Shellrazer Review

By , on August 6, 2012


Shellrazer
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Your weapons stack on top of each other, creating a turtle tower.
  • With the upgrades, the game sinks its hooks into you easily.

CONS

  • The controls for shooting are iffy.
  • One note gameplay.

VERDICT

Walk along the screen using multiple weapons to shoot goblins, all to get this Shellrazer to the love of his life. Not really that complex, but surprisingly addictive.


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Shellrazer is a classic tale. Boy turtle loves girl turtle. To get to girl turtle, boy turtle has to trek through goblin infested lands. To aid this endeavor, boy turtle is equipped with a gunner, and on his journey stacks on additional help providing offense, defense, and a multitude of upgrades. At least that's what we got out of the few comic book panels that led us into this game of wanton goblin massacre.

The game begins with a machine gunner who has two control options, using either one finger or two fingers. In one finger mode, you swipe out from the gun you wish to use, then hold down your finger and move to aim the gun as it tears through the opposition. Two finger mode primes the weapon with one finger while the other finger brings up an aiming reticule for more precise destruction. Both control schemes don't always work as planned, but we found the one finger option a lot more useful to litter the screen with shells and gunfire (and just to clarify, we mean ammunition, not what sits atop the turtle's back). As you rescue members of the Klang clan, they will stack their guns higher atop your turtle, and after a few stages you'll have a veritable stack of death plodding along at a slow and steady pace (although if you feel you're moving too slow, you can tap the turtle's feet to get him to speed up).

As you move through the levels, there were will chests to shoot open, and gold will fly out of your defeated foes. All this money goes towards upgrades once the stage ends. You can buy food for your turtle that effects battle, you can buy armor for the gunners, or you can upgrade the gunner's themselves. This is by far the best option, as you'll receive food and armor as spoils of war at the end of each stage.

It's the way this store is set up, and the continued feeding of new attachments to your mobile battalion every few stages that goes towards making Shellrazer highly addictive. The ramping up of invading goblin forces in each new stage is handled admirably as the numbers seem overwhelming, but it should be nothing you can't handle, and there are more than enough stages to give you value for your purchase. If anything it goes to show how fine-tuning a player's increase in power can be the difference between 'fun but forgettable', and a game you have to keep playing.

Screenshots

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