Name: King of Space
Author: Scanimo

KING OF SPACE is an arcade space shooter for your wrist: one fighter at the bottom of the screen, wave after wave of alien formations above it, thirty levels across six sectors and a boss at the end of every sector.

HOW IT PLAYS

Your ship fires by itself, all the time. Your only job is to move it left and right: dodge the shots, line up the enemies, and catch what they drop. Eleven kinds of enemy fly in formations and break out of them - swarmers that wander, bombers, hunters that dive at you, splitters that burst into smaller ships, shielders that protect their neighbours, meteors, and the armoured wardens. Each level brings two to six waves, and the patterns, the fire and the speed build up from sector to sector.

Every fifth level ends in a boss fight, from THE LANTERN to THE VOID KING, the final battle in four phases. Bosses have weak points, temporary shields, beams that are always announced before they fire, and curtains of bombs that always leave a gap.

Your ship carries a shield of several segments. A hit costs one or two, and a few are restored between levels and after every boss. With no shield left the run ends, and you can retry from the same level.

WEAPONS AND POWER-UPS

Destroyed enemies sometimes drop a capsule. Weapon capsules change their face while they fall: catch one on the weapon you want - plasma, twin, spread, laser, pulse or nova - or on your own weapon to level it up, up to three levels. Other capsules give rapid fire, a barrier bubble that stops shots, a shield repair, or energy for the SUPERNOVA, a blast that clears every enemy shot on screen and hits every enemy at once.

CONTROLS

Two directions play the whole game. Hold either button on the left to fly left, either button on the right to fly right; let go and the ship stops at once. A short press nudges it. Press both sides together to fire the SUPERNOVA when it is charged, and hold both to pause. The game also pauses by itself if you leave it. In menus, left and right move through the items and both together select. On touch screens, hold the left or right half of the screen to steer.

SCORING

Every enemy has its value, and kills in quick succession build a combo multiplier from x2 up to x5. Level clears, boss kills, flawless levels and multi-kills add bonuses. Your top five scores, best combo, victories and the bosses you have beaten are kept on the watch, and every level you reach can be started again from the level select.

THE LOOK

Deep space with a coloured nebula for each sector, stars drifting past in three layers, a pearl-and-gold fighter with a flickering engine, and every alien, boss and capsule drawn for the game itself. Explosions, sparks, screen shake and edge flashes mark the hits, and the game uses its own lettering throughout.

SETTINGS

Vibration: on or off. On by default.

Sound: on or off. Off by default.

Difficulty: easy, normal or hard. Normal by default. Easy gives a stronger shield and hard a weaker one, and the score is weighted to match.

Reset progress: clears scores and unlocked levels, after a confirmation.