Game Reviews

Bug Princess 2

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iOS
| Bug Princess 2
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Bug Princess 2
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iOS
| Bug Princess 2

First impressions count. The first few minutes of your smartphone gaming creation could well constitute an entire play session, so you have to make sure it starts with a bang.

By the end of the first level of Cave's Bug Princess 2 you'll shoot the face right off a tyrannosaurus rex. It won't die straight away, though - it'll continue to attack you with its claws, leering with its dino-skull until you deplete its energy bar and it explodes in a colossal blast of gorgeous colour.

Bullet heaven

From there, Cave's bullet-hell sequel Bug Princess 2 just gets bigger and better.

Shrunk down for touchscreen devices, the actual shooting is taken out of your hands, leaving you to bob and weave through the laser death that's cascading down the screen.

As your own neon lasers fire, you can swipe anywhere on the screen to move your hideously outnumbered ship about. There's space at the bottom of the screen where your finger or thumb can sit without obscuring the carnage, but sometimes you'll get too caught up in the action and end up sliding all over the shop.

Your automatic weapons have a wide enough spread that you're probably going to hit everything on screen, leaving you to focus on threading your ship through the tiny gaps between enemy fire. Power-up icons increase your weapon's potency, and you can unleash bombs to clear the screen.

The princess is shooting you with lasers

There are five stages and four difficulty levels to contend with, as well as three modes that add gradually more bullets as you progress. A choice of two characters and leaderboard support on Game Center round off the package.

For those who dig deeper, Bug Princess 2 offers up a raft of high score-chasing intricacies and nightmarish difficulty settings, with fire-switching and gem-chasing the order of the day.

For mere gaming mortals, it's a spectacular hardcore shooter with a host of gigantic bosses and some of the finest 2D graphics on iOS.

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Bug Princess 2

First impressions count, and your first impression of Bug Princess 2 will probably be 'wow', closely followed by 'good lord', as you weave and blast through its glorious waves of hellish beasts
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.