FLOMM! shows us what a shmup made by angry modernists in 1923 would look like
Take that, tradition!
FLOMM! doesn't look like your typical shmup. There's no outer space, no alien enemy, heck, there's not even a spaceship (it does have explosions, at least).
Instead, its creator Steve Mehallo decided to envision a shmup if one were made by angry modernists in 1923. The result is a bit barmy.
In it, you control an avant garde squiggle as it beats back the tyranny of traditional art with font-based bullets. You face crowns, cigarette packets, playing cards, and portraits.
Your enemy is black-and-white, representing the stringent art of those pre-20th century authors, and you explode them with colour.
Visually, there's a lot going on in FLOMM!. The backgrounds and character designs reference Futurism, Cubism, the Bauhaus, the Russian Avant Garde, and much more.
To play it, though, is really rather simple. You move your avatar by touching the left of the screen. And shoot by tapping the right. That's it.
As you progress, there are boss battles, power-ups to collect (triple shot!), and 10 different ships to play as.
FLOMM! won't win over hardcore shmup enthusiasts. It's too simple to play for that.
But if you enjoyed Type:Rider's trip through font history then this battle across art should be of interest. There's even a website that goes into more detail about its historical references.
You can purchase FLOMM! for £2.29 / $2.99 on the App Store.
