Hardcore shoot em up! Yes this is what is lurking behind the long name Glandarius Wing Strike by AQ Interactice Inc. Glandarius seems to be the Latin word for bird, good to know if you ever end up on Jeopardy.

Back to the plot, or rather the lack of it. I have no idea what the story is as there is nothing mentioned in the game or iTunes description. Have found some clues on the Zeptotools blog that this is a battle between your alliance and the Galaxy Imperial Armies and it takes place above earth.  I really think that this should be put into the game, as it is a bit generic at the moment.

Glandarius Wing Strike is being advertised as a “one touch” shooter as Nigel reported earlier here. This brings me to one of the most important parts of any shooter and that is “do the controls work?” Both yes, and no I have to say. You can only move horizontally and you shoot by tapping the screen. You also release homing lasers to up to four targets by touching the screen and letting go when up to four enemies have been targeted. Add to this, that you also move your ship when you touch the screen and the problems start for me. You also can’t see enemy fire approaching your ship when there is a fat finger in the way. Also, as your ship moves when you tap the screen aiming is not as easy as I would like it. Controls need to be much tighter and more precise in a game such as this, and one handed one touch play is not what the hardcore gamer seek.

This is a hardcore game… casual gamers stay away, as you only have 3 lives and no continues. The difficulty level set at hard. Although, there is a stage select which means you can play any stage that you have reached. The game over screen gives you grades depending on your kills and score but most importantly it has got online leaderboards showing scores for the six individual stages and a combined total.

 

Presentation and graphics

The backgrounds look good, but there is no time to admire it when you are being attacked by ten enemies shooting at once. The ships are detailed and explode in a suitable fiery explosion. Too little variety when it comes to the enemies and their shots.

 

Sound

The typical assortment of ambient techno tracks . Weak explosions and no sound when you or the enemy fires. Fades out your Ipod music.

 

Game play

I have some concern that the controls are more gimmicky to the “one touch” mechanics the developer wanted to achieve instead of being developed to complement a hardcore quick reaction shoot em up. I don’t call them broken as they do work but to me they lack the precision needed to really enjoy the game.

 

Game life

Score achievements, online leaderboards and hard as nails game play give you quite a lot of  game life. 

 

Final rating

If you are a hardcore gamer you might consider getting this game but it would be great if the developer released a lite version as whether you like this game or not depends on how well you get along with the “one touch” controls. If you are a casual gamer you should look elsewhere period.

Glandarius Wing Strike $4.99

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

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