Pixel Craft review - A retro shooter with a modern vibe

Pixel Craft is a smart arcade shooter with a decent amount of meat on its chunky pixel bones.

It takes ideas from a variety of sources and blends them together to create a space-based blaster that’s, for the most part, pretty successful.

There are a few niggles here and there, and it’s unlikely to hang around on your homescreen for more than a month, but its bite-sized action is still worthy of your time.

You control your little pixel craft (the title is a pun) with one finger, swooping between glowing balls of energy, lumps of space debris, and plenty of oncoming enemies.

You shoot automatically, so all you really need to worry about is ensuring that nothing hits you. If it does you lose a life. Lose all of your lives and it’s game over.

There are weapon power-ups to pick up that boost your firepower for a limited time, and other buffs that make things a little bit easier for a short space of time.

You can also nab cards that give you a bit of a lift for a few minutes. There are videos to watch to extend your play time and up your coin count as well.

You spend those coins on upgrading your spaceship or getting a new ride. And the game settles down into a steady rhythm of rinse and repeat deep space gunplay.

Things do get a bit grindy early on, while you’re trying to toughen up your ship, but if you stick with it the game does open up and become a lot more entertaining.

There’s nothing new here, really, but the whole game is presented with a slick panache that shows a real friendliness towards the arcade shooters of old.

Mixed in with some more modern sensibilities, the whole thing crackles and snaps along with aplomb. The lustre might not last forever, but while it does you’re going to be enjoying yourself.