Titan Attacks Review
In all fairness to Puppygames and Curve Studios, Titan Attacks is essentially Space Invaders by another name. You take control of a little green orbital defence vehicle and shoot the hell out of steadily descending alien invaders, while at the same time avoiding their bombs and lasers.
It’s hard to dress Titan Attacks up beyond that, despite a few extra mechanics thrown in to spice things up a little. For example, earning money during missions allows you to buy shields and smartbombs for your tank (the latter are particularly useful for clearing the screen of enemies), and little touches like capturing parachuting alien pilots for a bonus are welcome though not essential.
The various enemies require slightly different tactics to take down, and later stages present veritable bullet hells. You’ll need lightning reflexes and limitless patience if you intend to climb the leaderboards and stand alongside the best.
The retro aesthetics are almost facetious here, as Titan Attacks is Space Invaders reborn. It’s a tribute that wasn’t entirely necessary – though that’s not to say it’s unwanted. In fact, it’s just as addictive as any score attack shooter, and the simple gameplay is hard to fault – but we’ve come to expect more intricacy within the simplicity thanks to games like Thomas Was Alone and Stealth Bastard – though it’s important to remember that Curve only handled the porting of Titan Attacks.
VERDICT: Almost as simple as a shooter can get, Puppygames’ space blaster owes its success to our inability to be satisfied by a personal best. The premise and genre make more sense on the Vita than the PS4 (though options are always nice to have), but Titan Attacks is charmingly simple and hugely playable on any format.
GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.
Review code provided by publisher.
