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One of the greatest things about mobile platform gaming is all of the retro themed games that have been released as late. From 1970s pong to classic space shooter themed games, just about every game theme is covered by modern developers. One platform where this is not seemingly the case is Windows Phone. The guys over Planet Saturn have an app for that. If you are looking for a classic Shoot Em Up game in the 1980s Nintendo/C64 Style, then you need to check out Shoot Em All for Windows Phone. You read that correctly, Windows Phone! We will see how this game stacks up against similar games and if it is enough to make you want to pick up a WP8 device.

The Main Idea

Shoot Em All is a classic urban find-and-shoot-em game. Your partner has been taken hostage by scum. They want money which you don’t have. You do however, have a lot of guns. The premise is to find all of the conspirators and of course, take them all down. The game isn’t as simple as shooting at random targets. You move through urban areas like warehouses and have to be alert. Enemies can shoot at you from just about anywhere from the floor to the sky. They can hide behind windows, stairs and ladders! It is up to you to be preemptive and protect yourself with the available shield, and to keep your eyes trained to shoot at enemies when they do appear.

There are 5 main scenes. You start off with 20 lives. While this may seem like a lot, you will quickly find out why it is necessary. Having this many lives draws the game out a bit and makes it more exciting. As shots fired toward you are about as random as they come, more lives allows room to figure things out, find targets, and not leave scenes empty handed. That said, the game is no walk in the park. As we reviewed this game on the tiny HTC 8S, we had to keep our eyes on the screen and squint to find goons with guns at times (adding to the frustration in a good way). One shot from your firearm will not do it folks. These enemies are resilient. Be sure to stay alert and fire lots of shots, otherwise, you may lose many lives. Level one for example has 14 targets. You need to clear them all out to advance to the next level.

Maneuvering

One thing we enjoyed about Shoot Em All was the virtual joystick. It is extremely responsive. Up, down, left and right was as simple as holding the virtual button and moving it to its respective position on the left side of the screen. Shooting and shield control are on the right side. Simply tapping those controls yielded its respective command. We have to say that game control in Shoot Em All was more fluid than most games we’ve played on any platform. For all purposes, it almost felt as if you were holding a real old school NES controller.

With the controller, you can move the scene view from the ground level, all the way up to the roof of buildings and to the sky. You will spend a lot of time searching for targets who shoot at you, so get used to how to operate the joystick. You will need to train it to proper positions to seek out and take down your targets quickly. Not only do you get shot at, but targets do go into hiding, again, making you work hard.

Verdict

We had a blast giving Shoot Em All a test run. If you are looking for a game with an urban shoot-em-up theme with fantastic retro themed graphics and game play that isn’t as fast paced as the flappy and space shooter games that are currently flooding the market, then you need to give this game a shot (pun intended). We would also like to mention that the developer is donating half of the game’s proceeds to cancer research, another reason to check this out. Shoot Em All is a welcome addition to the shooter genre and a much needed entry to the third place Windows Phone platform.  As we do not review Windows Phone apps often, we were excited to get out hands on this one. You will be too! While the game is completely playable on a smartphone, we would imagine the game would be much more fun to experience on a tablet.

GMA