Alpha Wave

 

About

The most gorgeous, fast paced arcade shooter available for your Android device!  You have 10-15 minutes to kill? Alpha Wave fits the bill perfectly! A nicely crafted high-speed, intense arcade space shooter with it's roots firmly planted from the old-school arcade classics!

 

 

 

Review

Yes oh yes, another arcade shooter game.  I love them!  Have you even been to a bar or a night club and they have one of those retro arcade tables there?  Well I am always the nerd whos moving people away from them to play Galaxian or space invaders.  It's probably what has made me the gamer that I am today.

So this new one from Hardline Studios is the best I've played since Hyperlight.  Android has had some hero arcade games for a while, like PewPew or Radian.  Well they are now redundant to me, as this game is just superb.  It is the only arcade game I have played in a while where it doesn't take 4 minutes to get interesting.  This is an error with most games as you might only have 5 minutes.  There is a few moments where it gets a little repetitive, but its then shortly followed by a massive wave of astroids, gunships, lazers and satelites.

The graphics genuinely surprised me. Even the background has some beautiful 3D modelling.  Everything you see on your screen is nice 3D graphics and it doesn't spoil the gameplay.  You have to fight off and shoot as many objects that come crashing towards you.  Whether it's alien crafts, rocks or comets aiming right at you.  Things really start to pick up at about wave 9.  I have already made a quick YouTube video showing the graphics and game play.  You can see me struggle big time at wave 32.  The music is surprisingly good too by the way.

As well as the D-Pad, you will find the nuke and weapons upgrade buttons work too.  Now originally I didn't have all of the buttons working but a simple re-install did the trick.  Hence the comments below.  So all of the buttons do work giving you a full arcade experience with stunning graphics and audio.  The only thing that grinds my gears with games like these though is Auto-Fire.  It genuinely is my pet hate for shooting games.  I sometimes like the satisfaction of perfecting marksmanship and hit ratios, not that any of these are important in this game at all but that's just how I like playing games.  It is a minor set back and I am sure there is many of you that wouldn't want it any other way.  Perhaps an on off switch would be cool.

The weapons are cool too, with upgrades and better weapons coming through the waves.  If you watch my video on YouTube you will come across the moment that I hit the turbo weapon button.  It's like the big red button from the Men In Black car in the original movie.  Find yourself in a tight squeeze?  Push it and shoot the crap out of everything in the screen... it's mental.  I particularly liked the weapon downgrades as it can really catch you out and not forgetting the 'poo weapon'.  It literally is the poo weapon, the icon for it even is a curly dog poo and is so lame it can't even destroy rocks.  So watch out for this one.

All in all, this is greatest arcade shooter I have played yet on Android, it has all of the elements that I like about the genre and it's modified brilliantly.  It will definitely be replacing other previous efforts on my commuter journeys for now.  I am looking forward to the updates bringing some cool new functions and the 'Black Hole mode' too which the developer has even contacted us to promise is very exciting.  I guess the only way I could improve this game, would be some more game modes and challenges.

Video