Xelorians - Space Shooter

The very best bullet-hell shooters mix intricacy and spectacle, forcing you to thread spaceships through avenues of deadly projectiles before throwing gigantic, screen-filling bosses into your path.

Xelorians - Space Shooter manages to fulfil half of the puzzle, hurling wave after wave of missiles and ships for you to carve a path through but never managing to instill proceedings with a sense of bombast or excitement.

The game is a retro-styled arcade shooter that sees you guiding a lone ship against almost insurmountable odds. You control your space vessel with a single finger, sliding to fly around the slightly dull backgrounds.

So long as your finger is in contact with the screen, you'll be firing, blasting out a steady stream of bullets. Destroyed enemy vessels drop point-scoring yellow orbs and essential weapon upgrades.

Before long you'll be slowing down time, firing out volleys of heat-seeking missiles, gouts of sparking electricity, and beams of glowing laser that destroy everything in their path. Instant use bombs fall down to you too, and wreak havoc with the oncoming hordes if you manage to collect them.

But, for all the violence, there are no 'wow' moments, nor any sudden and unpredictable changes in the path your spaceship is following.

Part of that is due to the graphics, which are workmanlike in their depiction of an asymmetrical intergalactic war, but uninspired ship designs and lifeless backdrops add to the feeling of drab indifference.

It's a shame, because the game gets the rhythm of its combat just about right, and multiple difficulty settings let you work through the levels at your own speed. Whether or not you'll feel engaged enough to push on to the next challenge is another matter.

With a stiffer sense of urgency and a better understanding of the spectacle a bullet-hell shooter requires, Xelorians – Space Shooter could have been a classic. There's a decent challenge here, but as things stand it feels a little undernourished, and its lack of remarkable set-pieces makes for an experience that's not quite exciting enough to whole heartedly recommend.