GAMING
you appear to be in hell, surrounded
by demons, and under threat of your
soul being forever bound there if
you fail in your mission of shooty
exorcism. Eep!
So that’s Backfire in a nutshell –
scoot about each arena’s confines,
blast bullets from your bottom, and
try to not get horribly killed. Except
that’s not quite it, because that
gimmick alone wouldn’t make for a
great game. What ensures Backfire
that accolade is everything else.
It looks superb, neon foes
squelching from the arena’s walls,
and darting after you like psychotic
underwater insectoid creatures. It
sounds genuinely creepy, mixing
up pew pew laser noises with
terrifying guttural growls from the
creatures that are in hot pursuit.31.There’s also a cleverly balanced
upgrades system, where you deck
out your ship using collected ‘souls’,
boosting your chances of survival in
subsequent games.
That’s not to say Backfire ever
becomes easy. The game echoes
classic arcade fare, in the way
it’ll hand your ego back to you in
mangled form. But persevere and
you’ll find one of the best – and
most unique – blasters on iOS.- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Price: £14.99
This oddball twin-stick shooter is
confusing and upsetting in equal
parts. It finds you controlling a small
child roaming a series of bleak,
randomly generated dungeons and
caves. He fights hideously mutated