I should start by saying that I am a big fan of Blue Defense. I love the look and control aspects of the game, and, most of all, for some reason I loved that instead of a health bar you were given the population of your planet and you sadly had to watch it as it counted down to the extinction of your planet.
It made me want to get revenge for each death those Red Bastards had caused. And now, finally I have my chance.
This time, no more Mr. Nice Planet
John Kooistra’s newest game on the app store lets the player leave the planet and take the fight to the Reds. And as you can expect, any game where you have to take your revenge for an entire planet had better be intense. Does Blue Attack deliver on the promise of the earlier game and notch it up a bit? The short answer, Yes. The longer answer, Hell Yes.
You control a fighter set to take out the Red Menace with guns blazing in a top down view of the action. Your blue ship searches through space keeping an eye out for the red ships, which seem more like living/biological experiments than ships. The images of both ships and enemies are very clear and bright, making this game as fun to watch as it is to play.
Controls are sharp and handled either through tilt or swipe modes. I’ve been happy with both and don’t have a favorite yet – which is saying something. Shooting is on a continuous mode (like Blue Defense) so all you have to worry about is aiming your ship into the heart of the bad guys.
Each enemy consists of a core unit with other elements around it that you have to shoot though before getting to the good stuff. Taking out the core will automatically eliminate the rest of the baddy. You can upgrade your ship with bombs and “force” to make it easier to reach the core. Bombs are pretty easy to figure out, they blow up everything they can. “Force” works like any good Star Wars fan would imagine, it forces the extra stuff out of the way for a short time so you can get to the core.
You also have the ability to call on wingmen to help you out, as well as the ability to fly in a variety of formations. I like the way you can send them back to your main ship before they get destroyed so they can repair before coming back out to join the fight. Once I applied this strategy the game got even better, and more intense.
Speaking of the main ship, that’s what you have to protect in this version. You fly around taking out enemies while they attack your base ship. The rules are simple, just keep the base ship alive and take out the enemy.
Graphics are very sharp and the neon like quality of the characters help keep everything crisp and clean. Sound is good, though not overall inspiring, though the song playing throughout does give a “movie” feel to things. One of the really great things about Blue Attack is the detailed tutorial that comes with it. You could actually have a fun time just playing the tutorial. Also adding to the fun is a global wide leader board for both modes of play.
Blue Attack can be played in two modes, Campaign and Infinite. In the Campaign mode you work your way back to the Red Planet taking on the best they have to offer along the way. This mode comes in three levels of difficulty and each can be played in about 30 minutes. The Infinite mode is pretty much what you’d imagine, stay alive as long as you can while wave after wave comes at you.
The upgrade portion of the game is actually pretty deep. You get money (resources) with each enemy you destroy and then can use your gains to make your job easier. The good news is that there is a lot of ways you can go with this. Would you like more wingmen at your side, pin point your aim or steering, increase your bomb or gun strength? You’ll find several ways to upgrade, all of them making the game play a little different each time through.
In conclusion, Blue Attack is a welcome addition to any gaming library. Plenty of action for fans of the genre, enough replay ability to keep it around for a while (John has hinted at more levels being added), and it has the cool look that will make your friends want to borrow your phone for a while. But best of all… I finally have a sense of revenge for all the lives I lost in Blue Defense.
click here to [BUY IT NOW]
can we still get this app free?
looks cool and want to try it
Nope, look down seven posts.
Meh the controls look awkard to me and plus i havent played Blue Defense yet wondering what you guys think of it
Both Excellent games, no need to play first really controls are excellent!
Easily worth $2. Also Blue Defense is being updated and is only a dollar now but the developer is thinking about raising the price so I’d jump on that if you haven’t already.
i heard that a new update will be released in 2-3 weeks which will include a lot of new features
is this right?
This really looks like a really fun game and shows that you dont need mega 3d graphics to have a fun time. The video actually reminds me of Galcon, which I found to be fun.
I wonder if there will ever be a multiplayer aspect. Perhaps in the third game? Blue vs Red? Or did Galcon already finish the color wars?
This looks nice.
How does it compare to Dropship?
Different games totally, not sure you could compare them BOTH are well worth the money!
NOW THE BIGGIE, Congrats to the following users
taran420, Disorder, and Big Albie you won this app for FREE!!!
Wow, thanks a lot!!!! Cant wait to try it out
Woo hoo! Awesome, thanks!
What do you think about the auto firing? Do you think the developer should make it an option? Does it make it to easy or such?
thats what i was thinking aswell. It makes it a challenge to manually fire, which could add to the gameplay. I dont think it will make it easy, rather a lot harder, since you will have to concentrate on not getting hit, move, and fire
I havent tried the game, but the auto fire looks interesting to say the least
I actually liked the auto-fire… Blue Defense was auto-fire and it just seemed to help follow the theme of things. Plus it just looks so cool when you have a lot of wingmen and blue lasers are flying everywhere!
There’s not enough of good space shooters in the appstore. This looks really promising. Stellar graphics + more depth in the gameplay = count me in!
This games looks polished and fun !! Graphics are sweet!!! Spread the word !!,,friends!!!!
Thanks for the review. ToG sent me hear and you are now my favorite site for reviews. Toucharcade is just too blah compared. Now I just have to loosen my hand enough to let a few quarters fall out to by the game.
Welcome, were still working out the kinks! We will get there though!
Wingmen!?? thats pretty awesome!
