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    • Starship Troopers: Invasion “Mobile Infantry” review

    Written By: Torbjorn Kamblad
    November 14, 2012

    This time they do have helmets…whoa.

    Starship Troopers is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in a cinema. I remember seeing it back in the Winter of 1997. For the time the effects were quite good, and I liked the alien bugs. What I couldn’t stomach was the stupidity of the marines, and how I started to hope the aliens would win. If attacking the aliens from above with napalm is highly effective why send in troopers? And if the aliens have claws, and big ass teeth why send in troopers without helmets? And how the hell can you stand in a ring around bugs shooting at head height without killing your team mates on the other side of the ring?

    A bad enough movie can gather a following, and Starship Troopers is one of those. Sequels, games and whatnot have followed. That a game for iOS using the movie as backdrop would surface comes to no surprise to me. Actually I am surprised it didn’t happen earlier.

    Just like the movie however it is a bad game, horrid even. For one it has the heroes wearing helmets, which did not happen in the movie. This is probably due to not being able to get good enough graphics to create proper faces, and not in response to my call for a helmet in a combat situation. Furthermore the game is basically a Temple Run clone with some cover, and shoot mechanics not far from those found in EPOCH.  And yes a lot of IAP to get you somewhere fast.

    The controls are ok at best for the running, and dodging aspect of the game. Avoid ceilings, jump over debris and collect credits and powerups. Now, and then you enter a battle with a couple of bugs. Swipe down, or in a direction to dodge behind cover. Touch the bug to fire the gun. Not really responsive controls, and never engaging in any way.

    The presentation is horrendous with blocky environments, and poorly drawn and animated troopers. The blood effects, and bugs overall look really poor. As in the original movie I have no issues whatsoever with my trooper dying. Once dead I would not consider buying credits using my real money. For one the game has already run me a buck, but the fact that it isn’t fun to replay is more of a downer.

    Starship Troopers: Invasion “Mobile Infantry” is yet again proof that you can’t make a good game from a poor movie. Derivative game-play melting together aspects from successful games without managing to get anything up to the standard of the originals make for a tedious experience. Let these roughnecks die in the tunnels.

    Final Rating

    mediocre

    Starship Troopers: Invasion “Mobile Infantry” $0.99 Universal for iPad/iPhone/iPod
    Version: 1.o
    Seller: Spectre Media LLC.

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    • DeInit

      The infantry was shown to be stupid because that was the point. The portrayal of that society was meant as a reflection on fascism, and that’s a very very watered down version from what you can read in the much better book, because yes, the movie wasn’t the original property, this is from a very interesting book. Napalm wouldn’t have worked since the bugs stayed underground until they had something to attack. And in the book the infantry had powered exoskeletons, but the goal here was to make it campy and kind of a parody of war flicks, and I’d say it did the job, in its admittedly limited way.

      As for the game, oh look, they have powered exoskeletons, I guess they’re going from the book, not the movie? Though I guess there’s little excuse for using a mechanic like that of Epoch (a good but not great game IMO, as repetitiveness, unremarkability of environments and a rather secondary story aspect hold back an otherwise interesting mechanic) without exploiting the opportunity for better graphics it offers.

    • jeffyg3

      Oh god yeah, that movie was absolutely horrible…crappy anime style CGI which didn’t mix very well in the SST universe, and a horrible script. I had to force myself to finish that POS movie. Can’t believe they made a game out of that pile of crud

    • nigelwood

      Actually I really liked the first movie. It was deliberately tougue-in-cheek. This game is actually based off the new CGI movie and book. However, regardless of what this is based on, it isn’t a great game.

    • http://twitter.com/EvanRJones Evan Jones

      (Re-post minus the link. Sorry about that.)

      My name’s Evan and I’m the community manager for the game. Thanks for taking the time to write up a review; we appreciate it.

      I just wanted to clarify that we’re currently working on updates for the game, which is a prequel to the recent anime film by Shinji Aramaki and not the 1997 film. If anybody wants to give us any suggestions or ideas for improving it, we’re all ears. We’re trying to treat it as a collaborative process while we iterate. Holler at me here or via email.

      Thanks!

    • comradepitrovsky

      I apparently am the only one who enjoyed the game. I bought it on release day, and enjoyed both the mechanics and the difficulty curve.

    • wokz

      How can you NOT like the original movie??! btw the stupidity of the marines was intended.

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