fight back. We need to diminish all of the “red kings” and save the galaxy forever.
Three, two, one, BLAST OFF!
Fortitude has a simple UI and has a great arcade feel. It really brings you back to spending countless hours smashing buttons and wasting quarters at the arcade. Oh, how I miss being a kid.
For those of you who have no idea what these two games are, let me explain. Space Invaders is an 8-bit space shooter and Bubble Blaster has you shoot to match three or more bubbles by color to pop them (similar to Bejeweled). In Fortitude, you need to destroy the bubbles, to be able to shoot and destroy the red kings that hide behind the defense wall.
Simply tap and drag the space shooter to move around and release your finger to shoot the colored bubble. The bubbles only come in three colors: red, yellow, and blue. Keep your eyes open, and your fingers ready, because you’ll need to dodge other space ships and red kings as they shoot you with their green lasers. This can become pretty intense at times, but that’s what makes it fun and addictive.
You finish each level when you destroy the “red king” and then you are rewarded with a bonus level. These bonus levels are cleverly designed to help you boost your score and resemble other classic games, like Pong.
The only gripe I have is that every time you start a new game, you have skip the cut scenes before you can begin to play again. I also wish you could play this in landscape mode. These are not deal breakers, though. For a simple yet challenging game, that will keep you itching to beat your previous high score, you will want to pick Fortitude up for your iPhone or iPad.
