Tower Studios launches Free for Freaks arcade payment system with Shoot To Kill

It's a long time since the glory days of Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder, but that doesn't mean co-creator Jon Hare isn't still thinking about news games and new ways to sell them.

Indeed, his career since Sensible Software was bought by Codemasters has been fairly eventful with spells at Ukrainian publisher Nikitova Games and UK outfit Jagex in the meantime.

Now Hare is back with his outfit Tower Studio, which will be publishing his new games, as well as those of its development partners on iPhone, iPad, bada, Android, and online.

Its new release is Shoot To Kill, a free arcade shooter from Polish developer Vivid Games, which is out now.

Simple in terms of gameplay, the game sees you fighting your way out of hell, using the likes of grenade launchers, chainsaws, and lightning guns to destroy the waves of demons who attack you.

Interestingly, your character can't move. He's pinned to the centre of the screen, with demons attacking from all sides. This means you have to be quick with your fingers - either tapping directly on enemies or sweeping across the screen to rotate your character and burst fire.

Weapon selection is carried out as you tap on a button in the bottom left of the screen, although most guns have limited ammunition so you have to use them sparingly.

More significant than the game, perhaps, is the Free for Freaks payment system.

This is based on arcades, so that when you run out of lives you also have the option to pay to continue on from that point of the game. Otherwise you have to restart from the beginning.

Tower Studios describes the system as allowing everyone to play the complete game as much as they want to, while rewarding skilled players the most.

Of course, with the smallest micro-payments being 99c, €0.79 or 59p on the App Store, this seems fairly expensive although you do get 10 Continues for that price. It will certainly be interesting to see how successfully the system is.

As well as the main mode, you can also unlock Survival and Multiplayer modes, and a never-ending Eternal Life mode, which don't use Free for Freaks.

Shoot To Kill is out now and free for iPhone. Versions for Android, iPad, bada, and browser will follow.

You can see how the iPhone version plays in the following video.

Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on