From Robotron to Smash TV and even up to the present day with the ever popular and largely successful Geometry Wars, the Top down shooters genre has been kept very much alive and kicking.

Everyday Shooter is the brainchild of Queasy Games’ Jonathan Mak and has been the culmination of research and study into the way bird’s-eye-view titles have worked so well for so long. But rather than just leaving it as another case of move one stick for direction, the other for shooting and repeat until finished, this game took an altogether different approach.

What Mak did was mix the core simplicity of this particular playing style and combine it with a subtle complexity to make the joypad wielder think about patterns, bonus production and so on. Take level one for example; if we compare this to Geometry Wars, to highlight the difference, you can already see a distinct decrease in pace. It’s a much more melodic, considered rate of velocity and with good reason because as the level goes on, the enemies begin to breed like rabbits and you meet masses of vector based nasty-types trying to take you out. It’s here where the bonus chains become king, as not only do they get your points rallied up, but also serve to take out loads of opponents in a single hit through the combo system.

Now, most games would keep this system the same all the way through, but with Everyday Shooter each of the eight levels has a different way to achieve these chains of points. It’s here where the little grey cells have to work even harder, determining how to eradicate so many enemies, gain points and simply stay alive.

So, to start off with it has a link to an already decent set of arcade style hits. We also have a connection with a more unlikely source, Rez. It’s more of a scaled down similarity, but ES uses its music to create a rich atmosphere, as well as connecting your player to the world surrounding it, even if you are controlling a white dot. As you try to blast your way towards the end, the many strains and changes of an electric guitar soothe your ears as you hear every last shot being plucked from a fret and working itself into the simple, yet catchy tunes making themselves known in the background.

Sure, it might sound basic, but as we have said time and time again here at GDN, basic works and it’s proven yet again here. The track on each level is different enough to never sound samey as well as making you desperate to hear what audio surprise awaits you next. The addition of a timer at the bottom showing how long the tune has left is also worth a mention because it makes you wary about getting killed knowing you have to last X amount of time before you move on. Very clever.

The graphics are, again, simple, but from a well polished home. Jonathan has created a colourful and very vibrant selection of levels and it’s style bears a striking resemblance to games like N+ (reviewed on GDN) with it’s clean and well cut 3d vectors clashing with overwhelming bursts of rainbow induced shading and optic remembrance resulting in a very memorable visual treat.

I know it’s usually the done thing for a reviewer to completely finish a game to give his or her best review, but you just try and complete this one. I have to tell you, it must be one of the hardest little things I have ever played in all my time as a gamer, even as tough as Ikaruga or Radiant Silver gun (shoot ’em up veterans will know what I’m talking about) and it’s all the better for it. In the day and age we live in nowadays, a lot of developers have lost sight on the ways we used to play our software and that players would spend ages trying to just get past the one monster ceasing their advancement to another level. It’s so nice to see a return to the bad-ass ways of old-skool brought back again.

There are a few things I would say should be thought about if there’s to ever be a patch or maybe even a follow up to this rather decent game. There’s no real multiplayer available for Everyday Shooter and I think it’s a shame. A co-op mode through the game would have made for some fun times, but sadly it isn’t there. Another factor would be the number of levels is not exactly the highest ever seen nowadays, with 8 levels being offered here, but then when you think about it, a lot of classic arcade titles never had many levels either and still had huge replay value. R-Type, Nemesis and so many other projectile based shooters maintained core values and held their heads high because of it.

It’s the very same here. What Jonathan Mak has done is exactly what he set out to do. Quoting the man himself on his approach to making the game, he says “From the classic shooters of yore to today’s modern interpretations, I studied the works until I realised that the most simplest of things can be the most beautiful of things…” and in one line sums up his own creation rather well. For less than 10 bucks (or 5 quid to the rest of us) you can pick up something truly heart-warming and inspirational.

Sony have snapped up a cracking little game and rather than keep it on their own console have allowed the rest of us to sample in it’s delights and I applaud them for it, as well as the game’s own maker for doing exactly what he set out to achieve, which was make a simple little top down blaster you will come back to again and again until it’s finished….and then play it some more. It’s just lovely, not to mention worth adding to your Steam account.