The first time I saw footage of ARC Squadron I immediately thought of the fun of a Star Fox game. And I am guessing if you saw the trailers you though the same thing as well. Of course this is not a bad thing at all as both Star Fox and Star Fox 64 were two of the best arcade style space shooters of all time. Turns out that while ARC Squadron does have a Star Fox feel,  it also is its own game with its own personality. And with the use of the Unreal engine the game looks absolutely beautiful running on a retinal display iPhone. The sounds and music are good as well, although the dialogue could have used some improvement. ARC Squadron controls with touch and swipe motion. No virtual D-pad or Virtual stick in sight and I am fine with this method, although it is difficult if not impossible to make very sudden and very sharp turns. When fighting boss characters it sometimes becomes more frustrating than challenging when avoiding enemy attacks due to the less than perfect ability to make sudden large movements, but it is not a game breaker by any means. Overall however, the controls are decent enough most of the time. Auto fire is at first a bit strange but it is acceptable and you do use touch to fire your secondary weapons so there is still a good feeling of control of your weapons.

The game play is very arcade and action oriented with a lot of levels with a lot of  “replayability”, so ARC squadron will have me coming back for more in the days to come. The game just came out last night and is at at very low introductory price of only $0.99, but this is only for the first day or so of its release, then it will go up 2 or 3 bucks higher. Either way it is well worth the small amount of cash, especially if you were lucky enough to get it for under a buck like I was. I like the game, it is fun, it looks great, you can play in short bursts and there is potential for loads of replay here.  That combination is all you really need on the iPhone for a very successful game. Check out some screens I took while playing today. Click to enlarge.