Billed as one of the most cheesiest story lines for a Windows Phone 7 game, Steel Avenger turns out to be a rather decent game for your Windows Phone. Reminiscent of the classic arcade game Spy Hunter, Steel Avenger puts you in the role of Harry Kersey, an ex-cop who is trying to avenge hiis wife's brutal death.
Kersey takes out his revenge on the streets of downtown Farlix against the criminals responsible for his loved ones untimely death. With the assistance of sympathetic police force, who conveniently drop power-ups from helicopters, Kersey will weave through traffic taking his vengeance out on the bad guys.
Ease on past the break to read more on Steel Avenger and how you can help Kersey extract his justice.
Extracting Justice
Let's set the stage. You know the game premise; taking your vengeance out on the bad guys. You control the car driven by Kersey and shoot your way through enemy cars driven by not-so-nice henchmen. Along the way a passing helicopter will drop bonus items. There are four bonus items available; restore health, bomb (blows up all enemy cars on the screen), bullets (increases fire power) and a protective shield (nine seconds of invulnerability).
You control the cars steering by tilting your Windows Phone from side to side. You can accelerate or slow down by tilting the phone forwards or backwards.
The screen layout has your scores, life-line and support meter up top and your fire button down to the right side. You loose life by either shooting/hitting a civilian vehicle or getting shot/hit by one of the bad guys' cars. The fire button can be a little tricky to get used to because of its positioning. It might have been better to fire your canon by touching anywhere on the screen.
Eventually, you will work your way through traffic to face a boss. The boss is a rather robust Humvee-type vehicle that shoots rockets at you and will take multiple, multiple hits to take out. As your progress through the gaming levels, these bosses get more challenging to take out. There are five levels, each with a boss, and once you complete all five levels the game loops. With each loop the game increases in difficulty.
Game Play
Game play with Steel Avenger was good. Graphics and sound effects have a retro feel to it and the controls nicely designed. The first few minutes of the game bordered on being a touch boring because the bad guys were so easily taken out. But this gives you an opportunity to get a feel for the game.
After a few minutes of play, Steel Avenger peps up a bit and it becomes challenging to not only take out the criminal elements but also avoid innocent bystanders.
Overall Impression
I liked Steel Avenger. The game was challenging enough not to get too boring or too frustrating. The retro feel brought back memories of the days video arcades. Steel Avenger ran smoothly with no glitches, bugs or crashes experienced.
There is a slight addictive quality to the game but not to the point where you just can't put down. I would consider Steel Avenger as one of those games you enjoy playing, grows old after a while, but you enjoy coming back to. Steel Avenger would be a good addition to your Windows Phone gaming library. Especially if you like the retro styled games.
There is a free trail version available to let you try Steel Avenger before buying. The full version will run you $.99 and you can find the game here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.
Correction/Clarification: The blue bar in the upper right corner of the game screen was believed to be related to the bonus drops. Just checked in with the developer for clarification. If you shoot too many civilian vehicles, the bar increases and when maxed out the helicopter stops dropping bonuses and the police come after you. To decrease or slow the bars progress, simply shoot more bad guys.
