Dropship is a new game from ngmoco. You pilot a space fighter and must navigate perilous environments while avoiding enemy fire, on a mission to retrieve your friends and equipment and carry them to safety. We’ve had some time with the game and so far we’re impressed.
Starting up the game you are introduced to the controls, by a rather sexy sounding female robot voice. Using touch controls similar to dual analogue style, you control your thruster movement by dragging in that direction with your left thumb. To control your direction of fire, do teh same with your right thumb. As you touch the screen you get visual feedback through slick looking overlays showing the direction of motion or fire. The controls are intuitive and feel great, and after a few minutes in free play mode, saving my friends (which were named from my address book, nice touch by the way!) I had the controls nailed and it was time to venture into the campaign mode.
Each level consists of a 3D ‘tron-like’ vector landscape, and to begin with you must navigate around looking for pods to retrieve. While avoiding enemy fire, you must use your upward thrust to slowly descend on the pods, and once close enough you will automatically grab it with your tow cable. To complete the level just boost clear of the surface. Later levels see you saving your friends as well as the main retrieval missions. ngmoco have added XBOX 360 style achievements which are great for extending game life.
The graphic style is really cool, it looks like a cross between geometry wars and tron. While it’s not exactly pushing the 3D of the iPhone, it has a very pleasing futuristic neon look to it with some cool weapon effects On the sound front it features fitting techno beats.
The game is available now in the AppStore for a bargain $1.99. If you are still unsure, be sure to check out our full review of the game soon. In the meantime check out the gameplay video below.
