Ion Assault

Developed/Published by: Coreplay/Black Inc.

Format: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live)

Price: 800 Points

Well, the Summer of Arcade has now officially turned into an Autumn of Clones, as we once again become over saturated with repeated Geometry Wars style rip-offs and puzzle games to beef up the quantity until there is a lull in the proper market again. You have to be able to add stuff to the already delightful mix of the Bizarre Creations classic in order to not only stand out from the crowd (and trust me, there have been a few stinkers) but to also give your own product the recognition it deserves. On first look, Ion Assault looks to be just another attempt to barge it’s way in there, but are we being a bit unfair to this title or is it a completely justified statement?

One thing I do have to say about this game though, bearing in mind it is an Arcade release, is that there is a lovely detail in the presentation with a nicely sophisticated feel to proceedings, which is never normally the case in the section that can have some game front ends looking like they were done by the developer’s kids when they were off school for the summer break. There is a remarkably solid feel to every aspect of Ion Assault, which is something to be said and at least shows some dedication by the team involved.

So, first impressions are good, but what about the game itself? Well, I can’t really see any storyline, so I’ll make one up for your delectation, that way you can add to it if you wish. One day, Super Stardust HD and Geometry Wars were having a lovely candle-lit dinner together when the PS3 shooter decided to pop the question and soon after that they were married, with the 360 hit becoming heavily pregnant. With great haste the two rushed to the hospital, where after many hours of labour (not to mention a lot of epidural pain relief) their new child was born… and they named it Ion Assault.

The bosses are great fun, if not a tad tricky

OK, so it is a bit far-fetched I know, but it’s more close to the truth than you think, as it feels like a mix of the two already established titles, with Stardust’s rock cleaning missions combined with the single screen styling of Geo. What you get is a 24 level arcade blaster with a hint of strategy built in. Your primary weapon consists of an Ion Cannon mounted on the front of your craft, which powers up as you collect particles from the atmosphere, but as you grab these tiny pieces of ammunition your craft begins to slow down. This decrease in speed allows for some of the more nimble enemies to take you down with ease, so it has to be a bit of a balancing act between shooting and sprinting, which really does help to give Ion Assault a unique selling point.

The solid front end also extends to the look of the game, with everything rendered quite nicely, with possibly the exception of your own ship, which looks a bit like it was made out of Lego because they ran out of polygons. Particles swirl and swish around like they’re dancing for you and the enemies, whether they be rock, debris or organism, don’t look out of place. The only real gripe I could have is that when there’s a hell of a lot going on it can be VERY hard to distinguish where things (including you) are, so be prepared to die many times due to complete disorientation.

Did I mention how pretty the explosions are...?

I rather like the sound section of Ion Assault, I have to say. The music has a wonderfully retro feel to it, so naturally pleases the ageing reviewer no end. Another nice little tweak is the addition of a mysterious voice always telling you when you’ve picked something up, complimenting you on your rather impressive combo streak and even admiring your new unlocked achievement. I wish that happened on every game because it’s just strangely cool.

So far, you would think it has a good case to be identified as a title in it’s own right and that it could sit proudly at the table of the XBLA greats, but then it starts to unravel slightly. The worst part is though is that some of the problems are not because of the game itself, but more so the lack of people playing it. Allow me to explain.

The multiplayer is a nice little addition and consists of up to 4 players, either online or locally, battling each other to topple their mothership by first killing their opponent and then having their own base of operations fire missiles upon the nemesis who lies elsewhere on screen. It’s a nice little addition and really helps to add life to the game, but the lack of players in general means that a chance of finding enough people to play it is very small. In doing the review I tried over 2 nights for spells of 5 – 10 minutes and not one game could I get, even when I hosted. If you have a few folk round your house though I would recommend chucking this on for a laugh, as it has some very good potential.

The other gripe I have is the length of Ion Assault itself. You can literally finish this in about an hour casually, or even less if you blitz it, so charging 800 points for this is a little bit off. Sure, there may well be a co-op mode, but do you really want to do the same thing again when you’ve seen it all already? Even if they’d just doubled the level count then that would have helped immensely.

It’s hard to give Ion Assault a clean bill of health when it has these underlying problems. It plays well, that’s not in doubt, but a lack of online support from the playing public and a shortness which a lot of other games, even Indie titles can beat without any major effort take points away from a game which manages to keep it’s own identity in an already over-populated genre on the marketplace. It’s just a shame that the negatives are rather important ones and not in the “easy to blank out” section of things. I’d urge everyone to have a go at the trial to judge for yourself, but as it stands, there’s just not enough substance to keep your ‘Ion’ it as an essential purchase.

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