Tempest-like arcade game Tunnel Shoot out on iPhone and iPad

Thanks to games such as Paper Toss and the Ragdoll Blaster series, US developer Backflip has amassed tens of millions of app downloads.

Now it's preparing for a summer wave of releases, with four games due to go live on the App Store over the next eight weeks.

First up is Tunnel Shoot, which has been developed in conjunction with US developer Phobic.

A fast arcade experience, it's effectively Tempest for the iPhone and iPad generation (it's a universal app, with iPhone 4 optimisations).

Simple to play, you tilt your device - I think it works best on the iPhone - to rotate your ship around the tunnel, while you tap or hold down your finger to fire single or multiple laser bolts.

Smart bombs can be launched with two fingers, destroying everything on the screen.

You have three lives per attempt, and as well as avoiding obstacles and shooting spikes, monsters and other geometric bad guys, you pick up green gems to boost your score, which is recorded and made public thanks to the Plus+ social gaming network.

Tunnel Shoot is out now, priced 99c, €0.79 or 59p.

You can see how it plays in the following video.

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