Review: Attack of the Kraken

We love all things retro here at AppTrawler and so when we got a copy of Attack of the Kraken by Quantum Sheep we were made up.  Kraken is a side scrolling shooter that sees you flying about taking out UFOs and a series of giant metal Krakens in the shape of octopi, crabs and eight headed dragons which are walking towards your base and emerging from the sea.

There is a tonne of levels to work through each with different goals from simple ‘kill everything’ to ‘unblock the scanner’.  This scanner sits at the top of the screen to let you know where each of the enemies are in relation to you which does become very helpful in the later levels.  Each level has a story which links all the levels together until the final battle on the Kraken home world.

The graphics are bright and colourful if a little simplistic but there are a number of amusing nods to movies and TV shows from the island from ‘Lost’ to the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sounds and music all fit well and the game gels together nicely.  Where this game shines out is the gameplay, after the initial confusion of getting used to the controls it becomes great fun to move your ship around the arena, looping about and zapping the oncoming horde.

Despite the great selection of levels and fun gameplay, the game is completed quite easily and you are left wanting more.  However, it has been a while since I have wanted to play through the entire game so I recommend this game as its great fun and will appeal to both fans of the retro shooters and new players.

well worth 59p

[itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attack-of-the-kraken/id335511023?mt=8&uo=4″ title=”US Link” text=”US Link”]    [itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/attack-of-the-kraken/id335511023?mt=8&uo=4″ title=”UK Link” text=”UK Link”]