Boss encounters are numerous, high point tallies are common, and screenshots can’t really do justice to the intensity level of the action. In keeping with a Japanese shooting game category known as “bullet hell,” your targets saturate the screen with their own energy pulses-directed generally at you-and you survive both by blasting and, in some cases, by absorbing their fire. Espgaluda II places you in control of a flying fantasy-themed guy or girl who fires huge quantities of energy at targets that scroll or fly from the top of the screen downwards. The hype surrounding Cave’s overhead shooter Espgaluda II ($9) was so intense that you’d think it was the dawn of some new era of gaming on Apple’s pocket devices, but the reality is somewhat less exciting: this is, like so many other iPod touch and iPhone shooting games, a title that impresses only to the extent that you can get past its control scheme. For the price, Dark Void Zero’s a good little game it’s a shame that the art and music will only appeal to nostalgics. But the game’s very short and controls aren’t fantastic: they’re 8-bit responsive on the iPhone and iPod touch, but a mess when you try to play on the larger screen of the iPad. Additionally, Dark Void Zero has the sort of strong chip soundtrack that most games would never have managed to rival in composition. Due to your ability to shoot upwards, fly with the jetpack, and take out enemies that aren’t just statues, the action’s fun and-if one can really say this fairly-overachieving by 8-bit standards. Strip away the marketing and you’re left with a sorta-Bionic Commando sorta-Metroid run/shoot/jump platformer that challenges you to navigate three levels with scattered power-ups, jet-packing, opening locked areas, and switching weapons as necessary. Capcom’s Dark Void Zero ($3) emerged, apparently, as somewhat of a company in-joke: it’s yet another faux retro title with deliberately 8-bit graphics, music, and gameplay, originally pitched tongue-in-cheek as a long-lost title that once had been destined for Nintendo’s NES-based Pla圜hoice arcade cabinets.

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