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Icarus-X

Icarus-X has some great features going for it as a shoot-'em-up: touch-based controls, 3D backgrounds, intense techno stage music, and, of course, hectic fast-paced bullet-hell gameplay. Users must take out waves of enemy planes and alien ships that throw everything from spiraling bullet patterns to kamikaze attacks while staying alive. It's the same shooting recipe we've grown up to love, captured in a portable form. And while all this sounds great on paper, Icarus-X is not without its flaws. But let's start with the positive points.

Icarus-X is impressive in the graphics department among titles released … Read more

Doodle Assault, a unique side-scrolling shooter

Meet Doodle Assault for Android, a quirky side-scroller that strays from the typical spaceship-versus-aliens shoot-'em-up style by incorporating some childish humor into its plot. In this game, you are a paper airplane, flying across an infinitely long landscape of doodled-on binder paper. Your enemies include snout-shooting flying warthogs, winged pencils, and other fantastic classroom doodles come-to-life.

As you destroy enemies with your tiny origami shooting stars, you can pick up coins that can be used to upgrade your plane. Upgrades include Plane Speed, Weapon, Health, Firing Rate, and Defense. What's great is that you keep all of your … Read more

Old school shoot-'em-up action

StarCannon is a remake of classic arcade shooters of the past, with 2D shoot-'em-up action and challenging boss fights. The graphics are smooth even on the older iPhone 3G. The controls are mostly effective, but can sometimes feel sluggish using a touch-to-move system rather than an onscreen joypad. Your ship fires automatically as long as you are touching the screen so you can play the game using only one finger or your thumb.

You can acquire three different weapons as you play and, just like top-down arcade shooters of the past, StarCannon lets you upgrade each weapon with more … Read more

Take to the skies in WWII

iFighter Lite is a fun, free, one-level preview of the upcoming game iFighter, a vertical-scrolling arcade shooter in which you pilot a WWII fighter plane against wave after wave of Nazi tanks, planes, bosses, and other ground and air targets. iFighter's interface lets you control your plane in one of three ways: with a touch directional pad, swiping touch controls, or simply by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The accelerometer-based controls are by far the best--and they're arguably an improvement over even the controls of iFighter's stand-up arcade predecessors, allowing for quick and precise movements as … Read more