Chad Hardin: APP OF THE DAY: Gridrunner Girl (WP7)

Thursday, May 19, 2011

APP OF THE DAY: Gridrunner Girl (WP7)

21st century Space Harrier
APP OF THE DAY: Gridrunner Girl (WP7). Gaming, Apps, Mobile phone apps, Windows Phone 7 apps, WP7 apps, WP7, Gridrunner Girl, App of the day 0

Mobile gaming seems to have given a whole new lease of life to some classic titles, with Speedball 2 being just one example how a top-quality retro game can make the transition from something like the Amiga onto the iPad/iPhone.

And so we come to our AOTD, where it appears that developer GlowPuff mobile has drawn a certain amount of inspiration from a classic shoot-em-up for its high-octane Windows Phone 7 effort Gridrunner Girl.

Gridrunner Girl

Format: WP7
Price: Free/79p
Where: Marketplace

The classic 80s game in question is Space Harrier, and Gridrunner Girl borrows heavily both in terms of gameplay and graphics. However, plagiarism aside, the company looks to have done a damn fine job of? reproducing this classic for the mobile audience; it's immediately obvious on firing it up that its quality with everything crisp and controls responsive.

For those not familiar, gameplay consists of working your way through a multitude of enemy-stuffed levels which you complete in the usual kill-everything M.O. Needless to say you do this by way of a huge gun, in this case strapped under your arm.

Controls are responsive and consist of either a virtual joystick or use of the accelerometer; for us the latter had the edge and as there's is no limit on ammo we'd also whack auto-fire on.

For your 79p you'll get 30 levels all wrapped up in some nice cel-shaded graphics and your destruction of the enemy hoards is accompanied by what the maker describes as an "edgy soundtrack". There are powerups aplenty and a load of boss battles to keep you entertained. There's also been a 1.4 update which has added new weapons.

This is a great one to pick up and play as and when as it takes zero thought and there's an instant save so you can drop it a come back to it whenever you like.

Highly recommended, if you like your shooters this is definitely one to take a look at.

Tags: Gaming Apps Mobile phone apps WP7 apps WP7 Gridrunner Girl App of the day windows phone 7 apps