➤ Sheriffs of the stars 🎮

The Free Game of the Week is the appointment of Resources4Gaming.com which, every Saturday, puts in the spotlight a downloadable iPhone app at no cost. Not necessarily new titles or leading labels but rather, simply, products that deserve to be taken into consideration. All the more so if you don't have to shell out even a penny.

Version tested: iPhone

Sometimes wishes come true! Ten-year-old Owain Weinert, suffering from leukemia, was able to realize the concept of a videogame for iOS platforms thanks to the collaboration between the Make-A-Wish Foundation and PopCap Games, who "lent" the internal 4th & Battery team to the directives by Owain. The developers found themselves being spurred and inspired by the child, who went several times to check that their work adhered to what he had in mind, which is a mix of action and tower defense strategy that pits stellar police forces against each other. three enemy factions, within as many scenarios: Earth (degree of difficulty: novice), Mars (degree of difficulty: veteran) and finally Flamiar (degree of difficulty: insane).

The gameplay of Allied Star Police, which can be downloaded for free from the App Store in the iPhone or iPad version, is extremely simple and immediate, so much so that you can jump right into the action right away. The battlefield is made up of four "lanes" (very similar to Plants Vs. Zombies, therefore) that separate the base of our troops and the enemy one. Well, our goal is to overwhelm the opponent's forces, completely cross the space that separates us from his position and then destroy it. The enterprise will not be simple and indeed it will become substantially more complicated depending on the scenario chosen at the start, with significant peaks of difficulty on the inhospitable planet Flamiar.

My vehicle is bigger than yours

The control system of Allied Star Police it is completely based on the touch screen and makes use of a very understandable interface. In fact, at the bottom of the screen we find a series of buttons (seven, when they are all available) that allow us to produce four categories of vehicles and three special weapons, clearly spending a higher amount of money. If we press the button relating to a vehicle, we can then position it on the battlefield by touching the "lane" on which we want it to move, and at that point the vehicle will proceed from left to right, automatically attacking all the enemies it encounters until it scratches. the armor of the hostile base.

The first vehicle available, the ATV, is fairly fast and has a consistent rate of fire, but has poor armor, which prevents it from going far; the second vehicle, the Sniper, is a much more resistant armored vehicle that fires a single cannon shot, albeit more effective; then there is the Tank, a balanced solution between speed, resistance and power, capable of solving very complicated situations; and finally the enormous WCSV, a tank of generous dimensions, very slow in both moving and firing, but resistant and deadly. As we eliminate the enemies and earn money, we can therefore continue to produce vehicles and place them in the four lanes, trying to outnumber the enemy troops and close them near their base. The action is frenetic and fun, with a precise response of the commands and a perfect management of the view, which automatically hooks up where something happens, but that we can move by dragging the screen. The additional weapons (a "boost" to be assigned to a vehicle, a series of bombs or a deadly satellite laser) complete the picture of a not infinite but very well differentiated arsenal, capable of giving life to even rather long clashes, especially at the level of higher difficulty. All this is accompanied by a pleasant hard rock style soundtrack and excellent bitmap graphics, colorful and well designed.

The tested version is 1.0
Price: free
Link App Store

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Resources4Gaming.com

Readers (5)

6.6

Your vote

Allied Star Police is an immediate, frenetic and fun action game, which exploits in the best way the tower defense elements of the gameplay to offer us engaging, challenging and also quite long battles (especially at the highest degree of difficulty). The touch controls work flawlessly and the interface allows us to jump right into the action instantly, without even stepping out of the way. The vehicles available are not extremely numerous (one for each "lane", in fact) but they are well differentiated and are supported by three deadly special weapons, to be unlocked by totaling high scores. I'm just sorry that each scenario offers a single mission, to be replayed later trying to beat your own time. Considering the symbolic value of the product and the fact that it is available for free on the App Store, however, the download is a must.