Pure Carnage Sterling Games, XBLIndie Games  September 26 2010

Pure Carnage dishes out exactly what the title says.  Carnage.  The game is a twitch-gamer take on games like Missile Command, giving a single player control of 2 gun bases, controlled by the mushroom sticks, while two gun bases remain drones that constantly fire into the endless swarms of enemies.  I haven't played a 4-player game yet, but each player controlling a gun bas sounds like a challenge!  As you play, you will be able to power up your gun bases into spread-firing death dealers, armor-piercing death mongers, or both.  This will lay waste to dozens of enemies, and as you play through the 6 levels of the game, from Cakewalk to Armageddon.

   Graphically, the game is simple 80s vector-style, and looks pretty good.  The colors are basic red, green, blue, yellow, white- you know the palette, simple!  The enemy ships are all read, and consist of kamikaze ships, ships that fire missiles, and ships that fire even more kamikaze ships.  The gameplay at this point demands good peripheral vision, and you don't have it, or some friends to join you, your game may not last long, unless you're really good, and even then.. well, it all depends on the player.

Each time a ship or rocket gets passed your gunfire, they hit your base and  take away  from your shield strength.  But that's ok, every now and then, a small round ship will wander out into the playfield.  Shooting this one will charge your base shields.  Not completely, but just enough to keep you alive for a little bit longer.  Pure Carnage is quarter-eating madness, so if you get a good run going, it will probably not last very long.  But considering the cost of $1, it's something you can deal with.  You can simply imagine the line of quarters on the screen for the players calling "NEXT GAME!"