Hands on with slick twin-stick shooter Revolt on iPhone

Twin-stick shooters have been at war with one another for as long as thumbs have been gunking up iPhone and iPod touch screens.

Revolt is the latest salvo in the war on shooters and it also happens to be the most visually stunning display of power yet. Fortunately, there's gameplay might to back up the graphical shock and awe, earning this promising shooter a spot on our radar.

Taking a page from James Cameron's Terminator, the game sets the scene by detailing the rise of sentient machines that have oppressed humanity. Guy, a lone rebel seeking to free humanity from the reign of the robots, is at your command through eight harrowing levels. Your ultimate goal lies in the complete dismantling of your artificial overlords by taking out their central assembly line.

Inciting mechanical mayhem is easy enough thanks to an arsenal of potent, upgradeable firearms. A pistol comes standard, its infinite ammunition ensuring that you always have a weapon at the ready. Of greater interest, however, are the speciality weapons such as a rocket launcher, advanced rifle, heavy machine gun, and grenades. These secondary firearms eat up ammunition, which requires replenishment from pick-ups dropped by defeated enemies.

Credits are also snatched from the charred metallic remains of your foes. Between levels you're able to purchase these guns, as well as upgrade their attack power and clip size. Since credits put you on the path to greater firepower, you're motivated to seek out every enemy hiding out in the dark, labyrinthine corridors of each stage.

Not that you'll need to be pushed to find combat opportunities - the action is surprisingly good. Common sense controls and astute weapons balancing make it an intuitive, satisfying play.

The pistol, for example, feels far less powerful than the advanced rifle. This doesn't mean you ignore the pistol because limited ammunition discourages you from shooting the rifle with wild abandon.

Instead, I found myself constantly switching weapons to meet specific combat scenarios. Crawling mechanical crabs meant whipping out the pistol for a couple shots, then swapping to the rifle for bipedal terminators.

It helps that the controls are completely intuitive. Virtual analogue sticks enable you to move and shoot, while swipes anywhere else on the screen adjust the camera. One of the coolest features regards grenades: dragging a finger from the grenade icon in the upper-right corner allows you to select where it's lobbed in the level.

One major problem that must be addressed before final release is the inability to fire your guns while under attack. If Guy takes a hit, he can't fire. Several times I ended up getting caught in a barrage of enemy bullets that prevented me from hitting back. Other assorted issues popped up during my time, though none quite as serious as this.

To be sure, these problems will assuredly get ironed out before Revolt becomes available for iPhone and iPod touch in late April.