There was this old hippie at a newspaper I once worked for, a guy who took a great interest in any New York Times obituary of a prominent Russian. He was your basic-as-bread conspiracy theorist, convinced the Soviets put a humanâwell, a human body, anywayâon the dark side of the moon. âThey couldnât accept not trying,â he said, like a lunar landing was a football game. He would have loved Cosmonauts
In this iOS physics game, Mother Russia won the space race, making them the first to encounter extraterrestrial life. Hostile extraterrestrial life. Itâs now up to the good olâ CCC of P to save Earth, and thatâs where you come in. In a linear combat space, youâre given a gunship, some modifiable weaponry, and a target to hit. Your shot flies along a parabola. The basic objective is to destroy your target in as few shots as possible.
Sounds familiar, and indeed a lot of the iconography in Cosmonauts and its menu layout smells like physics games such as Siege Hero or The Marbians or that game with the birds. The difference here is your foe returns fire. So while you have theoretically unlimited shots, you canât get too cute or else youâll join Sputnik in the hall of space debris.
https://lastchance.cc/siege-hero-returns-fire-against-birds-5802120%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Gravity, or implied gravity, anyway, plays a big role in Cosmonauts. The higher your trajectory and the further your shell âfalls,â the more damage it does. That said, itâs harder to gauge the correct angle because the higher you aim, the shorter the projected path becomes. The screen also scrolls up, which can reveal goodies high above your ship as well as obscure the enemy below.
Cosmonauts clearly encourages multiple gravity-assist shots, which can pick up health and firepower powerups along the way. Crafting these volleys takes a lot of care. Fortunately, trading fire is all turn-based, not real-time, and thereâs no time limit while you set up you shot.
The base game in Cosmonauts is free, but it consists mainly of a tutorial. Thereâs a multiplayer challenge level that pits you against a tough AI foe; online multiplayer is available if you set up an account within the game, which is kind of unfortunate as it is already OpenFeint and GameCenter enabled on iOS. Loading screens between the gameâs first 18 levels constantly tout the additional levels and content packages you can buy, ranging from a buck to $1.99.
After finishing the 18 tutorial stages I wanted to see more of Cosmonauts. I was willing to purchase, at a buck, the next slate of challenges. Unfortunately, I dead-ended in errors that kept telling me âYou must purchase the app that this item is for before you can purchase the item.â Since Cosmonautsâ base offering is free, therefore un-purchaseable, the developer (Superplay Games) probably needs to resolve this conflict with Apple.
Maybe I was doing something wrong. Still, Cosmonauts takes the iPhoneâs best gaming concept, the physics game, and applies just the right touches to make it different and uniquely challenging. Itâs probably a good thing for a game when Iâm pissed off because I canât spend a buck to get to the next stage of a free-to-play title. Iâll figure out how to make that happen in the morning. Like the Soviets, I canât accept not trying.
Cosmonauts [iTunes]
You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
