Recent reviews by Mhas'

This would be A Stephen King Novel: The Game if Stephen King realised the true terror of:

• Cardboard cut-outs
  
• Well-meaning, but slightly meddlesome locals
  
• Writer’s block
  
• Absent-minded coffee drinkers
  
• Really inefficient flashlights
  
• Cliffhangers only an episodic game could invoke
  
• Justin Hawkins[en.wikipedia.org]

Come to think of it, he’s probably familiar with a few of those. Nonetheless, it’s a good yarn with some kicking tunes and seems to realistically represent what one could expect from a holiday to the countryside.

9/10 slightly confused screams

An excellent example of a simple idea done really, bloody, well. With only one arena, two weapons and a handful of game modes, Waves offers a streamlined twin-stick shooter experience, but rather than leave the game feeling sparse, this allows its triumphs to shine through without clutter. Gameplay is well balanced and addictive, with enough twists through the different game modes to keep things interesting. The sense of “flow” the gameplay instils is complemented beautifully by the ambient soundtrack and a feature I particularly like is the option to change each of the game’s sound effects to pentatonic notes that harmonise with these tracks. It doesn’t affect the gameplay, but is a good indication of the attention to detail Squid In A Box has put into this game.

Waves is not without its issues however. The main ones that come to mind are:

• The HUD looks very flashy but can be a little hard to read in the heat of the moment, especially if transparency is enabled.
  
• The ‘Challenges’ mode only displays the objectives for each round after the round has finished. They all basically equate to “get a high multiplier and do it quickly” but this still seems like an odd decision on Squid In A Box’s part.
  
• Some issues with preferences in the games settings not being retained through updates, I haven’t given much investigation to this yet so it may be easily resolved or a problem on my end.

These are all fairly minor problems though and haven’t stopped me cracking Waves out whenever I have other gamers over or half an hour to kill. Overall, Waves is a streamlined and polished gem of a twin-stick shooter that stays fun long after you expect it to. Definitely worth its low price if you’re a fan of the genre or looking to get into it.