iPhone App: Heavy Mach

= 5 stars
Heavy Mach is an action game where you drive a tank on several missions to destroy all kinds of enemy vehicles with a variety of weapons.
The Good
- Satisfying controls: tilt the iPhone left or right to roll the tank in that direction. Touch the right side of the screen to fire, and angle the turret by sliding your finger up and down. A lever / button in the lower left corner makes your tank jump.
- Detailed graphics and sound effects. Every weapon is fun to fire and the resultant explosions are satisfying. There’s a large variety of enemy vehicles from helicopters to moving gun batteries. Even the controls show an attention to detail, with little spinning pressure gauges to measure fuel and weapon reloading. The overall feel is like a classic side scrolling shooting game like R-Type, or iShoot with a moving tank and better graphics.
- Four missions, broken up into stages. There’s a big bad boss at the end of each one. If the constant trek to the right isn’t your cup of tea, there’s a survival mode where you just battle unlimited enemies.
The Bad
- When you die, a big stamp flies in saying Mission Failed. I’d like to see my tank blown to smithereens, please.
Conclusion
Heavy Mach is a well implemented game, and satisfies my primal desire to blow crap up in as many ways as possible before being blown up in the process. Highly recommended.