Stay Alive

As idiotic as it sounds, there’s something thrilling about risking life and limb.

The prospect of cheating death is arguably one of the most exciting pastimes around - it’s one of the main reasons that Lewis Hamilton straps himself into a Formula One racing car on a regular basis (the others being the ability to snog members of the Pussycat Dolls and earn preposterous sums of money).

Stay Alive is a game that capitalises on this thrill-seeking attitude. It puts you in the cockpit of a high-tech space fighter that hurtles through asteroid fields and enemy lines at breakneck speed, requiring superhuman reflexes and quick reactions from its exasperated and rapidly-perspiring pilot.

Best described as Canabalt in space, Stay Alive is essentially an infinite race through the cosmos in search of that elusive high score. The game’s main mode literally goes on forever, and what drives you on is the tantalising prospect of beating your personal best distance.

Your ship’s speed is constant and entirely automatic, leaving you to focus solely on moving it up and down the screen and firing its weapons.

The far left-hand portion of the display features a slider area, where you can place your finger and steer. Moving your digit and up down in this region causes your craft to rise and dip gracefully, and swift movements are reflected by equally nippy manoeuvres from your ship.

Tapping in the right-hand corners of the display discharges your ship’s cannon, which you use to blast enemies and clear paths through asteroid belts.

You have a limited number of shots, but you can collect ammo along the way. You craft is also equipped with shields, but these will only accept so much punishment before they fail and leave you vulnerable to damage.

Stay Alive’s tightrope walk between success and failure is one of the main reasons it’s so compelling: you always feel as if you’re just one step away from being obliterated, but when you emerge from a maze of rocky satellites with nothing but a few scratches on the paintwork you feel like you could take on the world. If you don’t emerge, you just dust yourself off and try again.

However, what makes the game even more addictive is the ability to upgrade your ship using orbs that you collect during your insane runs through the galaxy.

You can bolster your shields, improve your weapons, or even strengthen your hull. This gives you a massive incentive to keep playing, as each successful upgrade ultimately takes you one step closer to smashing your previous high score.

With a unique level-by-level mode (complete with the now-obligatory three-star rating system) and connectivity with OpenFeint, there’s certainly no shortage of gameplay in Stay Alive.

An area where the game does need a little work is presentation. While the chip-tune soundtrack is perfect accompaniment for the on-screen carnage, the visuals are a little crude, and look as if they’ve been thrown together in a hurry.

It’s also worth pointing out that, like most high score-chasers, Stay Alive’s appeal doesn’t last forever. The rigid gameplay allows little room for variety, despite offering the almost irresistible urge for just one more go.

Stay Alive is the perfect tonic for blaster fans who savour a challenge and love chasing high scores. It won’t dazzle you with its graphics or surprise with its level of depth, but for fans of instant gratification and seekers of thrills it’s highly recommended.