Fire Power - on rush Review

Wait wait wait, before you switch off at me reviewing yet another shoot'em-up I promise you that this is something quite different from the ordinary. 'Fire Power - on rush' is a horizontal shooter in the style of games like U.N. Squadron and players will need keen eyesight and sharp reflexes to beat this unrelenting title.

Depending on which difficulty you choose the controls and gameplay will slightly change. In the normal mode you'll be able to maneuver faster than normal and your 'bombs' will slowly charge up based on how many enemies you've killed, storing up to three at a time. In hard mode you'll move much slower, but this is offset by a powerful bomb that can be charged manually to be set off at any time you need it.

The art design is classically sprite based and looks like something straight out of a late 90's side-scroller and is beautiful to watch, but the basic color scheme introduces a rather nasty problem. Regardless of the size of the bullet you'll die in one hit and with bullets being so hard to see and your vehicle being so large you're likely to die unexpectedly over and over.

Thankfully the developers have recognized the rather absurd level of difficulty and players are given a lot of continues to make their way through to the end, but this feels more like a halfhearted concession than a genuine fix. 'Fire Power - on rush' brings up some of the best and worst memories of playing shmups in the arcade, but at least you don't need to keep pumping quarters to finish this one.