Shooty Skies takes the addictive formula that made road-crossing mobile game Crossy Road a smash hit and applies it to the scrolling shooter. In honour of this I’ve taken the same headline from article and applied it to this one.
Crossy Road creators Matt Hall and Andy Sum have teamed with entertainment industry veterans Ben Britten and Matt Ditton to bring the blockbuster success to a whole new level. The core ideas are the same — short play sessions, regular rewards of new characters that change the background of the action and stimulate the collector instinct. It’s the exact same framework and style applied to a whole new genre.
Steering an auto-firing aircraft across the sky, blowing blocky enemies into their component pixels is so much more enticing than tapping a chicken across the road. Plus there’s a sense of hope to Shooty Skies that Crossy Road lacked — I knew I was going to get hit by a car or train eventually, but here if I can dodge just right I may be able to keep going forever…nope, I’m dead.
Shooty Skies is currently available as a free download for iOS, with an Android version coming some day. As free-to-play games go it’s one of the least annoying of the lot — no play limits, no constant nagging — just the option to watch a video to continue and the odd advertisement for a $US.99 character. The only major obstacle you’ll run into is stopping.
Comments
9 responses to “Shooty Skies Is A Game About Shooting In The Sky, And It Is Great”
If this trend continues, and I really hope it does because it’s awesome, I hope they tackle a genre I miss dearly. Although I’m not 100% sure what genre Spy Hunter falls within, but a game like that would be perfect!
I agree, I really love Tyrian, with all the upgrades and ships you can buy. Was awesome. I really want to play a game like that today. This Shooty Skies is on the right track but I don’t like the look of it. Not sure if it has upgrades and the like that you buy in between levels?
There aren’t upgrades per se, but you can purchase improved weapons to use from the start instead of waiting for them to appear during play. They only last a short time, but there’s a butt ton of coins in this game so I’ve never been afraid to spend in-game stuff.
Fair enough. Sounds interesting, I might give it a go at some stage.
I was thinking more about it after I posted my comment earlier, there is so much that could be done with a game like Tyrian or Spy Hunter that I so wish someone made a game like it. Maybe even a game with boats instead which would look awesome visually if it was a wavy ocean and you looked down onto the HD water. I wish had the time, skill, and money to produce one :(.
I know exactly how you feel! I’ve tried working with programs that teach you how to code and design, etc. but I’m far more a writer than I am a coder/designer. All these ideas just begging to be created :p
Let’s do it then. I’m a graphic designer so I can make the pretty box art. We just need a 3D modelling guy now lol.
haha, sure! Any takers? Also you’re more than welcome to add me on twitter to chat 🙂
I don’t use Twitter, sorry mate :/.
All this talk has made me want to play Tyrian again.
Tyrian 2000 is free on gog.com, I def recommend to everyone to download it. Very good game. It’s actually on the app store too I believe. I downloaded it aaages ago on my first iphone.
Yeeeeees! I loved Spy Hunter, and I only ever got to play a demo of it on a website but I sincerely count it among my favourite games of all time.