Tri-Tri-Triobelisk

Erik Swedang's futuristic indie boardgame evolution Shot Shot Shoot was among the earliest games on the iPad.

Tri-Tri-Triobelisk is an update – a remix, if you will – of the basic one-on-one shooter. There isn’t much depth here, especially compared to Erik Svedang’s recent adventure Kometen, but the crisp visuals and nice soundtrack make it worth a look.

In Tri-Tri-Triobelisk, you man five triangles on one side of the screen. The goal is to shoot down the other five triangles on the opposite end.

There are two rubs here. First, you can only shoot so many bullets at a time before your guns overheat. Second, these same bullets are the only defence you have against enemy bullets, so some shots have to be used to block while others need to be used for attack.

All the strategy boils down into brief, really intense rounds. Tri-Tri-Triobelisk has two different enemy difficulty levels, but the game shines the most in the two-player mode. Two enemies share one iPad, giving it a fun, competitive edge.

Compared to Shot Shot Shoot, Tri-Tri-Triobelisk has a nice paintjob. The name comes from the musician Triobelisk, the composer of the game's appropriately ambient tunes.

The vector-like graphics are equally trippy, giving the game an early-’80 feel. You could almost picture it being in Flynn’s Arcade from the 1982 cult classic Tron.

It looks like an early arcade game, and it's about as deep as one. The computer provides a decent challenge, even on the easiest level, but it gets repetitive quickly.

If you've got somebody to play it with, Tri-Tri-Triobelisk is a lot of fun. If not, its certainly worth checking out, but you may well move on to something else when the initial charm wears off.