Brought to you by Ubiquitous Entertainment comes a new Nintendo Wii U game available in the eshop called Gaiabreaker. It is a vertical-scrolling shoot-em-up that uses the enchant.js engine via the Nintendo Web Framework. You control a ship across six different levels while shooting at your alien enemies. The goal here is to save the planet from the destructive efforts of these extraterrestrial foes.
Gaiabreaker is very straightfoward in terms of controls. There are two attack commands to keep track of: the typical rapid and homing attacks. The latter is easily executed as it lets you target a number of enemies and then fire with the use of the B button. On the other hand, considering that your movements are very limited to just maneuvering between left and right, the controls can feel very awkward, especially if you’re used to dodging bullets with the option of moving backwards and forwards. Consequently, it makes this task very difficult which is further worsened the more enemies you have. The ability to play with the touch capabilities on the Nintendo Wii U’s GamePad does alleviate this mishap a bit though.
On the television screen, Gaiabreaker appears squished since the game is meant to be ideally played in portrait mode. As a result, by default, you’ll have thick borders on the left and right hand side of the screen. You do have the option to flip the screen, of course. But what’s worth mentioning is that taking advantage of the Nintendo Wii U’s GamePad, the game allows you ito flip the view so that is covers the whole screen. Thus, it would be recommended to play the game with the GamePad held vertically. meaning you’ll have to hold it on its side to look at it correctly.
Being limited in movement, this means that your ship is restricted to staying on one line on the screen all throughout. That can explain why the enemy formations never get complex since it would place you in an unfair disadvantage. But this also has a double-edge sword in the sense that the challenge does not feel as fulfilling. Luckily, engaging in the boss fights add a little intrigue and excitement to the levels you play in. This aspect of the game does get difficult and would require some figuring out in terms of attack patterns from the bosses as well as utilizing your homing attacks to constantly target its weak spots.
While Gaiabreaker can be dynamic and interesting at first, the fact that the levels aren’t that long from the get go can be a turn-off for players. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be much diversity in the enemies themselves that you encounter. And since there are just 6 levels to play in this game, the content seems to be lacking even further. Nevertheless, there is some replay value from the accolades and achievements waiting to be cleared by fulfilling certain conditions and/or objectives. Additionally, the Miiverse integration lets you see posts from other people while you engage in the action during the gameplay, which is pretty neat at the very least.
The graphics are decent and adequate at best, although the background do seem to be repetitive and lack variety. There are plentiful colors and decently-designed enemy ships. But still, the absence of a diverse appearance amongst enemies you encounter can make Gaiabreaker appear simply ordinary. And with the occasional lag in frame rate, the game can get annoying, even though those moments are pretty brief. As for the audio, the sound effects do the job well while the music is pretty upbeat, thereby keeping things lively and stimulating.
With a growing number of shoot-em-up titles being released for the Nintendo Wii U, it’s important to have enough content and action to stay alive in this particular genre. With that in mind, Gaiabreaker may fall short in this regard as it does little to “break†away from its competition. Although its a decent title nonetheless, the $15 price mark may be a bit too steep. For a lower price, Gaiabreaker could be worthy of a look.
