Benjamin Sprakel is back and so is Pacific Wings. Galaxy Wings is one of those lazy palette swaps where a developer decides to make easy money foregoing most of the creative process usually necessary in the developtment of a game. While Doodle Skies Arcade pulled the same trick, it at least squeezed in some alterations to the gameplay mechanics and added new enemies. Not all of these changes were for the better, but it at least tried, whereas Galaxy Wings seems to be more content with its prequel's status quo, merely delivering more visual variety. Since the game is still basically free (like before, you are given the option to pay $2 to make it ad-free) it can be forgiven, however.

Galaxy Wings is set in a distant future, which is only reflected in the enemy design ranging from space ships over similar space ships to bigger similar space ships. The backdrops are a lot more varied than in Pacific Wings, ranging from wide oceans (again), over dry plains interspersed with forests, to icy deserts and sand deserts full with derelict pyramids and other ruins. Other than this, the only notable difference to the previous game is the increased amount of enemies, coupled with less miraculous player deaths ocurring. These changes are nowhere near enough to lift the game above lower mediocrity, but they at least make it a slightly better game than Pacific Wings is, so if you are going to try one of them, make it this one.

UFO Invader -being the work of a single man, except for the music -is another one of those simple, endless flights past samey enemies in random areas. While it tries to score with the rare scenario of the player taking control of the supposedly evil alien attacking earth, this does little to differentiate it from any similar games, courtesy of the flying saucer behaving just like any other craft in the long history of shmups.

You control the UFO using tilt controls only, which suit the simple action surprisingly well, although an auto-fire option would have been nice. As it is, you need to tap the screen to shoot or better yet just keep a finger on-screen at all times for a permanent barrage of bullets. Since there is basically no downside to doing this and since your shot rate is as high as it is, one has to wonder why there can't simply be an auto-fire feature, helping to keep your fingers out of the view, which should have been the entire point of tilt controls anyway.

The action itself is extremely repetitive as the same minor enemy jets and choppers keep on pouring in, releasing more and more bullets and missiles, interspersed by constant appearances of bigger foes that simply take more hits before going down. Your weapon is upgraded a couple of times by picking up items usually appearing alongside bigger enemies, eventually leaving you with a fairly powerful arsenal. Still, a single hit will end the game and that is where the big bummer comes in: UFO Invader lags. It lags badly and irregularly, often leaving precise dodging up to mere chance. You'll often witness long stretches without any interruptions only to suddenly die from another hiccup coming out of nowhere. As such, the lack of variety and the in-app purchase system don't matter all that much anymore. Gems used to buy additional backdrops, UFOs, weapon colors and credits can either be caught in annoyingly low amounts during play or they can be bought for real money in this otherwise free game. Due to the unambitious nature of the game and its technical limitations, though, it's best entirely ignored in the first place.

The above reflected the state the game had been in in 2011. Afterwards I had completely forgotten about it, rediscovering it in 2013, only to think I had never played it before. And would you know, the game has actually made some progress in the meantime. Controls have been changed to relative touch, and there is no lagging disturbing you anymore. It's nearly the exact same game as Andromeda's Savior, though, which still makes it hardly worth bothering with.

If there is such a thing as negative kudos or maybe cynical kudos, Star Alien Wars would be a surefire candidate for earning some. The history of shooters has seen many instances of vertically scrolling games being squeezed into small boxes in order to somewhat fit onto wider-than-high TV sets, but this Chinese release might very well be the first appearance of a vertical shooter running in yoko only, despite running on devices that are mostly used in a way that they are higher-than-wide.

While the game dreams of being Raiden (the iTunes description states it to be part of said series) it has more in common with Capcom's early 19XX games in that you fly through ten uneventful levels that offer next to no variety in the graphics department and enemy behaviour, with fairly standard weapon upgrades delivering a minor change of pace. Slow enemy spaceships piloted by Helghasts, it appears, enter the screen from all directions, occasionally shooting and otherwise mostly minding their own business. The greatest danger lies in accidentally flying into one of them and even if you do, your generous health bar should keep you alive until the end, so the parallels to 19XX obviously don't carry over to the difficulty.

Using the perfectly functional relative touch controls you simply fly along, pick up point items and power-ups that increase the number of directions you simultaneously shoot at and as you do, you begin to think why you are playing this instead of one of the better alternatives. There is no reason whatsoever to download Star Aliens Wars, since it's not even bad in a way you could get a cheap laugh out of it. The game merely... exists.

Stellar Blast is a prime example of how a bad execution can completely run a good idea into the ground. You're basically repeatedly playing the same stage increasing in difficulty, and always being asked to reach a large enemy mothership within a time limit, subsequently destroying it. On your way there, you'll be met with smaller enemies and floating mines, forcing you to strike the correct balance between slowing down by staying close to the bottom of the screen and defeating your opponents, and speeding up by approaching the center of the screen (you can't cross an invisible line there) in order not to let the mothership escape.

While this might sound intriguing, the concept is marred by some questionable design choices. For starters, your ammunition is limited and moving without accidentally shooting is quite fiddly. If you ever run out of ammo -I personally did so just before finishing off the mothership's final turret -it's an instant game-over. Another element contributing to the overall frustration is the lack of any indicator for how close you are to the goal. A timer in the upper right corner always shows how much time is left, but what good is that, when you have no idea how much more distance you need to travel- The bland background and lack of enemy variety don't help at guessing the distance, either.

Standard enemies are overly generic red spacecrafts shooting a few laser rounds before departing again and the floating mines need to be shot ASAP or else a hit is almost unavoidable, as they home in on the player and also detonate into about half a dozen balls of energy upon being shot, which are nearly impossible to dodge, once the mine has come too close. Given the tight time limit, though, playing it safe and maintaining a halfway low speed is no option. Instead you are forced to keep a steady pace, all while swiftly dealing with generic enemies and preserving enough ammunition. Another -more viable -option, of course, would be to simply ignore this not-so-stellar blast.

The only thing Retro Shoot gets halfway right is the visual and aural design: Glowing, neon-colored asteroids and insects blow up like firework as your obviously Geometry Wars-inspired ship leaves behind equally colorful trails of exhaust gas. The techno soundtrack while sounding cheap, still keeps you pumped, and the gun sound playing when hitting an enemy feels hilariously out of place...in a good way.

The rest of the game is an utter mess. All 15 levels (25 more can be purchased) have you fly through empty space, shooting endless hordes of the same enemies again and again. The developer's definition of "variety" obviously implies the inclusion of only three kinds of enemies. Not only is this visually and mechanically boring as hell, but it also becomes frustrating in stage three, when enemies develop the ability to shoot back. If one of the rare items floating down the screen happens to be a weapon upgrade, you'll effortlessly blast through any horde, yawning before too long. Once you realize that all upgrades are only temporary or if you're unlucky enough to only receive a useless black hole bomb you'll be left with nothing but a peashooter against enemy masses too large to effectively clear a path through. Other levels can be found at the opposite end of the difficulty spectrum, requiring little more than positioning yourself in the bottom left or bottom right corner, sucking your thumb...maybe an allusion to today's FPS and TPS health regenerating system- Or more likely just flat-out bad design.

The controls could be decent enough, despite being direct touch controls instead of relative touch controls, but for inexplicable reasons (is stupidity explicable-) your ship can either move along the very bottom of the screen, or about 1 cm above it. The space inbetween cannot be used, causing your ship to miraculously jump up or down as you move your finger along this area. Retro Shoot is initially free of charge (mostly financed through an ad appearing inbetween stages) as long as you don't download the DLC, but you'll still find numerous better alternatives, which even happen to be completely free.