GridRunner++
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| Gridrunner++

The roots of the shoot-'em-up lie in boyhood fantasies of zipping about in a shiny spaceship hunting down aliens, then zapping the unearthly creatures with your lasers. This adolescent desire to follow in the footsteps of Luke Skywalker, Dan Dare, Judge Dredd and Flash Gordon has hugely influenced the way the genre evolved.

On rare occasions, however, inspiration comes from a more unexpected dimension.

On the surface, GridRunner++ seems like a conventional shooter. There's nothing fancy about it at all – the visuals are simple and the gameplay is a case of blasting, steering and not a lot else.

But GridRunner++'s specific addition to the shooter genre in terms of originality is quite unique. You see, if you get into serious trouble in GridRunner++ and you're being fired upon from all sides, your lifeline comes in the woolly shape of, we kid you not, a black and white sheep.

Accompanied by the exclamation 'Sheepie Saved!'

Now, how or why on Earth anyone would have the idea of adding sheep to a space-based shoot-'em-up is beyond all but its developer's troubled mind

But perhaps even more surprisingly, it isn't as irritating or contrived as it sounds – those of us with Welsh blood may even find our eyes lighting up at the prospect. The woolly fellow adds character to what's an otherwise pretty standard game.

Controlling your craft in GridRunner++ involves using the usual directional to navigate a vertically scrolling screen. Helpfully, firing your basic weapon is constant and automatic and there's the added bonus of a special weapon that locks on a target and obliterates anything in sight with a stream of lasers, so the main focus is on aiming and dodging the amusingly shaped enemies. These evil little blighters wriggle and dodge their way down the screen trying to trap you at the bottom, and they often succeed, as GridRunner++'s difficulty level is on par with riding a bike that has square wheels and a back-to-front seat.

It doesn't help that the visuals are pretty confusing. Well, pretty and confusing. You'll frequently struggle to see what's going on, which isn't ideal when playing on a small mobile screen.

Musically, GridRunner++ provides an electro-funk montage that should come with a very strict health warning. Yes, it's funky, but playing it in public will lead to being glared at with venomous intent. After just a few seconds, bystanders' eyes will be twitching. Then the foaming of the mouth kicks in and, finally, you'll notice pairs of hands being wrapped around your throat. Turn it off, or get some headphones.

In conclusion, when it comes to flying the flag for shoot-'em-ups, GridRunner++ does okay. There is a unique graphical style about it, an attempt at introducing something fun and quirky, and the original on PC was something of a landmark. On mobile phone, however, its strengths are diluted by overly difficult gameplay and occasionally confusing visuals.

For the diehard action fan there's plenty to keep you challenged, but as far as your average (non-Welsh) mobile gamer goes, GridRunner++ really only excels at irritating people on the bus.

GridRunner++

While it looks different, it offers nothing new in terms of gameplay. But there's enough to keep the keen shooter happy for hours
Score