Big Bang Mini was developed by Arkedo and published by Southpeak Games. The tutorial starts by having you move your icon from place to place with the stylus. Yes, it’s ridiculous as it’s teaching you how to hold your stylus on a target and drag it about. Maybe if you had never ever used or seen a Nintendo DS before that might be useful.

I was personally anticipating the release of Big Bang Mini for quite some time. It sounded like it was going to be something extra special. Several fireworks-based titles in the past have been amazing amounts of fun to play. In the end, it turned out to be repetitive and without any real innovation. It’s not that the game is bad, it’s just lacking depth. This is a game where you can pretty much just do one thing and be fairly successful. Most of the levels require almost no thought or strategy and you can just fire at will once you’ve got the homing fireworks.

Each level consists of enemies of various types flying around the top screen. Sometimes they travel from the bottom screen to the top as well. Your task is to shoot them with your fireworks so that you destroy them while dodging their shots, collecting energy stars and avoiding your own misfires. Yes, the sparks of your fireworks can kill you, but they won’t kill the enemy. In fact many enemies take multiple shots to kill while a single touch from anything ends your game. There’s no chance to increase your energy and give yourself more lives. One wrong move and it’s game over, try again. Not exactly the most stimulating game play or balancing ever seen.