Save the world from vector hell

Clean Asia! is a super hard vertical shoot ’em up by independent developer Cactus. Earth is succumbing, country by country, to a superior technology hell bent on our destruction, and America sends two pilots to deal with it. I suppose the rest of the Army was busy.

With a cool techno soundtrack, neon vector line graphics, Clean Asia! is a memorable game to play. Your craft is a dot on the screen, and you can choose one of two types to play with. The first is an unusual system where you fire your ship into enemies, collect the debris then fire that at other enemies, the second a more traditional shooting spacecraft.

All the control is from the keyboard, using direction keys and two or four others depending on the system you play with. Learning the keys so they’re second nature will be necessary to succeed, as half a second’s hesitation will result in death.

Whichever control system you choose, you’re in for a hard time. The screen can become quite overwhelming with movement and color – and almost all of it will kill your dot/craft if you don’t avoid it.

In short bursts, Clean Asia! is good fun but, like other games by Cactus, can become frustrating. If you don’t like endless repeated death, you won’t enjoy this.