Video game reviews: Everyday Shooter (PS3)
Valentine’s Day: A special day a time of year to enjoy a romantic dinner with that special someone, to walk on a moonlit beach, holding hands and whispering sweet nothings, to switch on your PlayStation 3 and finally find true love. Yes, I’ve fallen for a girl, and her name is Riff: Everday Shooter. Oh God, I hope she is a she.
Metaphysical gender issues aside, Everyday Shooter is something very special. A meets B’ descriptions are always unfair, and more than a bit lazy, but Everyday Shooter is definitely Geometry Wars meets Rez yet it’s so much more than a top-down shooter with some musical cleverness. Visually it has this appealingly strange retro feel in its use of clashing, bright colours and blocked-out shapes that makes me think of 60s wallpaper, which is odd because I hated 60s wallpaper. Audio-wise it’s full of cool guitar tunes ranging from chill-out riffs that you’d enjoy with a Pina Colada to some spunky beats that you’d embarassingly click your fingers to whilst your partner disappointedly shakes their head at you.
But the kicker is of course the synaesthesia: Everyday Shooter is by no means the first game to attempt this but like its predecessors it achieves it with style. When you pull off a complex chain and all your enemies disappear in a flurry of twinging and twanging, it produces something quite beautiful to your eyes and ears.
Hopefully that’s what you’ll hear a lot of the time, as chaining is the key to success in Everyday Shooter. As the game explains helpfully, there are certain ways in the game to produce a chain reaction, with one enemy’s exploding in glorious colour triggering off many others, and when that happens you’re rewarded with a smackdown of points.
Now admittedly I’ve only gotten to level 5 of 8 so far – with my personal favourite thus far being level 3. I love the idea of shooting down a garguantan judgemental eye that gets all its energy from other little slave eyeballs and an army of waddling robots. However my lack of success thus far is not only down to my Delirium Tremens like coordination but because Everyday Shooter is pretty danged hard. At times there is so much junk flying around on screen that it’s nearly impossible to keep up and it can be quite frustrating when the game suddenly ramps up the difficulty, which it frequently does. My only other real complaint is the lack of an online leaderboard (which is probably a good thing for lifestyle reasons).
However these are easily forgiven and quickly forgotten, and I suspect I won’t let this game defeat me without me discovering all eight levels. With its polished and imaginative design, its clever change-ups between levels as well as all the charm and fun of its music-making gameplay, Everyday Shooter has a lot to offer to those looking for something a little different to get addicted to.
So a message to all those who’ve fallen out with their loved one this Valentine’s, whatever the reason – whether it’s because she’s not kept her promises about that new Home you’re getting together or because she’s not as popular as that hottie from Japan: Give your PS3 a chance – she’s got a present for you and I think you’ll like it.
[Yes, both Everyday Shooter and the PS3 are girls. Deal with it]
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