iPhone game of the day: Espgaluda II

Game: Espgaluda II
Price: £5.49/$8.99
Size: 42.1MB
Out: Now (CURRENTLY ONLY ON iPHONE 3GS)

Espgaluda II's retro stylings won't win over everyone, but it's a bit like finding an undeveloped roll of film from the best holiday you ever had. Everyone looks way out of fashion, but the good feelings come rushing back. Ignore the comparatively high price and buy this right now.

It isn't just one of the best games on iPhone – it's one of the best shooters I've ever played. The beautiful 2D hand-drawn art and sublime colour palettes scroll in perfect parallax under the 'bullet hell' action. The iPhone 3GS handles hundreds of Radiant Silvergun-style sprites at once with aplomb – even on full-screen mode. The music, scoring system, replay value and overall feel is everything a videogame should have and the control is pixel-perfect.

Now I'm going to go and lie down for a bit. But I'm taking my iPhone with me.


Above: Admittedly, it doesn't quite match the Xbox 360 in terms of the number of sprites on-screen or the smoothness of the frame-rate, but it comes closer than it has any right to.

Buy Espgaluda 2 on iTunes now

(Note: compatibility with iPod Touch and iPhone 3G is being worked on, so fingers crossed)

21 Apr, 2010

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.