O Fighter review - Is it worth making an O noise about?

O Fighter is an interesting twist on the arcade shooter. In fact, it’s almost literally an interesting twist. There are no straight lines here, and that’s where the challenge comes from.

Unfortunately that challenge gets a little too sharp a little too quickly. And while you can figure out what you’re supposed to do, whether you’re going to stick with it when you’re dying so often is another matter entirely.

Still, if you’re looking for a game that does things a little differently, and isn’t afraid of punching you in the gullet over and over, then it’s probably worth a quick look.

O me O my

The game is probably closest to something like Geometry Wars's pacifism mode. You’re playing a spaceship, and it doesn’t has any weapons.

It’s constantly flying in circles, and the only control you have over it involves nudging its orbit a little.

There are stars you have to grab, and when you pick one up it creates a small explosion. This explosion will engulf the bad spaceships that are following you around.

And that’s about it. Avoid the bad ships, blow up the stars, try to earn as many points as you can. But to start off with you’re not going to be earning very many points at all.

Your first few tries will end in ignominious failure before you figure out that you can take out the ships with the starburst. But even then you’re going to be failing way more than succeeding.

When things eventually click and you start racking up some more impressive scores the game does get more fun. But even then the frustration of the early rounds is ever-present.

The whole thing means you never quite feel like you’ve got to grips with the game. That might push some deeper into its swoops and booms, but it’s more likely to kick you out of the rhythm of the game.

And that’s a shame, because there’s an original idea at the heart of O Fighter. It just gets a little lost underneath the fiddly and annoying play.