Clash Force review (iOS / Universal)

♫ “If you hear too much it will drive you insane, retro rockets”

10 word description: Retro 8-bit run ‘n’ gun style scrolling shoot-em-up.

10 word review: Great fun; stylishly achieves exactly what it is aiming for.

You will like this if you enjoy: Scrolling retro run ‘n’ gun shooters such as Contra, Mega Man, Gunforce, Gunstar Heroes, you know the sort of thing…!

The good news: Controls are mostly great. Retro graphics are convincing and pretty (in an 8-bit way). Gameplay is very good – challenging levels but not “million death frustration” challenging. Music and sounds are good. Weapons and enemies are varied and everything moves at a good pace.

The bad news: A bit more user customisation could be included for the controls. They’re ok on iPad, apart from the position of the fire button in relation to the side of the device and the jump button. I often found myself jumping when I wanted to fire, or consciously reaching across to maintain perfect touch positioning on the fire button. None of this stops the game being fun, but it could always be improved.

Arcadelife verdict: This one came out of nowhere for me, as is often the case with new iOS games. It was great to find out that the game plays as well as it looks in the video (see below) and I’ve had a lot of fun playing it for this review.

Performance, looks, controls, level design – they’re not just very good, they give an authentic retro feel to the game; it’s not just another shooter that has had 8-bit graphics painted over its mediocre skeleton. So I’m saying it’s a good game and you should definitely get it, assuming you’re a fan of this type of shoot-em-up of course!

Arcadelife rating

Visuals – 8.5/10
Audio – 8/10
Controls – 8.5/10
Content – 8.5/10
Fun – 9/10
Final rating – 85/100

Rating categories explained here.

Version reviewed by Arcadelife is 1.0

Clash Force website link

Arcadelife played and reviewed this game on:
4th gen iPod Touch (OS 5.0.1)
iPad (OS 5.0.1)