With all the Asteroids clones in the App Store, it’s a wonder developers are still cranking out new versions of the arcade classic. What’s even more interesting is that some of them are actually worth taking a look at. One such newcomer is Ace Omicron from ProRattaFactor.
Ace Omicron Pros:
- Great sounds and music
- Responsive controls
- Nice experience on iPhone, even better on iPad
Ace Omicron Cons:
- No level bosses
- Needs better defined level differentiation
- Could make better use of OpenFeint (more achievements, etc.)
The App Store description tells the tale of Eden Jackson, a marooned space commander on her dangerous journey home. Not the strongest back story we’ve seen and ProRattaFactor may have thought the same, as they didn’t include it in the gameplay. What they did include are responsive controls, nice sound effects and pleasing visuals.
There are three different mode of play within Ace Omicron: Hyper, Twilight, and Classic. Classic is the most basic of the bunch and closest to retro arcading, starting with few resources and earning more along the way. Hyper allows automatic weapon upgrades as score increases. Perhaps the most fun mode is Twilight, were your weaponry is maxed as are the enemy forces. The goal of each mode of play is to survive with three lives. Thankfully, ProRattaFactor has included health power-ups and which can boost you back to the safe zone danger-wise. These and other collectables float through the void and suck into your ship as they approach. We would love to see more level differentiation and bosses would be a huge value.
Controlling Eden’s ship is a breeze. Tap once to fire in a given direction. Multi-tap to fire additional rounds. Tapping on the ship engages the parking brake allowing for a stationary attack. Tap and hold anywhere on screen and the vessel will follow while auto-firing. The controls work fairly well on the iPhone, although our fingers covered the screen. This proved to be a sticking frustration. However, with Ace Omicron being a universal app, the enhanced iPad addition worked great. The graphics look nice on all devices. Yet, with the exception of the asteroid realism, there is little to write home about. Stereo sounds are well designed and the included space epic soundtrack ups the excitement.
Replayability is enhanced by the recent integration of OpenFeint for online access. Leaderboards for all three game modes are present and 15 achievements are attainable with the effort. Overall, we recommend Ace Omicron at 4-Dimples. Asteroid fans and those looking to get a nice universal shooter for use on all their devices won’t be disappointed.
Note: At the time of this unbiased review, ProRattaFactor was one of our sponsors.
