Astroid Dodger – Review

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By: Atomic Games

Version #: 1.0

Date Released: 2011-02-22

Developer:

Price: 0.99

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From dodging racecars, among other things, on the well-paved surfaces of the Earth we now travel lightyears into deep space to dodge a series of dangerously accelerating asteroids.

Astroid Dodger, or AstroDodge for short, is, as its name suggests, a dodging game of astronomical proportions.

You play by controlling a spacecraft cruising along a seemingly endless expanse of stars and stark darkness represented on the iPhone screen in vertical scrolling mode. Manning the controls is a straightforward affair: you just use both thumbs to press down on the left and right buttons at the bottom of the screen at the precise and strategic moments to avoid oncoming cubist asteroids and be able to say, "Crisis averted!" afterwards.

But you’d be wise to not avoid the oncoming stars for bonus points and the oncoming tokens for power-ups, such as the tokens bearing the GUN label, which renders you armed for several seconds with a weapon that automatically shoots whatever’s coming at you (the stars are thankfully immune, but the tokens get pushed back when they’re shot) and the SLOW token, which momentarily decreases the speed at which the deadly asteroids as well as the non-harmful objects travel. Fail to dodge an asteroid, no matter its size, and you’ll be shown a completely black screen save for two words that flippantly point out the obvious: "YOU DIED."

And die soon you must not. Your score is quickly incremented as you go along the game, and the stars up your points considerably, but the power-ups will prove extremely helpful if you want to level up, level up some more, and achieve an astronomical score. Stay long enough in the game and get a high enough score and you might just be in the running for the bragging rights for having your name plastered in the game credits.

The game developer says the current record holder is his cousin, who managed to accumulate a whopping 60,000 points. Think you can beat that? Prove it by downloading this retro-inspired futuristic game for a meager $0.99, and start flexing those thumb muscles.