Tag Games is a studio familiar with success; their GTA-style Carjack Streets title garnered a massive amount of attention on the App Store and earned over a million downloads. Fortunately, Tag Games is hard at work at creating innovative titles for many different genres. The one in question, GUTS, is a title booming with charisma. From it’s press releases–where the leader of Slabovia threatened to behead individuals who did not purchase the game–to the art style, GUTS seems to offer something refreshing on the App Store.

But I’m afraid that GUTS cannot accomplish a similar type of success as Carjack Streets. While its tilt controls and wildly constructed gameplay are unique, it falls short of an incredible title. Certainly, the best way to explain my feelings would be to break it down for you…which is exactly what I’m going to do.

Gameplay

GUTS takes place inside of the Slabovia’s ruthless leader’s–the General’s–body. As two unfortunate fellows are led to a mad scientists laboratory, they are shrunk into a craft and injected into the General’s body. Their mission? To rid the General of his many pathogens and diseases. You steer the ship via the accelerometer and use the boost button to gas that sucker up. This would have worked well and good if it hadn’t been for the ridiculous amount of sensitivity in the accelerometer which, while it certainly adds a challenge, often pisses you off.

The other element is destroying enemies, which you use the fire button for. The way this works is you tap the desired enemy then fire away. Sadly, this gets confusing quickly. Controlling the ship and firing at the same time can drive you insane. You’ll find that enemies are often off the screen and your craft goes tumbling into walls, lowering your health. It shouldn’t have to be that difficult and frustrating to simply shoot the enemies. What’s even more frustrating is that at certain levels, the enemies are headed straight for you and the tapping becomes unresponsive and annoying.

Tag Games clearly had a good idea in mind for GUTS, but the execution of that idea forces the game to suffer. Still, the best aspect is perusing through the environments and different organs. It’s nice to have each stage differ from the last and makes the game more bearable.

Style

The cutscenes in this game are awesome. They are so well-animated and executed that I wish Tag had done the same for the gameplay. Instead, the cutscenes feature a Gorillaz-style (a cool animated band if you guys remember) animation while the gameplay contains nothing similar. One thing is for sure, however, the game has a shitload of character. It’s quirky humor coupled with a similar art style for the cutscenes makes me wish a lot of other iPhone/iPod Touch titles would follow suit.

Story

Yes, the story is incredibly far-fetched. Get shrunk and put onto a craft into the General’s body and rid it of infection. It’s far-fetched, but at least the story is there and it is told well through the cutscenes. The two numbnuts characters are hopelessly ignorant and fearful but believable.

Everything Else

I really enjoyed the music of GUTS. Its animations, story, and music were great foundations for the title but unfortunately the most important aspect–gameplay–fails to deliver due to its frustrating control scheme. While I may find it hard to criticize indie titles because of how much work is put into them, honesty is the best policy. Chances are, Tag Games will take these comments into consideration and use them in the future to create something remarkable. Until then, however, I suggest GUTS for those not intimidated by its current $0.99 price point. At its usual $2.99, however, the title feels a little empty because of a lack of replay value.

[The reviewer obtained a free copy of the game for review purposes.]