Astro Tripper

Developer: PomPom
Category: 2D Shooter
Released: Sep 2011
Usual Price: £3.99
Hours Played: 3
Controller Compatible: Yes
Rating: N/A Stars

GAMEPLAY

PomPom Games have done a couple of decent shoot 'em ups in the form of Mutant Storm Reloaded and Alien Zombie Megadeath. Astro Tripper ends up being the dud of the pack. Any old-timers familiar with Defender will appreciate the basic mechanic. You control a ship which travels horizontally in a restricted area. You may flip your ship 180 degrees so that it may travel both from left to right as well as right to left. You zip around this area, blasting away at the enemies while avoiding them and their missile fire. Bear in mind that it is not a wrap-around system and you have to turn back when you get to the end. You get two fire modes (including a pointless one that fires outwards) and you can actually die if you take your ship too far to the side.  The only possible improvement to Defender is that you do at least get to pick up weapon power-ups. 


In Adventure mode you are given three lives and play one level at a time but must start the entire level from the beginning if you lose a life. Not nice. Challenge mode is similar but you are given one life, one area and last as long as you can. The gameplay is quite promising but far too brutal, even on the easy setting, in Adventure mode. You will do very well to get to level 3 without the loss of a few lives and even if you get there, the boss (a huge spider) seems impossible to beat - and there's your game-breaker right there because at about 3 minutes a level, you're just not going to get much value. Challenge mode, which plays like a poor-man's Defender does at least test your skill and is even exciting in a few fleeting moments but it is quite pedestrian overall and there really are far better shooters out there to spend your time on.

DESIGN & PROGRESS
Unlike their previous releases, Astro Tripper is not up to much in the menus department. To play, you click on the Single Player path in the main menu, then click on the Adventure Game or Challenge Game options. The former gives you three lives as you complete waves or levels while the latter is an endless mode that sees how far you can get in one area with just one life. Your high-score is recorded in a high-score chart and you can see how you compare with other players. Further areas in both modes become unlocked but as I have not got far with the game, I have no idea what you have to do to unlock them.

  

CONCLUSION

I have played the Pod Challenge about three or four times and amassed a mediocre score of just over 500 000 which puts me 43rd in the all-time list. I don't mean to be unkind but if a mere noob such as I can get 43rd on the all-time list after just three or four tries, then the game isn't taking the indie-gaming world by storm. Couple this with the fact that the Level 3 boss is unkillable in adventure mode (the way I play it anyway) and you have a total game-breaker. If you're a die-hard Defender fan who really would like to see a variation of your beloved game then go with Aqua Kitty which does it ten times better. If you want a PomPom game then go with the vastly superior Mutant Storm Reloaded or Alien Zombie Megadeath and leave this one alone.