Mutan Storm Reloaded Review

Mutant Storm Reloaded is an arcade top down twin stick shooter by PomPom Games that pits you against crowds of grisly enemies in an adrenaline fueled conquest of...erm...the glowy light surrounded area you are placed in? Basically it has 2 modes of play Adventure and and even has co-op for even more longevity. Mutant Storm was part of the Indie Royale July Jubilee bundle and, yes, I know that was ages ago but I am slow at reviews... Anyway here is my take on Mutant Storm.

The controls are fine whether you use a controller or keyboard. It is my preference to use a controller because you are limited too much in movement with a keyboard but don't let that put you off if you don't happen to have a controller. However, you should be put off a bit by how boring it can feel at times.

Mutant Storms 'Adventure' mode puts you through 89 levels where some enemies try to shoot you down. You collect some power ups that do different things from give you homing rockets to a bit laser blast. But for me, the music lets the game down entirely. In a game like this you want some rocking soundtrack to go along side your blasting through levels of enemies. But instead you get a rather drab and boring soundtrack that if anything makes me feel like all I'm doing is pointing my analogue stick at something for a bit. It does makes the game feel like it has no soul. Which is stupid because it has loads of other stuff that should make me think the opposite. There are tonnes of difficulty belts that as you play through increase in difficulty if you are consistently good and thus scales to how well you are doing in order to make the game more challenging. In addition it throws in a multiplier bar that also racks up and stays high so long as you don't die. It is just a shame that I don't feel I want to do any of these things because I can't get over how bored I feel while playing this game. And another thing, having to take a break from the action so you can zoom out then back in on a new battle arena only helps to break up the flow of the game and again make me not want to play for that long at a time. Which is a real shame since generally I would love dodging enemy fire and weaving in and out of tiny dots. But in this case I just barely make it past the first 20 levels due to boredom.

However, everything is better when co-op in involved. This is generally a true statement for any game. Nothing beats you and your buddy shooting through level after level having a laugh and, in this case, playing your own awesome music while you try to climb your way through Mutant Storms difficulty belts. This is a game that really does just benefit from using the exact formula from the single player but adding in an extra ship to be controlled. And I was starting to think this game was a lost cause. How wrong I was.

The other mode in Mutant Storm is the Tally mode. This is basically the same as adventure but you choose your difficulty and play through each level separately. Not much to see here really just same as adventure. It would have been nice to see some additional game modes but having co-op means that it is a game I will continue to come back to whenever I find a willing person to play with me.

Score: 70/100

General Information

Game Name: Mutant Storm Reloaded
Genre: Shooter
Developer: PomPom Games
Release date: 22nd November 2005
Bundle: Indie Royale The July Jubilee Bundle

System Requirements
Windows

OS: Windows XP,Vista, 7

Processor: Intel/AMD 1.6ghz or better

Memory: 512mb of RAM

Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compatible shader 2

DirectX®: 9.0c

Hard Drive: 100 MB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible