PowerUp Forever Review (PS3): A Great Shooting Game

PowerUp Forever is a shooting game released for Playstation 3 and developed by Namco Bandai Games. This game really snuck under the radar, but the crazy name caught my ear and I decided to pursue. Let's see how PowerUp Forever breaks down.

Story : There isn't a story to be had here, as it's strictly a shoot em' up game.

Graphics : The game looks really great, and really there's a lot of small details that really add up to an overall enjoyable experience. There isn't anything here that compares to the realism of other games out there, but the look of this game is unique which honestly makes me rank it higher than all of those pretty games. It's easy to base a game on real life, a lot harder to be creative and make it work. Simply put, this game has great graphics.

Sound : There's not a large amount of sound effects, and I thought they could be a bit more engaging and modern. Most are just kinda there and don't really have much zest to them. The music however, is very good. It's upbeat, it's slow, and it varies greatly. It all fits the game too, very appropriately in fact. The sound is very nice overall, despite the limited sound effects.

Game play : This isn't your typical shooter. Sure, it plays like one but it offers so much more. First of all, there's what seems like a near infinite amount of upgrades. Also, your ship grows in size as you progress the game. This is the first shoot em' up I can recall where the size of your ship increases. The coolest thing? Your enemy ship's size also increase as the game goes on. The controls are extremely good, as they are really simple and they decided not to over complicate things. You do get special weapons, and all are a blast to use. Each of them are actually quite useful and varied. You have your standard blow up the screen bomb, but your also have shots that can break enemy shields and homing weapons. Very cool. The menus are really sleek and intuitive. The bosses look cool and are fun to engage in dog fights with. There's a good variety of henchmen throughout the game and they don't recycle too often. The game is quite difficult though because like old shoot em ups, you only have a single life. Not cool. You can take more than one hit, but once your life meter is gone your game is done.

Re playability : There's other modes you can unlock but none are really better than the basic one you start with. Still though, completists will have a lot of fun with this one. There's no on line leader board, so those expecting to get some recognition are in the lurch.

Overall : 8/10. A really good shoot em' up. Not much else to say.