Red Siren: Space Defense is a new shooter for iPhone that harks back to the App Store's earlier days
Red alert
You don't get many games like Red Siren on mobile anymore. It's the sort of genre mash-up we used to see a lot of before the midcore market became dominated with Clash Royale clones and easy-to-play-but-hard-to-master arcade experiences.
The game is all about flying a jet around a war-torn planet from the future. In the background laser-blasts streak out from giant moons, and by the looks of things everything is on fire, whether it's meant to be on fire or not.
You drag a finger around the screen to move your ship, and it targets your robotic foes automatically. That leaves you to get out of the way of their shots, and pick up the buffs and boosts that some destroyed enemies leave behind.
This isn't just a shooter though. Enemies come in waves along set paths, so there's a good chunk of tower defence here as well. Albeit tower defence where you're in control of a chunky jump-jet that can fire enormous rockets.
No, it's not a complex experience, but then it's not meant to be. And when things get frantic towards the end of some levels, you're going to play with a breathless smile on your face. Or at the very least with gladness in your heart - after all you might get shot to death by a giant stompy robot.
This one is an interesting blast to the recent-past of mobile gaming. And if you've got a hankering for slightly simpler times, you can grab the game from the App Store right this second by clicking here.
