Archive for September, 2011

I usually don’t do full-on product endorsement or media reviews, but I just have to on this one. It’s Labor Day weekend and the family and I totally indulged in doing pretty much nothing and enjoying some downtime and a much-needed opportunity to relax. Yesterday afternoon, I found myself on the couch and doing nothing productive on the computer. I fired up the App Store (which I think I’ve only done thrice since it was released) and went to the Game section. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular – maybe a casual game like Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies. After I was just about to purchase Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, something caught my eye… a familiar game icon… something I’d grown intimately familiar with many years ago. Could it be? My focus shifted and there it was – exactly as I’d remembered. Raptor Call of the Shadows was available in the App Store, and playable on my MacBook Pro! Woot!

I used to play Raptor on my old PC for hours and hours on end back in my college days. I’d burn through 12-pack of beer, huddled in my 425 sq. ft. apartment just blasting away enemy aircraft, amassing cash and upgrading my arsenal. It’s such a mindless 2nd person jet fighter shooter but it’s such a blast! It totally reminds me of the old days of Zaxxon and it’s just such a fun game to play. Not much strategy to it — you’re just a fighter jet flying around a blowing up other jets, buildings and machine guns on the ground. I love the 2nd person perspective where you, the game player, is looking down at your jet. I guess I’m just old school like that. Even after having not played the game in a decade, the gameplay quickly came back and I was just as quickly reminded of my weapons preference. After getting through “Bravo Sector”, I was able to amass enough cash to purchase the optimal arsenal of weaponry. For me, I like having the “Always Equipped” variety which include: Machine Gun, Phase Shield, Plasma Cannon, and Micro-Missile. Then, as I progress, I like to toggle among the Auto-Track Mini-Gun and Laser Turret.

Raptor is such a fun game, and I’m so glad DotEmo ported it over for OS X! And for $4.99, you just can’t beat it. You can click the button below to buy Raptor Call of the Shadows for OS X directly from the App Store.