Tap shooters on the iPhone/iPod Touch: we’ve all played them, we’ll play a thousand more, but we’re also achin’ for something new and fresh. There’s so much on the App Store that attempts to grab our attention, it’s hard to pick out the best from the worst, the $0.99 titles from the $4.99 titles, what’s worth it and what isn’t. But at the tender price of a dollar, it’s also hard to resist the shit ton of applications you can currently buy. Still, this doesn’t mean you should buy all of them; but when you buy a good one–man, you know it early on.

rayBLAST is a tiny studio made up of a single individual. It requires a lot of effort for one person to develop the gameplay and its mechanics, the music, the graphics, etc. for one title. Yes, for us non-developers and non-designers it sounds like a difficult task, so maybe it’s unfair to only charge $0.99 for an application such as rayBLAST’s impaXor. But such is the beauty of the App Store: the philosophy works. People aren’t worried about spending just a dollar and the developer benefits since it’s easy for anybody with a slight interest to buy an app on the spot. Sometimes–if you’re lucky–the game ends up being a pretty fun retro arcade-style shooter like impaXor.

Gameplay

Man, impaXor is a fun little shooter. Basically, the world is under attack from meteorites, space toilets, UFOs, etc. and you’ve got to survive as long as possible. This means your job is to protect the earth by firing a laser towards whatever is headed its way. The twist in impaXor‘s gameplay, however, is that all objects are color-coded and require you to tap the color before firing the laser. Initially, I thought this would be pretty lame. It’s not exactly a revolutionary mechanic and sounds a bit tacky, but holy hell does it work!

The Unity 3D engine looks beautiful and works wonders on the iPhone, which is why I’m so enthusiastic about impaXor being able to shine because of this. Gameplay runs smoothly and the tapping of objects and colors is near perfect in terms of response. Sadly, while it’s fun to tap-shoot and color-code, the game has a number of cons.

For one thing, there’s only one mode and it gets old. That arcade feel of simply beating the high score is aided by the global leaderboards (which I’m currently 3rd in, by the way!) but there’s almost no reason for you to come back to the title after playing it just a few times. It’s a shame because the mechanics of the title work well, there’s just very little replay value. Maybe a campaign mode, achievements, or another addition can help the game out but currently it feels empty.

Style

Like I said, the Unity 3D engine usually looks damn good and this is no exception. The designs that rayBLAST has chosen for this title are smooth and nicely textured. Obviously, some form of humor exists in the game’s style and this serves to aid the game’s character. Menus are easy to navigate and gameplay flows great.

Story

Earth is going to blow up any second now, so survive as long as possible by shooting oncoming objects. Done.

Everything Else

I can easily suggest impaXor because it’s only a dollar. Otherwise, the lack of content and replay value hurt the game’s success. I’m proud of rayBLAST’s debut iPhone/iPod Touch title being what it is, however, and truly look forward to the developer’s future. With a few updates, impaXor can improve but once more, the game is very much worth a dollar.

[DIYgamer received a free copy of the game for review purposes.]