"Aesthetics- The visual style of this game is extremely appealing, not only to younger kids; but to adults as well. The way that the colors pop out from the dark background seems to work very well with the vividly colored enemies that you face along with the power-ups and fruit that you have to grab along the way. It's simple and it works very well.
Presentation- From the very first time I opened the game to me still opening the game I love the menu and the layout. With one sweep of my eye across the menu I can tell where everything is and just where I need to go to select what options I want. This is the way every game should be. Working my way through the upgrade system was easy and had a “to the point” description of what each were.
Also, going from level to level is a seamless process which I enjoyed. It's very important to not take the gamer out of the moment and keep the concentration going. The enemy book is such a fantastic feature of this game and the details are incredibly funny.
Fun Factor- This is interesting. I'm probably a little biased when it comes to these kind of games, honestly. I'm a huge gamer, but I don't tend to play a lot on my smart phone...unless it's this kind of game! I love the upgrade system. Simple, yet meaningful. I was hooked working my way though the upgrades that I was able to get in the time that I've played it and will continue to get them as I will still be playing this for a long time. I must admit, I'm not much on motion controls, never have been; but it works here. With the system that is implemented, controlling it is much more simple than I would've imagined. It's accurate and so much so that I felt that I could get anywhere on the screen that I needed to be in order to avoid damage or collect an item.
Difficulty- It was a slow climb that I thoroughly enjoyed and let's be honest, you need that when starting a new game with motion controls. I gradually started to notice after playing a few times how slow the enemies where coming at me and the fruit and power-ups fell compared to the later levels. That's a wonderful thing and it's something I might not have even have noticed if I weren't doing a review. I never came to a point to where I didn't want to jump right back in after a death because I knew I could spend some money and make myself go further.
Impressions- Overall this is a game that I would 100% recommend to my friends and family.
I've actually let a few other people watch and play and the general consensus is all the same, pure fun. It's hard these days to find a game that I can relax with, lay in bed and wind-down with. I must commend you in the no ads department, that's a huge selling point for the game. The only games that I've ever purchased on my phone were games that had a flat price with no ads and no cash shop. The industry of video games has been far removed from the time of, let's say 15 years ago when you could buy a game and that said game was complete. No DLC, production time was longer and the end result was something that a consumer would be satisfied with. Emojis In Space is akin to that time and it's a nice things to see. Whenever I start the game up to check something out I end up playing for twenty minutes. That says a lot in itself."
- Kevin
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"It is very common to hear a developer saying he is out to innovative the genre she/he is into, and it is with joy and enthusiasm that you did not just say this paraphrase, but certainly developed a game that satisfies this criteria via true innovation. I never ever saw a smartphone game that required the player to tilt towards all directions, and soon I had to conclude that your game MUST be played in a sitting position, there is no chance of progressing with a back laying on the sofa. So, your game LITERALLY demands a straight back. I love this fact! Never saw a game before that specifically demanded a specific body posture to be played, and your effort irrefutably claims this virtue as its own.
Essentially, your game is a Space Invaders-variant with a very distinctive and tasteful rhythm-, and, even better, a well distinguishable, similarly tasteful identity to it. I think you did a solid job of increasing the difficulty in gradual increments, and said difficulty is not too shy to show its face around pretty soon. So far my record is level 6, with a score of 2182, without any upgrades amended in the gameplay. The sessions gave me a firm grip of what you were set out to do, and, I can honestly say that I was very happy with what I have seen so far. The enemy types are extremely well-varied, and each come with a different attack strategy. A relative characteristic of the gameplay is how a given level is prone to repeat itself, but this does not necessarily come across as a hindrance, rather, as said, as a characteristic.
This might be a pitfall, in the long run! It takes quite a bit of effort to keep track of things on level 6, for example, since on said level there were a lot of things going on, with a dozen enemy types engaging me - the pacing started to resemble to the staples of the manic shooter genre. I liked this fact, but, here is the catch: in order to be able to perfect my skills onward after death, I have to work my way all the way up to level 6 again - and this is the pitfall that I'm talking about. In my opinion you should consider implementing a code-word-based save-feature, as this inescapable constraint of having to start over, ultimately will put off a set of players who would gladly play onward otherwise, provided there were a password system that lets them start a new game from a given level. Don't get me wrong: you could certainly work out strict criteria in order to consider the player eligible to have a password, but, with that said, evading the pitfall of forcing the player to start all the time from the beginning, in my opinion, is essential.
I'm also thinking of a randomized-type of playmode, kind of a survival mode, that lets the player select the avidity of the action. They could select various difficulty levels, and you could make leaderboards for each and every difficulty rank.
There is a significant problem, ensuing as result of the virtually inescapable blind spots. You never know where a new enemy will come in from, provided they are the types that are capable to enter from the sides. This is not optimal, as even a super-skilled player could be unjustifiably killed this way, as she/he had absolutely no way of knowing that a threat is imminent. Luckily, I have an idea for you: how about revealing few-pixel width warning lines when a threat is imminent in a given side zone? That would give the information the player is required to know in order to be able to make a competent and well-informed decision. I loved the music. I dig the overall design choices, as well. Some variety of the background could be considered, but, to be honest, this space-feeling is working pretty well for me, too - but a little variation of space-color could not hurt.
For future upgrade possibilities, I would consider various optical tunings, as well: different sunglass-types, skins/etc. I could live with some sound effects made by the protagonist, you know, channeling that Pink Panther-vibe you obviously like, as well."