Insane Twin Stick Shooting Action. Isn’t it nice when a subtitle does such an adept job at conveying the premise of a game? In fact, insane might not be even be a strong enough term for this game, which I like to think of as Asteroids on acid. This is not an experience for the seizure-prone, as the sheer volume of luminous neon explosions and chunks of radiating objects soaring around on-screen is, well, insane.
Ballistic is sadly the final Radiangames Xbox release, and is a bittersweet return-to-roots conclusion for a series that began, and now concludes with a flashy twin-stick shooter. I’m not the biggest fan of the oversaturated genre, and while I adore Radiangames’ previous tangential takes on the formula such as Inferno, Fluid and Fireball, I was a bit let down to learn the final release seemed a bit tame and uninspired by comparison. But, I emerged from my Ballistic trance about ninety minutes later and was happy to discover while it may be a bit more traditional, it does roll a lot of the elements from the rest of the series into a pretty intense shooter.
As in the rest of the series, you play a neon-colored ship hopelessly outnumbered in a vast ocean of hazardous objects. A new Ballistics attack accompanies the standard move-and-shoot mechanics, and it temporarily boosts firepower at the expense of greatly depreciating the speed of the ship. I kind of like to think of it as “tank mode,” since it slows the ship’s momentum to a crawl but allows it to buckle down and blow the snot out of everything that moves. This balance between speed and power is an interesting idea that gets tinkered with quite a lot throughout the game.
Ballistic is structured similarly to Fireball, in which enemies attack in waves that end after a certain score is accumulated. The waves vary in enemy type and patterns and the speed continually accelerates. Bombs periodically spawn throughout the level, and it quickly became apparent that utilizing them as effectively as possible was key for survival. The multicolored foes gestate everywhere on the screen and reproduce at a rate rats would envy. One second I was camping in relative safety in a corner, and the next I was engulfed in a swarm of enemies. Obliterated foes are replaced as quickly as can be destroyed, so the action is always intense and even the bombs only provide a brief taste of respite. Since the waves end after specific score is reached, they tend to conclude on dramatic high notes, such as barely eeking through a horde in order to detonate a bomb.
A collection of upgrades makes the whole crazy mess a bit more interesting and adds a bit of strategy to the game. I had a lot of fun exploring the different combinations of perks such as speed boost, attack boost and increased blast radius, and they added a welcome sense of customization. Since the game autosaves every five waves and an additional slot is awarded after every tenth, the game turns into a series of five-level challenges to figure out what combination works best against which waves.
All of the Radiangames trimmings are present from the thumping techno music to the incredibly fast-paced gameplay, and of course, the gorgeous neon-filled, particle-plentiful graphics. It’s like the grand finale of a fireworks display exploding inside your eyeballs. The screen is absolutely jam-packed with objects flying around and exploding into smithereens.
Ballistic is really a game about surviving and making the best of increasingly awful situations. The point isn’t to obliterate everything that pops up on the screen, but to find a way to weave through the sea of enemies in order to survive just long enough to find the next bomb or checkpoint in order to wipe the slate clean for a brief breather. It’s a lot of fun, but it can be a bit challenging and frustrating to those of us who aren’t training for The Last Starfighter.
I’m usually not terribly good at these kinds of shooters, and although I didn’t set any records on the online leaderboards, I was shocked at how addictive Ballistic remained even when it was at its most frustrating. Still, I couldn’t quite shake feeling that I had been here before. It’s really just a super snazzy spin on a game I’ve played many, many times before at this point. So, while I do prefer some of the more distinct, unique spins on the genre like Fluid and Fireball, Ballistic is one of the best options out there for someone looking for a more traditional shooter.
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Visit the Xbox Live Marketplace to add a free demo of Ballistic to your Xbox 360 download queue.
Radiangames Ballistic was provided for review by Radiangames. It is available for 80 MS points ($1).
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