The (Mutant Storm) Empire Strikes Back!

By Dan Zuccarelli . November 7, 2007 . 1:27pm

"Ohh, great. Another Robotron/Geometry Wars clone. Whopee."

I said to myself after booting up the new XBLA title Mutant Storm Empire. Seems like these "Use left analog to steer, right analog to shoot" games are a dime a dozen in the realm of downloadable content. It's to the point now where you really don't need a tutorial or guide and button layout. They could just get away with saying "Yup, it's one of those games."

So, can this one really be different enough from Nucleus, Super Stardust HD, Everyday Shooter, Geometry Wars I & II, Smash TV, Robotron and others that have already popped up on the PS3's/360's of the world to be worth your time?

The (Mutant Storm) Empire Strikes Back!

Luckily, Yes! If I sound surprised it's because I truly am. When I saw it was one of these types of games I sorta rolled my eyes and decided to give it one shot. What I found was less the wide-open playfield of some of the others in this genre and a wildy varying areas and enemy list to keep things interesting.

The game is spread out over 5 levels that have 4 areas each, usually with some sprinkled bosses in there. Obviously things get progressively harder and towards the end they're really throwing a ton at you. You have your basic gun and small amount of "super weapon" that can tear through the baddies. Outside of that you're really left with your wits and unblinking eyes, since you'll be threading needles left and right to survive.

The (Mutant Storm) Empire Strikes Back!

There's really not much else to it. It's a tight little arcade title and isn't redundant when stood next to the other "Robotron-like" controls that the games I mentioned above have. I ended up going back to it more times than I had anticipated, and found I was really, really enjoying my time with the title. Considerably more than I thought I would be, given the genre of the game (I like the genre but I've jsut begun to grow tired of it).

This one is different enough to not leave you with a "been there, done that" feeling.