This game's worth more than its asking price
Shooting games ala Space Invaders isn't something that most of us would get excited about since it probably wouldn't offer anything new to keep you playing for extended amount of hours. But there are a few games out there that proves that if you do everything right, then a game such as this one can still be addicting.
The object of the game is really simple and it starts off with a useful and brief tutorial. It's in my opinion a modified version of Space Invaders Extreme. Just transfer the baddies up on the top screen and use the stylus to control your ship, and you'll get an idea how this game works. The only other difference here is that your ship (or whatever that item is called) isn't the source of your bullets. You can basically shoot from anywhere and at any upwards angle at the bottom of the screen and just protect yourself from enemy bullets or even from your own. You see, everytime you miss an enemy, debris will fall down once your fireworks explode. It's a good thing since it will prevent players from simply shooting like crazy without worrying that it can come back and hunt them down.
Enemies come out in batches at the top screen but some of 'em will dive or pop-up from the bottom screen. A star falls down the screen with varying sizes (depending on the size of the enemy you killed) that you need to catch to fill up a gauge on the left side of the touchscreen. You however really don't need to stand directly at the bottom of the falling star since it acts as if its magnetized and will attach itself to your ship once you get close to it. Once the bar (which also gets out of the way when you get too close to it) is filled up, the stage will be cleared and you'll be given a chance to unlock other stuff in the game in a form of a mini-game.
There's a total of 90 stages in this game and if you include the other things that gets unlocked once you're done with the arcade mode ... then you can just imagine how much time you can spend with this title. And also as you progress, you'll get power-ups and things that will affect your accuracy such as wind direction.
Graphically, the game looks well polished. The explosions are nice to look at with a pinch of noticeable pixelation. The background is also animated like in Space Invaders Extreme. The enemies looks nice as well, but some of them are too cartoonish for my taste.
Sounds on the other hand is on the repetitive side. I'm guessing that there's only a total of 9 tracks here since it only changes every after levels. They do not sound flat or anything like that but they're okay for the first few stages, but you'll probably end up listening to the same tune for a good 30mins or so.
Controls is like what I've mentioned is stylus based. It's hard for me to mention anything bad about it except that there were times when I felt like my fireworks aren't going where I was intentionally aiming them at. And yes, that was still in the early stages of the game where air resistance wasn't yet a factor.
All in all the game in my opinion is easily recommendable especially because of its price tag. Add to that the ability to play local multiplayer on a single cartridge makes this title even more attractive. I was actually having a dilemma of giving the game a 7.5 or an 8. But since the game has minimal flaws, I have decided to stick with a great rating of 8.
UPDATE:
I just tried playing local multiplayer of this game yesterday and I was a bit disappointed. In multiplayer mode you'll be holding your DS vertically (like a book), and you'll have your ship displayed on the touchscreen, while your opponent is on the other. So yes, you need to shoot sideways as you try and hit the other player with your fireworks. And although they tried to add some power-ups to it, you can only access them using the d-pad which is quite hard to reach. It isn't all that fun and in my opinion, it could have been better if the players are just on top of each other. But that is just probably me.
.:My reviews are only as good as everyone else's. Take every single one of them with a grain of salt:.