Radiangames continues its beautiful shooter series on Xbox Live Indie Games with the third release in the series, Inferno. We loved the first release JoyJoy, but weren’t too keen on the follow-up Crossfire… so the great news is that Inferno is pretty much a maze-orientated version of JoyJoy.

With some great level design, gorgeous visuals and powerful blasting action, Radiangames is back on top form. You should buy this game, and here is why.

GAMEPLAY

Players take control of a craft which is very familiar to the hero in JoyJoy. On each of the 30 available levels, you need to navigate a maze full of bubble-like baddies, blasting them out of the way and reaching the goal. Along the way there are keys to collect to open up certain areas, and special bonus levels to be found.

Drones can be collected, which float alongside you and help fire at the bad guys. Gold is dotted around, and can be used to upgrade your ship at the shop. There are tons of different upgrades and powers to obtain, and buying enough of these will make you feel amazingly powerful. This is where Inferno‘s core excitement comes from – taking down hordes of baddies with incredible laser blasts.

The word ‘horde’ is an understatement – the later levels see you getting engulfed in bad guys, having to dodge and fend for your life. Fortunately, your ship has a handy shield which keeps you safe from harm, although you can’t fire your guns while it’s activated. The shield really gives the game a great tactical edge.

It’s all brilliant fun, and for the whole 2 hours of gameplay you’ll be completely hooked. Level design is solid, and the number of enemies coming at you never feels overwhelming thanks to your trusty blasters. Once you’ve completed the main game, there is also an extra Story+ mode to battle your way through.

If that doesn’t sound good enough for you, check this – four players can blast their way through the campaign together. ‘Hectic’ doesn’t even begin to describe how crazy the action can get, with laser fire flying all over the place. Truly one of the most enjoyable multiplayer experiences I’ve had with an XBLIG game.

STYLE

As with both JoyJoy and Crossfire, Inferno looks gorgeous. Radiangames has a very unique neon-lights style of visual, and coupled with the abstract circular enemies and epic explosions, it all looks pretty incredible.

Radiangames’ usual technobeats and dance-style soundtrack is back with a vengeance. Honestly, it’s all starting to sound a little too generic for my tastes – all three games have sounded the very same up to now, and some variation would have done nicely. Still, the music at least partially feels the mood, so you could argue it’s a case of ‘not broken, don’t fix’.

STORY

As we’ve learnt from their previous releases, Radiangames doesn’t do storylines. Feel free to make up your own story, however – maybe the abstract circle blob thingy is on his/her way to save another circle? Yeah, let’s go with that.

OTHER

Radiangames Inferno is wonderful. There’s non-stop blasting fun to be had, and you should definitely partake in the action.

How much does this outrageous enjoyment cost, you ask? A single dollar. That’s right, 80 MS points will bag you this wonderment. Don’t even consider it – just go and grab the damn thing.