Dual-stick retro shoot ’em up

PewPew is an arcade shooter that uses dual thumb controls to move and shoot around neon vector graphic arenas.

There’s no shortage of so-called dual-stick shooters like Geometry Wars on the iPhone, but PewPew manages to stick out from the crowd by being both free and featuring four varied game modes that require different skills to succeed.

Chromatic Conflict mode puts you in a small PewPew arena with colored circles that change the color of your ship when you pass through them. Enemies appear in different colors, and you can only destroy ones the same color as you. Assault asks you to kill as much as possible, collecting score multipliers, and upgrading your shields. Dodge This is pretty self explanatory – there’s no shooting at all in this mode, just increasingly difficult to dodge aliens. MegaGore is the standard PewPew mode, with varied enemies, and extra lives every 10,000 points.

PewPew’s controls are really responsive, which makes for smooth gameplay. It’s easy to pick up, but soon gets challenging. Online scoreboards sprinkle some extra competition too. The graphics are really retro, and there’s a techno soundtrack, which is OK, but quickly gets repetitive (use your iPod!). Unfortunately there are no sound effects.

PewPew is a simple arcade shooter with great gameplay and enough modes to keep you coming back for more.