The developers at Leikir Studio so loved playing games with friends, that they went out and developed their own, Wondershot.

The game is a top down shooter for up to four players, with a one shot kill policy. The game looks cute, but this design belies the difficulty of the game. It may look like it was designed for younger gamers, but this is a game with bite. You can play a number of tutorial levels which demonstrates the advantages of the four weapons available, Bow, Boomerang, Hammer and the Slingshot, but for the most part they are similar when actually used.

The game’s greatest strength is also its Achilles heel. Leikir set out to make a fun and competitive multiplayer game and in one sense they succeeded. You can play against three of your friends, so long as they are in the same room, as the game provides no access to online multiplayer. For the single player the game is a bit of a half-way house. It does provide you with two dedicated modes, Challenge and Endless.

The first provides a number of interesting challenges, including having to shoot enemies through portals, the second sends wave upon wave of enemies your way to see how long you will last. Kill enough and you're given access to the next arena. Along the way there are power ups to collect which makes survival that little bit more likely.

From the main menu you can choose either Battle or Adventure. The tutorial is hidden beneath the Extra sub menu and there are some options to tweak the display, sound, language (French or English) and the ability to reset your saves.

Get together enough friends and Wondershot provides good couch entertainment with you and your mates stuck in a relatively small area all running around trying to gain the advantage without getting killed - especially as it only takes a single shot to take you out of the game.

In the end the game is brightly coloured even if the actual game looks like it would be just at home on a PS3. The single player mode becomes repetitive after a time but, if you get a few beers in, the multiplayer mode with keep you and your friends amused for a sufficient amount of time.

7

Charles Packer