Over Easy
On paper The Lonely Bee’s debut game, Eggs in Space (out now, $0.99), seems to have all the right ingredients – barmy b-movie inspired premise, pick-up-and-play friendly concept and eye-popping art style – but, sadly, when whipped together they result in an undemanding arcade shooter that, while delightfully surreal and visually striking, is ultimately unsatisfying.
A soufflé-thin plot provides a pretext for the outlandish action: a motley crew of eggs from outer space have invaded the idyllic Spoonville, so you, being the heroic type, strap yourself into the nearest spoonship and jet up into the cosmos to sort ’em out. Your mission? To blast those rotten eggs-tra terrestrials to smithereens and save all of spoon-kind from certain destruction, of course!
The ensuing adventure is broken up into bite-sized stages, each of which hurls wave after wave of eggs in your direction. What you’ve got to do is quickly dispatch these evil orbs before they crash into your space craft.
An intuitive tap-to-shoot mechanic makes obliterating enemies a breeze, but keep your wits about you because a number of booby-trapped bad eggs, that if mistakenly tapped send your ship into a tail-spin or knock a chunk out of its health-bar, are orbiting around the screen at any given time. As you progress, also expect some close encounters of the weird kind with a series of bizarre boss enemies that take multiple taps before they crack.
While Eggs in Space offers up some frantic fun and looks and sounds absolutely fantastic, unfortunately it’s far too slow-paced and straightforward to be lastingly compelling (perhaps the inclusion of some sort of an egg-streme mode might be an idea?). Furthermore, it’s a shame that The Lonely Bee, given their film-making background, didn’t put more effort into the story or work a few funny animated cut-scenes into the game.
Mind you, when taken as a whole, the game’s still a good ‘un. Its stellar production values impress while the unexacting tap’n’crack action should appeal to the casual crowd. Oh, and if you’re a Game Center and/or OpenFeint fan, add an extra star to the score below because Eggs in Space comes packing a plethora of achievements to have a crack at.
iFanzine Verdict: Hard-boiled shoot ’em up veterans need not apply, but Eggs in Space will no doubt delight casual gamers with its kooky premise, colorful visuals and simplistic, one-finger style of play.
[xrr rating=3/5]