Shoot To Kill surprised me on a couple of fronts.  First, this arcade shooter was a lot more entertaining than I anticipated.  I’m usually more of a puzzle game lover than an arcade game where shooting demons is the goal, but this one really was addictive (as the subtitle reflects) and really got my anxiety and blood pressure up.  I got “into” it in a way that I didn’t really expect.

The second thing that surprised me is the $0.99 price on this title.  I generally don’t pay attention to the price of a title until after I check it out.  And, on many occasions, I have not been bashful about suggesting a lower one.  After playing this title though, I thought a $1.99 price would have been real reasonable for the title.  The fact that it actually comes in at half of that makes it twice the bargain!

The premise of Shoot To Kill is simple.  You are in the center of the screen and defend yourself with an arsenal of weapons against a hoard of oncoming enemies.  As the levels progress, you end up with multiple enemies that each have particular weapons that work best against them.  Your ultimate goal is to survive as long as possible with your three lives.  The difficulty of this goal though is something that seems very well balanced.  Even as a newbie, I got satisfyingly far.  The reason for this is that they don’t try to make the game overly complex with a lot of different controls.  You can quickly tilt the iPhone for reloading your weapon and tap on your enemies to aim/shoot with the single gesture.  An occasional tap in the bottom left corner, something my inept left hand had no problem with, lets you select your alternate weapon over your default one.

Coming in at 30+ levels, 5 different weapons, 14 different types of demons, 13 achievements, multi-player over bluetooth and six other game modes, there is enough here to entertain anyone no matter how familiar they are with this genre of game.  And, if you get bored, just select one of the four different difficulties in the survival mode.

Overall, I found the game to be very enjoyable.  Both iPhone and iPad versions are available and free versions.  You can see a YouTube trailer to get an idea of the quality of the graphics and how the game is played.  But, in the couple of minutes it will take to watch it, just go ahead and download the free version and take it for a spin.  You may, just like me, be in for a surprise.