Chillingo is not only invading your gaming space with big-headed aliens, they’re invading your iPhone with yet another great title. This time it’s Inkvaders and I would have had this review done ages ago had I been able to pull myself away from the game.
Inkvaders, from Chillingo and Games Faction, is a 2D side-scrolling shooter that takes a very nice artistic approach to gaming and puts the whole thing in South Park-like paper cut-out animation style and even goes so far as to wrap it all up in a notebook look (see images). Right from the word go they show their tongue-in-cheek humor and continue it throughout the title.
They 
certainly have got their quality levels right for the iPhone titles they’re putting out. Now only is the artistic style and quality high, but so are the sound and gameplay. Beginning with the sound; the sound effects are minimal, mostly gunshots, jetpacks and various others which give the game a good atmosphere and draw you in. The music brings it all together and helps push you forward during the gameplay.
The game’s interface includes left/right arrows in the lower left, jetpack and firing buttons in the lower right, weapon switch (upper right), and a pause button to get to settings, menus etc. They’re all spaced far enough away that even though of us with fat finger problems will find them easy to use.
Now there are some small issues that I didn’t like about the title. For instance you can’t fly and shoot which was a shame and I thought might have been easy enough to do but considering how the touch screen operates perhaps it’s a bit more complicated than I first thought.
Secondly is the sort of lack of variation in the gameplay. There are two modes Endurance and Normal (Play) but they really offer nothing different. They are both run and gun. There are 30 levels in the normal mode across three distinct areas while in Endurance it randomly throws levels at you until you use up your three lives.
Speaking of lives, there is no score essentially in the game and no way to achieve extra lives. There are ample other powerups including health, ammo and jetpack fuel. There are vending machines where you can also get all of that
and even upgrades to weapons, which you certainly will need as you go. They also have a Rush powerup in the game which is cool. It essentially sends a horde of aliens at you and lets you collect some quick cash to pump into the vending machines for the stuff you need.
Overall I really like the game even though it’s somewhat one-dimensional in the gameplay. I guess that goes to show what can be accomplished when you hit graphics, sound and controls well. Even with the lack of gameplay mechanics I still find myself going back to blow the heads of those damned green aliens.
Score: 9.0 – Great graphics and sound. Good controls. Limited gameplay variation but still very fun and addictive.