Shoot the Dragons a side-ways scrolling shooter developed by indie studio Weedo Games has taken my fancy this week. I honestly didn’t expect it to. I figured “Yeah, Yeah. A sideways-scrolling shoot-em-up, been there done that!” Once I started playing it however, I found that it started to feel like Shoot the Dragons had that bit of something extra. That all-important reason to keep it on your mobile device and keep going back to it.
As is fairly standard for shoot-em ups the story is fairly unimportant. What you can glean from the one screen comic-book style story is that the ship has crashed on a planet and it’s up to you to shoot seven shades of shapoopi out of anything that looks at you a little funny. Though in fairness, most of the things on the planet do seem to want to kill you in some way so it’s a fair response.
So, you drag your finger on the screen to move your ever-firing hero ensuring you destroy all your enemies and probably a little more importantly, staying out of the way of the enemies shots and indeed themselves. You do have special attacks which depend on the hero you’re using and the buddies you’ve chosen to assist you.
You’re going to need help as well. You’re not always going to fly through each level. Sometimes you die from being hit by too many cat claws, blobs of slime or other projectiles.Sometimes, you just didn’t complete the level within the time limit. Did I mention there’s a time-limit? Oh, well there’s a time limit.
If you did, then skill up and try again. Or try a different hero or combination of buddies.
Different hero’s and buddies? …What?
Yep that’s right, Shoot the Dragons has four different heroes to play and a whole ensemble of buddies that you can take on the missions with you. Just As each hero has their own strengths and weaknesses so do your buddies. Some have firepower of their own, while others increase your defense. Some buddies actually merge with you to give your hero new skills and abilities for their duration. So you can pick and choose which of your buddies is going to help you most in a given situation.
The more you play the more you can upgrade your buddies and heroes, giving them new skills, abilities and upgrades to make them even better. The better your heroes and buddies, the quicker you’ll complete the levels and the higher your score.
OK, so Shoot the Dragons has all these upgradable buddies and heroes but after a while the game will surely just get all samey and repetitive, right?
Well maybe, it’s possible but Weedo Games have added a few things to Shoot the Dragons that will help to stave off any monotony.
Firstly, although every Boss in the game has their own combat rhythm and attack style, they change these styles on a weekly basis. So don’t go thinking you can just mindlessly defeat each boss, because each week they’re all doing something different.
Players also receive rewards based on how quickly they have defeated the bosses for each stage. So, you want to increase your rewards? Then go back in to a stage and defeat the boss even more quickly to increase the value of your reward.
Oh, and there’s also a roulette style prize wheel, where you can spend diamonds to win even more loot. Though, this depends on how lucky you are of course.
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Jim Franklin
Jim Franklin is a freelance writer, living in Derby UK with his wife and his player 3. When time allows he likes nothing more than losing himself in a multi-hour gaming session. He likes most games and will play anything but prefers MMO's, and sandbox RPG's.
