Waves - Shooty Goodness

Now here be a game that I have not exactly 'Finished' because well... its a game that's got no ending at all, its a score-chasing twin-stick shooter by the name of 'Waves' and (Spoiler) its blummin good. Let me go through why!

Lets hit the obvious point here, despite all claims that this isn't the case, this is indeed very 'Geometry wars'. Theres plenty of lightshow similar to Geometry wars, there's even some slight musical similarity and both happen to be twin-stick frantic shooters. That's where the comparison mostly ends. Here Waves tries to set itself apart from the interesting score mechanic it has. Simply just shooting everything is all well and good but that alone wont rack up the big high scores as if you want to go higher, you need to start adding multipliers.

First is basic multipliers, every 'Level' you earn in the game, exp by killing enemies, causes a bonus marker to appear. Simply by collecting it you grab an extra multiplier on top of everything you do from that point on hitting x2 to x22 and more depending on how many you manage to grab. Secondly there are extra multiplier bonuses given if you kill an enemy when its up close to you, very risky but needed to score high.

Theres also the brilliant bomb mechanic in here. Unlike most titles which give a set stock, you can only use bombs once you have killed enough enemies quickly in a row (each enemy killed within that short time adding even more multipliers on top of any you may already have). These bombs however when gained only last for a mere couple of seconds, forcing you to take action quickly. This usually leads to actually letting enemies pile up to dangerous levels, starting to shoot, setting off a bomb powerup which then lets you have access to another, blow, another, blow up again, each bomb blow adding more multipliers depending on how many enemies you hit with said bomb blast.

Mode-wise the game is very generous and has a whole selection of different things to pick from. First is the standard Survival mode where the longer you last, the harder it gets and you continue till you game over. Next is 'Crunch Time' which takes the Survival mode and gives you only 3 minutes to rack up a high score. Theres also challenge modes, modes which pit you on a small survival timer where it only extends on hitting points of the arena and the 'Bomb Run' mode where the ability to shoot is taken away and scoring is only done via picking up 'Bombs' and getting to marked locations with them.

The game is brilliantly good fun and a perfect way to blast away the time.