Review: TriBlaster
A solid idea let down by flawed execution
Wait 20 seconds through the unskippable intro screen. If the game doesn’t crash or get stuck in a looping movie with no way to access the menus, start the game.
When the game starts, hold the shoot button. Then move left until your ship reaches the edge of the level. Then move right until your ship reaches the other edge of the level, all the while holding the shoot button. Repeat until bored.
That about sums up TriBlaster. With little to no exception, the first 15 levels or so will be beaten by doing exactly that chain of actions. After that (and rarely throughout) you’ll need to shake things up a little bit. Once every 5 levels or so, an enemy will make it to your position on the screen. By pressing B, your ship will jump backwards, giving your basic zig-zag maneuver plenty of time to destroy it. Once every 5 levels or so, you’ll also run into a clump of enemies that are better dispatched by standing still for a few seconds while you hold shoot. Then resume your zig-zagging. That’s the game, in a nutshell.
The biggest problem here is that such an amazing premise is wasted on such boring gameplay. And the premise really is great. TriBlaster is a shooter along a horizontal plane, with enemies coming towards your ship from the back of the map, requiring you to shoot them before they reach you. Think Space Invaders, but with the screen turned flat like a pinball table, or an unfolded version of the classic game Tempest. The graphics are cool, in an updated-retro sort of way. The controls are solid, the music and sounds appropriate. The thing is, the game simply doesn’t take advantage of this foundation. Nothing ever poses a challenge, which means there’s never much of a sense of accomplishment for beating anything, which means it’s never really fun.
Level design is the first clue that something has gone wrong. There are about 3 level shapes you’ll run into over and over again. The first is a straight line. Next, for variety, you’ll run into a level shaped like a gradually sloping smile or frown. Which is basically a straight line, but hey, at least it looks a bit different. Next, more rarely, you’ll run into a V or L shaped level. Functionally, these all play exactly the same – your zig-zag doesn’t change. As you progress, the stages will start occasionally taking on slightly more variety in shapes, before returning to one of the 3 standbys. No matter the shape, the gameplay doesn’t really change. Level shape never really has an impact on strategy – it appears to strictly be for visual variety. Which makes the lack of variety even more surprising.
One could imagine any number of ways variety could have been added. Loops, abstract shapes, levels that require jumps, levels with a top and bottom, where you flip between them dodging attacks, levels that take place along a circular arena, levels with obstacles that require jumps – it’s easy to think of ways the foundation of this game could have been turned into something fun or challenging. I hope someday it does get improved with more imaginative designs. Unfortunately, those aren’t here right now – I can’t review based on what COULD have been done.
These basic flaws could be overlooked if the game was fun in short bursts. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work in casual increments like that, thanks to a truly terrible checkpoint system. TriBlaster includes 100 levels. Throughout the course of those 100 levels, there are 3 checkpoints. One at 25, one at 50, and one at 75. Each level takes about a minute and a half to get through. That means if your hand cramps and you forget to zig-zag and die at level 20, you have to play through every level again, starting from the beginning. Over half an hour of the same level designs, with almost identical enemy patterns.
This checkpoint system has the consequence of rewarding long play sessions and punishing casual play – you do NOT want to play for 5 minutes when you’re head isn’t completely in the game, because the consequence of failure is such a massive loss of progress. A more modern checkpoint system, such as the type of “play any level you’ve beaten for a higher score” system seen in Angry Birds, would solve this problem. Even the current system could be improved by a more generous placement of checkpoints. But checkpoints every 25 levels turns TriBlaster from being a potentially amusing casual experience to being a game that requires marathon game sessions, and the gameplay simply isn’t compelling enough to warrant it.
There is a silver lining to all these negatives. As I’ve said, the foundation here really is quite solid. The idea, the core gameplay, even the occasionally more difficult level all hint at what TriBlaster could become. The checkpoint system could be replaced. The difficulty could be ramped up. The level layouts could be expanded. The enemies could be more varied. Things could be implemented to make zig-zagging a bad strategy. The core idea of this game is still sound, and I hope it someday gets polished into the game it deserves to be.
I don’t like writing negative reviews. I’d rather bring people’s attention to games they should play, rather than warn them away from games they shouldn’t. I played this game for about an hour and a half, waiting for the fun to start. It never really did, at least not for me. It’s possible that later into the game, the stages get more interesting. I couldn’t last that long, and I don’t think most people reading this will either.
I really hope that this game will be updated and improved, because the premise is solid. If things get better, I’ll revisit this review. As it stands, even at a dollar asking price, with no in-app purchases, and with well implemented controller support, this is a game to skip for now. Save your dollar.
Update
The previous version of this review struck a harsher tone than I wanted. This game is fixable. I really hope it gets there, because I love the premise, and I hope someday to be able to recommend it. Until then though, my opinion still stands – wait for an update.