Hidden Gem of the Week: Super Arc Light

By , on July 18, 2018
Last modified 5 years, 8 months ago

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Super Arc Light's premise couldn't be more simple: there's a base in the center of the screen, there's a single turret guarding the entrance's perimeter, and there's an endless wave of geometric enemies approaching. It's a formula as old as Space Invaders, presented here in a slick minimalist style, colorful rounds contrasting against the stark black-and-white battleground. There are no extra modes to unlock, no alternate difficulties, nothing to upgrade. Super Arc Light is pure distilled shmup action.

Your turret automatically travels around the base's circular entrance; holding down slows time and fires, while letting go reverses the direction of your rotation. Once you get a feel for this unique control scheme, combat becomes a hectic back-and-forth dance as you swing back and forth to deal with enemies on one side, spinning around to take out a new pattern, then back again to grab a power-up.

As you survive longer, new weapon power-ups are unlocked and added to power-up pool, ranging from the basic forking triple shots to blinking ion beams, horizontal split shots, and gracefully homing missiles. Enemy types are equally varied; single ships that hover around, fast movng x wing-likes that change direction, rotating patterns in the shapes of triangles and squares, large swarms that require quick precise shots.

Super Arc Light is available for $1.99 on iOS and Android.