I’m much more interested in this game after seeing the video of the game.
which i cant find anymore.. what happened to it? i wanna watch it again. hahah
I’m glad to hear from your review that the controls are spot on. Looks like that’s a make or break kind of thing…
Definitely looks like a keeper!
So many new great games coming out. My wallet is hurting. This game really know my weakness of space shooter games or anything space related. It sounds awesome. Wingmen, upgrades, campaign mode; the game is calling to me and saying: Buy me now! LoL
Now I can upgrade my weapons by killing the enemies..hmm this is evil but I like the concept!
is it just me or do the graphics make this look like
galcon,
its prabably just me
Just you nothing like Galcon..
i think because of the upgrades the game will have quite a bit of replay
which everyone loves
(ingame weapons and other factor) upgrades
This game looks promising.
I cant wait to play it.
Its out! I talked to John (the dev) and asked him to change the release date to now so he did! I wish you could post appstore links here. Anyways, just search for John Kooistra and it should be there.
This looks like a really fun app. I loved Blue Defense so I think I’ll like this one.
how is the music on this?
Of course I’m biased, but I’ll try to be fair here. :p
Personally, I get into a groove when I’m listening to it. It’s got a cool beat and a great hook!
A lot of people think that it’s too repetitive, and I’ll give them that – it’s not the style of music that everyone will like. But you can always turn off the sound in the options menu, and play your own music if it comes down to that.
I loved that you could order your wingmen to get repairs. That way you can strategize when you are going to need them the most and have them ready. Can’t wait to play it.
Aghh haha i keep reading this review over and over again..
Looks good and a bit like Geometry wars. I would get it if Payback wasn’t coming out so soon.
You might have to wait a week or two for that. There was a bug in version 1.0.1 as well. I would just go ahead and buy this.
GREAT narration!! hahah im glad you added a gameplay video for this. videos are the closest thing to actually trying out a game before playing it
*buying” it
Wow, this game looks super cool! I love the neon style graphics! Nice review!
Thanks!
Just wanted to add that it looks like the accelerometer controls are spot on.
Just so you know this is out in the UK and Australia/New Zealand. It comes out at midnight whatever time zone you are in. Looks like another great game John!
Nice shooting game that can call in reinforcements…i think it is the only one that can do this.
Reminds of void…but better
If you haven’t played Blue Defense, you really should. I’ve been a fan since it first came out and still sits on my device. I have been wishing for music, but that looks like that’s happening in the next update. As for Blue Attack, after reading the review, here’s hoping Blue Attack gives John the recognition he deserves.
Wow, this game looks very cool. I may just have to get this game. Good review
I like the upgrade system; makes this game fairly complex in the iDevice gaming world.
It looks kind of awkward though with shooting only in the direction of movement. Maybe a touch to aim would work better?
works fine both ways its a personal choice both play excellent.
You can actually buy upgrades to let you shoot backwards or strafe, so if you don’t like shooting forward all the time, you can spend the resources to do otherwise.
Shooting backwards is actually a really good way to not run into enemy cores all the time, if you have trouble keeping your aim steady enough to kill them in time.
Oh okay, sounds good. If I don’t win the contest I still may have to pick this game up
This looks very interesting. I like the bright graphics style.
nice review, so since i didnt leave a good reply before, ill post again
Firstly i havent played blue defense before, so the the game and gameplay is all new for me!!!
first thing i would like to ask is, that should i play blue defense first in order to fully enjoy blue attack?
I like and dislike the auto firing option. It adds more to the gameplay if you can shoot and pick up ammo as you progress, but from viewing your video, the game looks fast paced, so auto shooting might be a good idea! ohhh do you ever run out of primary ammo?
another thing you mentioned was that we can use bonmbs. So do we get those upgrade as you progress, or pick them up, which are scattered around the world.
Last question i would like to ask is that, do the star, or “you” ever die or just when the main ship is damaged extensively, you die aswell. Would be cool if the red things fire at you aswell
Overall this game looks really good. I love the graphics, the control options and overall setup. i could also vaguely hear the sound, and it sounds well with the overall game. I will definitely get this down the road but i might (should i?) try blue defense first!!
No you do not need to, but as luck may have it we are doing a review for the first one as well and were giving away free copies along with that one! IN the next few days!
yes you can die, and if your ship dies its game over.
You can upgrade the bombs as well as other weapons after each level.
thanks for the reply
looking forward to the review. Wouldnt mind winning the codes for this
Auto shooting was a gameplay decision mostly because I wanted to limit the amount of input the user had to make. I mean, I could have made one of the action icons be “shoot”, but that would tie up one thumb, and the other one should be focused on managing your wingmen! So I decided to just make it always shoot when there are enemies around.
And no, you don’t need to play Blue Defense first – but it’ll get you good and angry before playing Blue Attack, and make you really want to tear into the red forces!
If you find Blue Attack too complicated, then Blue Defense is definitely the choice for you – it’s got the same style and aesthetic, but it about a hundred times less complicated. Controls are simple – but it’s one of those easy-to-start, hard-to-master kind of games.
It’s coming out tomorrow! I’ve never actually paid attention, does that mean tonight at midnight?
Also, my last name is pronounced “Coy-Straw”, but don’t feel bad – I’ve had trouble with that my whole life.
Sorry about that, I have to learn to stop saying names in videos that the third one I have botched none the less great game, hope it sells well!
I wondered if that’s how you pronounced it when you said it. The game looks great I haven’t picked it up yet, but I really want to. John, keep up the great work! Glenn keep up the great reviews. And I’ll keep up the buying.
nice review
cant wait to try it out