December 2nd, 2010 | By stewshearer
Tagged in: iPad | iPhone | iPod | shooter
It’s been awhile since I’ve played a really good space flight sim. It’s a genre that for all intents and purposes has been out to pasture by mainstream developers. It’s sort of inexplicable; if there’s one thing a lot of mainstream games have been about, it’s flash, and I don’t know about you but I can’t think of much flashier than flying around in a heavily armed space ship blowing things to kingdom come. But I digress, if the day of Wing Commander and X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter are over, I’ll just have to live with it.
Thankfully, there are some games out there to help ease the pain. Galaxy on Fire has been out for awhile now, and actually already has a sequel, but I just recently purchased an iPod Touch and decided to give the original a try after spending a bit of time perusing the App Store. To be sure, I have no regrets. For one, thanks to a still running offer I was able to download the game for free, and for two it’s a lot of fun.
In Galaxy on Fire you play as a pilot for hire, tramping about the universe in your very own spaceship on a perpetual search for work. You’ll take on jobs ranging from escort missions, mine sweeping and ship to ship combat. These jobs will earn you cargo and credits that can then be traded for bigger ships, better weapons and to fund your galaxy-wide travel.
In short, Galaxy on Fire is a fairly straightforward space shooter. The missions may bear different names and objectives, but at the core of them all is a focus on shooting enemy ships out of the air. This might seem a bit repetitive, and it can be at times, but the gameplay is fun and the missions short enough to be addictive rather than tiresome. You’ll find yourself playing with a “just one more attitude” that helps make progress feel painless. And there’s a lot to progress through. Galaxy on Fire has hundreds of star systems to explore, each with around a half dozen planets and space stations which in turn generally boast at least a few missions. I’ve put several hours into the game already and still haven’t made a dent in it.
With every good thing there usually is a downside, and aside from the aforementioned repetitiveness, the controls are a bit awkward. I don’t grudge the developers anything; truth be told, they’ve done a fairly good job. Even so, the touch controls are rubbish, and while the tilt controls work well enough they often feel clumsy and you will constantly need to recalibrate them. These are just concessions made for the platform though, and rarely take away from the game itself.
I love games like this and fully intend to buy Galaxy on Fire 2 once I finish the first game. In the mean time, if you’re looking for a good space shooter romp, download Galaxy on Fire while it’s still free. You won’t regret it!
stewshearer (6 posts)
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