MECHA BURST

Humanity's last line of defense holds at lunar orbit. Form a wing of allies you can count on and sortie into the hottest sectors. A classic flip-phone shooter, fully rebuilt by its original creator. ■ Mech action with a cockpit that breathes A square battle view over a phosphor-mint console: radar, armor and reload gauges on a portrait screen, with a heavy battlefield unfolding above them. Fly freely in every direction while the camera follows across a field wider than the screen, pushing in for close combat and pulling back as you break away. Move with the left stick, fire with the right pad; dive into an enemy's reach and the beam saber flashes. Press the stick deep and the booster dash fires, armor glowing white-hot and deflecting shots for a moment. Hit sparks, damage numbers, the hit-stop on a kill, chained-kill sounds, screen kick, purple smoke — feel is what we chased. Down a capital ship and a lens ring and flash go off as the camera tilts. In space the wreckage drifts; on the ground the scorch marks stay. ■ Enemy squads with doctrine, and enemies with names Enemies fight as squads with a doctrine of their own: taking turns to attack, pincers, revenge for a fallen wingmate, saber charges, rams, missile-heavy engagements. Your glowing shots meet their vermilion pixel fire. Then the named ones appear, in gold. Weakened, they rage; after a gold telegraph and a called move they unleash a signature attack — rails racing the screen's edges, a ring of fireballs, a tidal wave, a rain of giant spears, a net of red lasers. Miss the kill and they return. Read the tell, break the range, bring one down and the funds come in big. ■ Fighting with allies, commanding a wing This is no lone stand. Form a wing and they fly beside you, calling their kills and pushing forward. Rise from cadet toward admiral and you lead more of them. At the higher ranks you can even keep your own unit home and send the wing out alone, watching them fight. Allies level up sortie by sortie too, and the whole squadron grows into something you can rely on. ■ Many units, random growth, pods that turn a fight Shotgun, laser, cannon, nuclear missile, a heavy unit that raises a shield, a nimble high-speed type, even warship classes. Each has its own shot and rhythm — twin emerald bolts, a thick royal-blue slug. Levels earned in sorties raise armor, reaction, rate of fire and firepower by chance, so two units of the same type never grow alike. Fill the funds gauge and choose a pod card: piercing lasers, homing lasers, missiles, funnels, machine guns, flare shots, an Aegis shield that swallows bullets — and your barrage thickens. ■ Battlefields that change their face, and the command deck Orbit, fortress, open ground, city and asteroid belt turn clear, cloudy, rainy and dark. At night, eyes, boosters, shots and explosions glow, and the heat thickens the air. On the command deck, officer Liese briefs you and greets you home. Pick a card on the front map, sortie, and once the short fight is settled, check the balance on the report screen. Repair, reform the wing, raise the occupation and move on to the next planet. Campaigns run from Earth through Mars, Jupiter and Saturn to the Sun, with a record board for every front — plenty to dig into. • Pricing: the Earth campaign is free; the campaigns from Mars onward unlock with the one-time in-app purchase "Full Version". • No ads, no account required. • Plays offline; autosave makes a short break painless. • Languages: English, Japanese, German, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese.