Game Reviews

Radio Flare

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| Radio Flare
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Radio Flare
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| Radio Flare

Flares often accompany misfortune. Whether you're stranded on some tropical isle or experiencing a car wreck, firing up a flare signals something's wrong.

Instead of calling for help, this stylish shooter highlights a unique mix of music and touchscreen action. Not everything is ideal about Radio Flare, but it's worth tuning into.

You move your ship by holding a finger down on the vessel and sliding it about the screen. Using your left thumb works best, leaving your right hand free for targeting.

Up to four enemies can be targeted with a swipe of a second finger. Shot-up foes drop red flares that advance you to the next stage when you pick them up.

Tying level progression directly to the action encourages you to engage enemies, rather than evade them. It isn't possible to steer through a level because you need radio flares to advance.

There's more incentive to fire upon enemies than this, though: musical tones sound with each enemy you target. Radio Flare tags each attack with a note that mixes with the ambient soundtrack.

While it's a subtler element than you might like, it gives the game a unique edge.

Effective targeting is critical to progressing through the game's five stages. Since you're only able to destroy four enemies or objects at any given time, you're forced to work quickly to clear batches of foes from the screen.

Traipsing through the first three levels, you can defeat everything that floats by. Levels four and five, however, feature a glut of enemies that can't all be destroyed.

As such, survival requires selecting only essential targets and skirting out of the way of any remaining forces.

Radio Flare circumvents the potential pitfalls of an analogue shooter through its targeting system. Taking the emphasis away from movement allows you to concentrate more fully on conscientious targeting.

You still have to glide about the screen to pick up red flares dropped by defeated foes, but evasive manoeuvring plays a minor role here.

It also helps that enemies only stream in from the right side of the screen. Never do you need to worry about a flank attack, which allows complete concentration on choosing your targets as they appear from the right.

For all that Radio Flare accomplishes with its unique gameplay, it could use a boost in value and tweaks to the presentation.

Audio only pumps through headphones, so playing without them means going without sound effects and music. Using headphones is almost always preferable, but the game shouldn't force it.

The game's five stages are shared between two modes - Arcade and Flow. It's a small offering.

Arcade takes you through all five stages in order, while Flow allows you to play individual levels once you've unlocked them via Arcade mode. Achievements do provide some incentive for replay, but some of them are annoyingly hidden.

With so few levels, Radio Flare can't sustain a lasting appeal, even if you time you spend with this stylish, well-designed shooter are well spent.

Radio Flare

Tune into this stylish blend of ambient music and touchscreen shooting calls more attention to its own strengths than shortcomings
Score
Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.