Everyday Shooter

I guess you could say it was... riffing on the genre... Hmm?

It's hard to find a more colourful shoot 'em up than Every Extend Extra Extreme, but it's easy to find one with a more pleasing soundtrack. How about electric guitar riffs that you can enhance and build upon with the actions you take while you're moving and shooting in Everyday Shooter?

And it's not just alien ships with guitars, but starkly coloured geometric patterns covered with chunky robots and explosive cubes and then the entire second level changes practically everything, rendering this description utterly useless.

It's probably time to dive right in.

Fun Times

From this main menu, Everyday Shooter doesn't look like much, but already it sounds good. Literally. You get the sense that there's something special about this one. Something handcrafted, something artistic. This isn't a shoot 'em up with a plot, this is a laid back piece of interactive entertainment.

Everyday Shooter starts nice and slow. You don't zip around the screen and you're not overwhelmed by sound effects getting in the way of the underlying music. Indeed, that bar along the bottom is the progress bar for the electronic guitar track you're listening to, and the level will end when the track is finished - or before if you run out of lives. Better learn how to play.

WASD and the arrow keys can be used for those comfortable with a keyboard, but dual analogue sticks work wonders for me, one to move, the other to shoot. Move quicker when you stop shooting, gotcha.

Often it can be a bit of trouble working out what you can and can't fly over in a shoot 'em up, but Everyday Shooter spells it out to you in this first level. Little white blocks and blips are points, and cubes that trigger chain reactions are a nice way to introduce a load of points into the level for you to hoover up.

Things soon start to get a little more hectic, as you try to find the best place to put yourself while still dealing damage and avoiding any problems, but at no point in this stage do I feel like this game is only for those competent at games in this genre. The title, too, probably helps to give that impression. Everyday Shooter is a game seemingly for everyone to casually play any day of the week. It's challenging, sure, but it's an escape too. It's like putting on a nice album and just chilling for a while.

When one track ends, another begins, and this second level keeps the basic rules in play for you - move and shoot - but mixes things up for the threats you'll face, primarily how you start chain reactions. There are no floating cubes to do so in this level. Instead, these steadily growing, throbbing, amoeba-looking things that are linked to each other. Shoot one, remove them all?

Well, I'll have to tell you on my next attempt. I ran out of lives after running into too many obstacles. Any points you earn can be spent in the extras shop, though, where you can (eventually) change the look of the game or put the music on shuffle so that you get to play levels you've completed in a different order each time you play the game.

I'm going to save my points for now - because I can't afford anything - and try again.

This is much better. I'm not just scoring points, I'm making music. My contribution to the soundscape is minor, certainly - I'm just holding an analogue stick in the direction of something that will add a few notes to the track, that's it - but it is noticeable, and something you ought to listen to yourself. While playing the game, obviously.

My run this time ended with a giant eyeball, but, like the stages before it, while I was playing the same game, it felt like a different experience and offered up different challenges. Challenges that were now starting to get a little too challenging for my skill level, but with a game as welcoming as Everyday Shooter, it feels like challenges that can be overcome. How else am I going to chill out to the rest of the album if I can't defeat a giant eyeball?

Final Word

While I didn't play too much of Everyday Shooter in my first sitting, that first impression was excellent. This won't be leaving the hard drive any time soon, though I suspect it doesn't take up too much space on it to begin with.

When a game in a genre I don't particularly feel capable of getting anywhere with allows me to actually enjoy the genre, it must be a winner. That it has lovely graphics and a marvellous soundtrack is just icing on the cake.

You can't just look at Everyday Shooter, you need to experience it. It's not a hard game to get into at all, and there looks to be enough to keep you occupied for a while, as you go for all the extras and push through all the tracks. If there wasn't a run of smashing games up next, I'd probably get right back into it in the next few minutes.

Fun Facts

A puzzle game like Lumines was the plan, but it soon morphed into something more akin to Every Extend Extra, and as well as doing all the programming and graphic design, Jonathan Mak saw fit to record an all-guitar soundtrack too.

Everyday Shooter, developed by Queasy Games, first released in 2006.

Version played: PC, 2008.