Reviews

Shooting and scooting can be a bit clumsy — Capsized+

By Peter Barton

Posted on March 22, 2013

Capsized+ is a port of the well received game of the same title on Xbox Live Arcade. The plus is just there to tell people that now it is available wherever they wish to go! Taking on the role of 2D side scrolling shooter and adding a dose of time attack platform action, Capsized+ is a good game with all of the well intentions of being a success with those who have already played it on their consoles.

You play as a survivor from a space faring vessel that suffered an inexplicable accident. After having been dealt a crippling explosion, the ships commander ordered all hands to abandon ship via the life pods. Upon landing on the surface of an alien planet, your task is to survive and find a way to be rescued. Along your journey, you will be called upon to explore this new world, and to find out the fates of your surviving crew members.

[singlepic id=11040 w=320 h=240 float=left]When first opening the app, the player is greeted with a wonderful set of still images that explain just what is happening. The artwork is fun and comic-strip in nature, but that plays incredibly well into the feel of the game. Once you start playing the game itself, the background and foreground art are done with a painstaking attention to detail to give the world depth and atmosphere. From the rolling fog banks of steam, to the carved stones blocking your path, you truly feel like you’ve entered an alien world; or, alien to us at least. The critters you encounter through the game easily make their home in the environment, laying in ambush behind a bush or simply looking like a piece of the surrounding terrain; that is until you venture to close or a stray round gets its attention.

Playing the game is a different beast in its own right. Moving around and aiming is done via the touch screen with visual representations of control sticks. Separate areas are used to change weapons, activate your jet-pack, or even activate the auto-aim function so that you have all of your controls in very close proximity to each other, and that’s where some serious handling problems can set in. [singlepic id=11039 w=320 h=240 float=right]Many times I would find myself switching to my shoulder mortar and only realize it when I had smeared myself, along with what I was shooting at, as a red paste upon the ground. Likewise, I was constantly hitting the button to activate or deactivate the auto-aim and jet-pack in some heated firefights. This, combined with awkward responses to the movement pad, created some incredibly hectic moments that otherwise should have been routine on a console. It seemed just a little too easy for me to find the bottom of a pit while I was trying to evade incoming fire or relentless pursuers.

At times players may find the sudden appearance of an enemy, or rather a swarm of enemies, to just come out of the blue! In these instances, they may notice the flaw of the auto-aim function. Instead of being set to target the nearest enemy, or maybe the most dangerous or heavily wounded, it latches onto the first enemy it seems to want to. The main way you would have to rectify such a problem, would be to make sure auto aim is off and do your best to stay between the lines of where you’re aiming and firing, or you might just find yourself expending precious rockets instead.

Going to the mobile market can be a risky endeavor, though the rewards can be rather high if done just right. Capsized+ makes a bold attempt to cash in on its love from the console market, and if you really enjoyed it on the big screen then you’ll most likely find it enjoyable on the small screen. [singlepic id=11038 w=320 h=240 float=left]If you sometimes suffer from fat finger syndrome, or can get really into your gaming with jerky finger motions, then you may experience some problems. The game’s story arc is fun to witness though. The comic book panels of art can take your mind away from finding, multiple bloated mosquito things swarming around you, while vaguely head crab looking critters look to give you a face hug, as you slide into a pit with poisonous gas all because your auto aim decided to shoot the floating sea urchin first.