Thorium Wars first entered into the world of Nintendo as a DSiWare game back in 2009. It must have been well received as another title developed by Big John Games is releasing for the Nintendo 3DS called Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter. It’s time to determine if this particular game will live up to its predecessor.
The story behind this ambitious and exciting 3DS title involves the invasion by the Thorians which is a group of aliens. In response to this threat, you must fight against their efforts and protect your planet. So far, there isn’t much to the story as this is your typical alien invasion formula that you would come across with other games of the similar 3D flying/shooting genre. Hence, Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter will have to shine when it comes to gameplay.
Right from the start, you have three different aircrafts to choose from. Which is best suited for you will depend on your preference and attack style. There is the small craft with high speed, but at the expense of having a weaker attack and defense. On the other side of the spectrum, you have a heavy vehicle that is the other way around where both its attack and defense are strongest but in exchange for much lower speed. Then you have the one in between that’s a good balance across all the attributes.
There is a fair amount of instructions provided during the tutorial level, thereby sufficiently preparing you for the game. Since Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter feels more like a flight simulator, it is important that controls are accurate and responsive. In this case here, the handling is top notch while the commands are laid out in a logical and familiar button layout.
Gladly enough, Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter gives you a health bar which depletes with every hit, as opposed to getting instant death. However, if you glide straight into enemies or even the environment, your health will gradually be depleted. This prevents frustration from accidentally having your aircraft get in contact with things you did not intentionally want to in the first place. Nevertheless, the game still remains as challenging as ever.
Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter will have you taking on a number of missions, which can take between five minutes to a half hour to complete. While each of these missions are essentially involving searching and destroying, there is still quite the bit of diversity in gameplay and impression. For instance, as you progress further in the game, different types of enemies make their appearances. And because of that, you’ll actually need to come up with different approaches in dealing with these adversaries.
Sadly though, Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter only has nine missions in total, and that’s including the tutorial level! Therefore, your level of satisfaction and replay value will highly depend on your propensity towards revisiting completed missions and getting better results. For completionists, this would be the ultimate source of entertainment and reason for retaining attention spans with all the medals one can earn.
Looking at its visual style, Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter doesn’t leave much of an impact when it comes to graphics. The only aspect that somehow added some enjoyment are the 3D effects which add some depth to the aircraft shooting experience. Still, the music featured in this game fits very appropriately to the very theme of this 3DS title.
Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter may have limited amount of content especially since you can basically count the number of missions in total for this game. Nonetheless, its difficulty and well-designed control scheme really help to make it shine on the Nintendo 3DS. If you are keen on the Star Fox type of games, Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter should “attack†you with its bold amount of goodness.
