Halogen is a slick retro app that is incredibly addictive. The game is an amalgamation of Geometry Wars, Pong, Air Hockey, and Space Invaders – all your retro favorites wrapped up into a sweet package. The gameplay is simple, you control and move a circle with your finger and use it to hit a puck around the arena. The puck destroys baddies by colliding with it and you lose lives by colliding the player into enemies or letting the puck ‘score’ on you by falling through the gap at the bottom of the screen.

The game has a ‘Hacker’ type storyline that is displayed between levels via text. The story is completely forgettable but it works with the whole retro motif and gets you into that 80s feel. The music is catchy and the soundFX are reminiscent of 80s arcade games. While the game has this cool retro feel, it’s gameplay could only work on the iPad and feels innovative.

Halogen is challenging, but you’ll find yourself getting 1 or 2 stages farther (unlocking practice mode levels) every time you play, so it never gets frustrating. There’s some boss fights mixed in there for good measure and the local multiplayer is a pong/air hockey game. Rockethands has a real winner with Halogen that is worth the $4.99.

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