Title: Circuit Strike One
Price: $0.99
System(s): iPhone, iPod Touch
Release Date: July 23, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Chllingo (h.grenade)
Rating: “9+” for mild profanity and crude humor.
Pros: Fun, interesting and challenging shooter.
Cons: Plagued with crashes on the iPhone 3G.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb sideways; 80/100; B-; * * * out of five.
These past few weeks I have developed a love/hate relationship with both Circuit Strike One and my iPhone 3G. On one hand you have a very interesting and experimental shooter with CS One. On the other hand you have the crippling problems consistently exposed with the iPhone.
Take Two Games, Add One Movie and Stir
Circuit Strike One presents a mix of Geometry Wars and Asteroids with a touch of the movie Hackers. The game’s premise pits you as hacker fighting your way through the defenses of the system administrators. Doing so requires you to carefully guide your craft while launching a strike on attack ships and cannons and while trying to complete level objectives.
Circuit Strike One provides neon colors, various computer-related sound effects and simple visuals mixed with an electronica soundtrack. The best thing about the sounds and visuals of the game is the Utility engine which syncs up what you do in-game, reacting to your actions. For example, fired shots are mixed into the soundtrack. Imagine mixing a record by playing a shooter.
Positive, Meet Negative
Controlling your craft in this game feels just like controlling the craft in Asteroids complete with directional shooting. That said, Circuit Strike One also moves much faster than your classic Asteroids game, which caused me to die several times before I actually figured out the precision controlling and not speed and rapid fire would give me the most success, especially since the game takes place in “zero gravity.” Of course, precision controls are only acquired from a comfortable control scheme of which Circuit Strike One offers three (I prefer the “twin stick” setting).
One thing to keep in mind before purchasing CS One is that the game is relentlessly difficult. Not only can you expect to die multiple times in a matter of seconds but you can also expect to be insulted in leet speak as you watch your lives quickly tick away. However, if you can master the game you should be able to collect high scores that you will be more than proud to compare to the global leader boards.
The game also relentlessly crashed on me. Now, I can’t say for sure if either my iPhone’s memory was maxed out or that Circuit Strike One maxed the memory out, all I can confirm is that on multiple occasions, even after various system restarts, I was kicked out of the game after waiting for a two-minute freeze. I also can’t confirm that the iPhone 3GS or the iPod Touch will have this problem, however my iPhone 3G did.
Short Circuit?
Circuit Strike One is a fun, ingenious shooter with touch of Asteroids and Geometry Wars and is offered at fair price although the experience may be plagued with system crashes.
Purchase [Circuit Strike One]
It sounds like the sound design is similar to that of Lumines and Rez. That alone is intriguing enough to warrant a look in my books.