[Review] - Shoot 1Up

Shoot 1Up

Developed by: Mommy's Best Games

Platforms: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Indie Games)

Players: Singleplayer and 2-Player Local Co-Op

Unrated by the ESRB

Link to Purchase from Microsoft

The Breakdown

Beached whales, pies, random ships, and a gigantic metallic breasted woman that shoots glowing bullets. Those are just a few of the enemies you’ll face in this shoot ‘em up. The game can draw comparisons to Ikaruga, but strays from the normal conventions of a shoot ‘em up style game or shmup as they have become known.

The Important Stuff

Described by the developer (Mommy’s Best Games) as a “shoot ‘em up for regular gamers”, this is one of the best Xbox Indie Games I’ve played to date. You take control of not just one ship, but your initial 3 ships right from the start. As you pick up extra ships through 1-Ups, they are all on screen at once. You can have up to 30 of them on screen at one time and potentially up to 120 if you play the local only co-op and get the “Mirror” power up.

You determine how far apart or close together your ships are using the right and left triggers. This is a risk/reward scenario, though. The further apart your ships are the harder they are to maneuver around the enemies, but you get a more powerful plasma shot. This definitely brings a new level of strategy to the game play. The bullet patterns aren’t entirely crazy in this one, as they are in most shmups. If you want more of a challenge you can crank the difficulty and the game speed for more of a challenge.