Lasting First Impressions of A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks! from Frima Studios
The latest release from Frima Studios comes in the form of a forward scrolling shooter available now as a PlayStation Mini on the PlayStation Store for PS3 and PSP. A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks! is, as the title suggests, only two dollars and promises to deliver “.the most satisfying alien-killing spree of your life!”
With this game, Prima Studios delivers a game full of campy humour and comic style story telling. In ‘Space Shooter’ you play the role of a commander with a personal hatred for anything alien and an attitude of superiority to go along with it. Unfortunately, in the back story to the game, told through a series of the aforementioned comic-style panels, your character is the grown up version of the school bully. Yes, you read that right, the hero of the story is a bully. I have to be honest with you, with recent events surrounding an increase in the bullying of children in school, this choice of Frima Studio’s is in rather poor taste. Being a father of three children, I’m probably more sensitive to this story choice than most but it was enough to put me off right away.
Moving past this character choice, I proceeded to play through the Campaign mode. This is your typical forward scrolling space shooter, with wave after wave of alien spacecraft entering the fray on a pre-set path. I really enjoy this style of game as it really harkens back to the classic days of gaming, unfortunately, I found the controls to be extremely loose to the point that I felt I didn’t have the control of the ship I needed to perform fine point movements. These loose controls found my ship barely able to dodge enemy fire, or overshooting my targeted location, and I encountered the Game Over screen arriving much too soon. Several attempts to play the game again did not improve my handling of the ship or find myself proceeding any further in the game as my first five attempts. Even after putting the game down for a while and coming back later did not improve my odds.
For a PlayStation Mini game, Space Shooter looks great but with games like this, it really comes down to the responsiveness of the controls and this one just falls short. The cut scenes between levels and before boss fights are full of campy and over the top humour but I felt they just got in the way of the game and I just wanted to speed through them as I had no interest in following the dialogue.
I really wanted to like this one but, after several attempts at the campaign, I just don’t hear it calling me back for more. A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks! may only be a two dollar game, but after an hour of playing, I’m sorry Frima Studios, but I’m NOT IMPRESSED.
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