Red Sky
by Eric March on January 9, 2009 at 3:50 pm
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(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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App Name: | Red Sky |
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| Developer: | Spogg AB |
Version: | 1.0 | |
| Publisher: | Spogg AB |
Size: | 2.0 MB | |
| Category: | Arcade Games |
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Yeah, you know what this is just by looking at the screenshot. It’s a version of one of the most classic arcade games of all time: Atari’s Missile Command. But Spogg have taken the classic formula and, without really changing it very much, managed to turn it into something that just doesn’t feel like Missile Command but is just as fun, maybe even more so in this climate of casual gaming on the go.
Spogg AB have taken the vintage Missile Command formula and they’ve given it a bit of an update for mobile touchscreen gaming. The object is still the same, of course: Defend your cities. Let no missiles reach them or they’re toast. To do that, you just need to destroy the incoming missiles. Rather than launching missiles from one of three bases along the ground however, in Red Sky, you just touch the area where you want to detonate and anything within its expanding blast radius will itself explode, sending out blast rings of their own and blasting anything that gets to close to those in turn.
It’s funny, but with the exception of the lack of missile bases, or shooting actual SAMs to take down the incoming missiles (not to mention no passing planes or satellites) everything works the same as the original missile command, and yet it feels totally different. Detonating your own bomb (or EMP blast or laser cannon or whatever it is) and causing a chain reaction with other incoming missiles in the immediate vicinity feels a lot more like Boomshine than Missile Command, even though the same cascade effect happened there, too. Perhaps it’s the fact that this game is much more fast-paced than the original Missile Command. Perhaps, too, it has to do with the bubble popping noise that occurs when missiles explode. (Seriously. It’s not bad or annoying, just a strange choice.)
Scoring here is based on a number of factors. First of all, while you don’t have any missile bases (and therefore no missiles to run out of), there is a meter along the top that dips when you fire and recharges afterward; the faster and more frequently you fire the more it dips, and when it its bottom, you can’t fire and have to wait for it to recharge a bit. This meter is segmented, and each segment represents a scoring tier, the highest being on the right. Missiles destroyed while the meter is above the last segment score 100 points; below that 75 for the next segment, 50 for the next, and 25 in the lowest segment. This encourages an economy of shots to ensure the highest scores are achieved during play by trying to snag as many missiles with one shot as possible.
Furthermore, if you can destroy missiles using the shockwave from other missiles, each additional missile earns an extra 100 points. (No extra points are awarded if your own detonation shockwave takes out multiple missiles; the additional missiles have to be destroyed by another destroyed missile’s shockwave to get the extra scoring.) At the end of the round, you are given a level score, plus bonus points for each city standing at the end of the round, and a further bonus if you were able to pass the level on your first try. Progress to level 5 and beyond and bonuses start to pop up that you can shoot at for extra points.
Perhaps even more interestingly, and where it really starts to build on the Missile Command formula, is that powerups eventually become unlocked, one by one, every 10 levels, which can aid you in clearing the levels and saving your cities. Furthermore, the game features an achievement angle, which it calls “challenges.” Challenges are unlocked as they are reached, and succeeding at them earns you the appropriate trophy on the challenges board.
The graphics here are quite nice — nothing particularly fancy, it’s actually pretty minimalist, using plain, clean lines, looking a great deal like a Flash game, in fact. Sounds are fairly minimal; the aforementioned “pop” sound on detonation, and a synthetic, trumpety “ta-daa!” sound effect when you clear a level … or load Windows 3.1.
Complaints? I have a few. There’s no pause button, for starters, which is uncool. You have to bang the sleep button if you want to halt the action. Mashing home doesn’t quite work; it will continue your game when you reload, but only from the beginning of the last level you were on. Ditto if you’re interrupted by a call. Some real state saving would be welcome here.
Other than that though this comes off as a pretty slick little game — lots of fun, and if it seems pretty sedate at first, the difficulty ramps up to some insane levels later on, where a great deal of judiciousness is required in deploying your bombs/EMPs/frickin’ sharks with frickin’ lasers strapped to their heads to try and take out as many missiles at once as you can, because you’ll find your energy meter at the top will start to tip pretty damn quick, harming not only your score, but your chances of survival.
Although this is a freebie, it has dropped from its former price of $0.99, and there’s no indication whether this is a temporary freebie or if Spogg have just decided to give it away in its entirety. Best to hedge your bets and grab this as soon as you can, just in case.
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Posted in Games: Arcade
