War of Worlds is a pretty basic Space Invaders style game for the Pocket PC, with a few interesting innovations. This curiously named shooter sets you at an unknown location in an unknown Earth city. You must defend the city from attacking aliens. The aliens come in three flavours: big flying saucer, small green spacecraft and close-up alien head.
Just to make it interesting, some Earth ships are also buzzing around the place (though they’re not really doing anything to help you, the lone gunner). If you accidentally let fly with some friendly fire, you’re penalised a few points. But it’s worth pointing out that none of the enemies are very difficult to hit, while the allied craft are pretty easy to avoid.
The battlefield is bigger than what’s immediately visible so the developer has included a slightly unusual feature: you need to scroll from side to side to ensure you catch all the aliens using your Pocket PC’s joystick button. But as the aliens aren’t doing anything except popping up or zipping past (they never open fire on you), you’re left wondering why you should bother to destroy them in the first place. Another gimmick is the age-old ‘reload’ zone on the right of the screen when you run out of ammo. Just like in the old arcade games, you need to fire at this area to re-arm your gun. Even during the pitifully short two minute demo, this became pretty irritating.
When it comes to space invaders style games, the classics are often the best. War of Worlds doesn’t offer anything offer anything new beyond a few gimmicks that only serve to annoy.
