Shoot 1up

Following on from Decimation X it's another Indie Shmup on XBLA. "Shoot 1Up is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up for everyone." And the developer does mean everyone! Put it on easy and you can joyously waltz your way to the end of game boss seen in the image atop this blog entry. Your eyes do not deceive you. The end of game baddie really is a chick with metal breasts that fire homing rockets in your general direction whilst wearing a smile. If that's too easy then there's more challenge from the Normal setting and if you prefer something more like bullet hell then there's a Serious setting just for you.

Straight into the action and you'll discover that your ship's main weapon is a rapid fire laser. A laser that you can't upgrade. In fact there aren't any weapon upgrades as such. There's something a little different at work here. The trick is to acquire extra lives as you progress! Now that might not sound like the ground breaking game mechanic you were looking for but the difference here is that as soon as you get an extra ship it immediately joins the ones you already have in the battle adding to your on-screen potency. Once you have more than one ship you then have the choice of deploying the extra ships around your central ship to give you a wider and more powerful spread of fire power or being extremely compact so as to sneak through congested areas. It's a nice mechanic that gives a decent level of strategy.

Shoot 1up is an excellent indie game. There are XBLA titles that would be too embarrassed to be seen out with Shoot 1Up on a Saturday evening without an hour or two of cosmetic surgery before hand.

Shoot 1up is another 80 MS point bargain that should not be missed.