Everyday Shooter

Developer: Queasy Games
Steam Release: May 2008
Hours Played: 6.4
Similar To: Trigonarium / Zenzizenzic
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips 



GAMEPLAY
With each level having its own unique and distinctive mechanic, Everyday Shooter is not your everyday shooter. Sure, you blast away at enemies in twin-stick fashion and watch them disappear in a shower of explosions but you don’t rack up points based on enemies destroyed. Here, you control a small circle while destroying enemies who leave behind small dots. You collect these swiftly before they fade away and it's points from these that add to your score. This score also translates to points that you can then spend to unlock extras. Enemies produce dots in at least as many ways as there are levels so there is a lot of variety to be had. It's also useful to know that holding back on the firing will allow that burst of speed when you need it.  

BALANCE & PACE
This game has nothing to do with a story and everything to do with beating your previous high-score. You jump in, select a level and attempt to beat your high score; bish, bash, bosh! Needless to say, some levels produce more dots than others or are a lot harder. Level 3 for instance gives away hardly any dots at all and is more or less survival mode and it is this variety in gameplay mechanics that gives the game its spice. With quite a few bullet-hell moments, the game is generally quite intense and will keep you on your toes. Each level lasts about 3 minutes and you'll be lucky to survive without losing at least one ship. You can either do just one level in Single-Player mode or you can jump into Normal-Play which will throw you in at Level 1 and see how well you can score and survive in one level after another.    

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
ES has one of the most simple start-screens in existence hiding a deceptively complicated menu system. Selecting the Single-Player option lets you play a level of your choice but each one is taken up by a whole screen forcing you to scroll through page after page to get the one you want. Likewise, Unlock Extras, which allows you to unlock levels and gain graphical tweaks, is a time-consuming screen by screen process. A dainty synthesised tune on keyboard is played at the menu screens while a harder, rockier sound is heard as you play. Here, a chunky and powerful electric guitar plays and as you destroy enemies and unleash dots, other guitar chords of varying strength and pitch coincide resulting in a pleasant array of harmonies. The simple geometric shapes and comfortable colour-scheme adds to the overall artsy-feel.
  

PROGRESS SYSTEM
You begin with only Level 1 available and accrue points in order to spend and unlock more. Each page showing the name and high-score for each level (while a bit of a chore to view) can be accessed by scrolling through the Single-Player (level-select) portion of the game so you know exactly what you have to do. Normal Play, where you keep going for as long as possible with a set amount of ships, has your high-score displayed at all times on the start-screen. Points scored equal points to spend and these can be used through the Unlock Extras section; a mechanic that can be exploited a little by grinding the levels that give more points and avoiding the bullet-hell, survival ones.  
 

CONCLUSION
Everyday Shooter does a lot right: it bends the rules enough to make the game interesting; it lets you jump in and out again nicely for a short 5, 10 or 15 minute session; it has a chunky soundtrack that delivers good music with powerful punch and it is stable and solid. On top of that it has a stylish colour scheme to give it added class. On the negative side: it can be a pain to have to navigate and select levels through one screen at a time (particularly to view the unlockables) and there are some painfully tricky survival levels. Overall though, its unique art-style and quirky yet simple levels give it enough character to make it stand out and to push out its over-complicated and over-elaborate competitor (Zenzizenzic) from appearing in my list .