Metal Torrent Review: A Nice Little Shoot-em Up eShop Title

Metal Torrent Review

Metal Torrent is an eShop title released as DSiWare and is available on the Nintendo 3DS for $4.99 or the Nintendo DSi for 500 points.

Metal Torrent is an up-down shoot-em up title that features 8 phases of gameplay. Each phase will not take you long to bust your way through as the game can be completed in around 20 minutes. It’s a fairly simple shooter – You have your ship, your main weapon and a power weapon. While using your power weapon you will notice a meter on the bottom touch screen. When you use the power weapon whatever bullets that are near you will slow down. When that meter runs out you will still be able to use the power weapon but the bullets won’t slow down. The power meter recharges with time, and also by collecting cubes which you will get those by destroying enemies.

It pretty much plays like one massive level with 8 phases to go through and 3 bosses. You will get to choose either Easy mode or Insane mode. There is no middle ground for you to partake in. It really forces you to play Insane mode, because Easy is definitely way too easy and no challenge at all. Insane mode will really put you to the test though and force you to learn the game phase by phase. I put some time into it, but I have still yet to reach the end on Insane mode.

The enemies are pretty good and have some nice patterns for you to learn. You will need to find a good mix on what weapon works best for what enemy and put together a good strategy to attack this game with. They throw some patterns at you that look impossible to survive, but if you use your weapons right and destroy the enemy it will turn their bullets into cubes as well. I actually really enjoyed the enemies, and what they throw at you. I must also say the bosses are pretty decent as well and fun to face.

Metal Torrent also features the must have online rankings leaderboard. Without that this game wouldn’t be worth the price at all. So while you are only dealing with 8 short phases the leaderboard does provide you with good replayability to further your score and ranking. Also, you have two game modes to choose from as well besides your basic mode which is pattern mode. You can also choose from random mode in which enemies appear randomly during each of the eight phases.

I would really love to see more from Metal Torrent in the future as it was a great start and a fun to play shoot-em up title. I would like to see more levels to further enjoy. If you are a fan of shoot-em up titles then I would certainly recommend you picking up this title right away. The game feels good and controls well, so it should be enjoyed by most. It also has a decent little soundtrack. If you are not a fan of shoot-em ups I would probably recommend that you stay away. Easy mode wouldn’t even be a great challenge for you, and Insane mode would probably scare you away.

Score: 3/5

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