Playing Beat Hazard Ultra is like having fireworks explode right in front of your eyes as you listen to all of your favourite song. I bought the 2D dual-stick space shooter (think “Asteroid”) after reading about it on Joystiq, and I dig the dynamically generated levels and enemies that are based on my iTunes library. This process means that every stage you play is a little different, as the game switches from slow space ballet to all-out bullet hell, depending on the tempo.
Beat Hazard Ultra is pretty – almost terribly so. I’ve spent half my time with the game squinting at the screen just because the bullet colours and the explosions they cause are all so neon bright. Thankfully, there are several settings and game modes, and one of them allows you to tone down visual effects (highly recommended).
Aside from the extra-visual effects and the dynamically generated tracks, Beat Hazard tends to play like most other dual stick shooters out there. There are power-ups every once in a while, score multipliers for playing well, and a perk system to use your hard-earned high scores on. The controls are pretty snappy, although my ship never moves quite as fast as I want it to, and the “fixed” directional pads worked much better for me than the default “floating” option.
I think spending $0.99 on Beat Hazard Ultra for iPhone and iPad is easy. It’s a lot like buying a can of Coke, shaking it up, and then spraying it everywhere while listening to the loudest Sleigh Bells track on your iPod – except Beat Hazard doesn’t waste any cola.
Beat Hazard Ultra was purchased by the author for review on iSource. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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TAGS: dual stick shooter
