Babeorella's Stylish Intro

Originally posted on Gamers With Casts

Released On: iPhone (reviewed), iPod Touch, iPad (iPhone mode)
Available: Now
Developed By: doublesix

Babeorella puts you in the shoes to the buxom, space-faring titular heroine after she crashes her spaceship into an asteroid.  At first, the game seems like a fairly standard dual-stick shooter, but it changes a few small elements that makes it much more enjoyable than I would have thought.

You have a control stick in the bottom left of the screen, and the attacks sit opposite.  But instead of falling into the trap that some iPhone games do, your attacks (including special attacks) are based on your distance from the enemy.  Up close Babeorella will kick her enemies, at medium distance she’ll use some sort of space whip, and far away she’ll use the more familiar laser gun.

It sounds like a small thing to change, but the effect it has on the game is pretty major.  With a small device the like the iPhone, you don’t have to worry about switching weapons or boring yourself with shooting the same gun over and over.  Along with the game automatically locking onto enemies in your view (allowing you to do some simple circle-strafing), the game plays far better than I would have guessed.

To keep the game a little more engaging than its dual-stick brethren, Babeorella has you upgrading weapons and health, completing challenges that involve you upgrading those stats (completing these challenges unlocks alternate costumes), and the usual smattering of powerups lying around the arena.  I especially appreciated the challenges for their ability to break up the standard shooting; the small goals kept pushing me to keep playing and upgrading my stats.

Babeorella is a simple pick-up-and-play arena shooter with great humor, style, and music that puts an interesting spin on the genre.  If that’s what you’re looking for in an iPhone game, Babeorella is well worth the $3.