Astropop

Astropop is a game I first played on the PC a while ago.

Its a pretty standard match block to remove style affair that has a few nice touches.

The aim of the game is to clear enough stuff each level to progress through to the next one. Along the way you get an upgrade to your controller every few levels which adds a smart bomb feature. The further you go the more your smart bomb does and the faster it recharges.

There are four distinct sections and the smart bomb does a different thing in each area.

Your goal is to match same colour blocks that progress down the screen at you in lines. You can pick up a block and move it to another line to try and get the colours to match. You can actually pick up 4 blocks of the same colour at one time and try and get a colour match. When you place 4 blocks or more of the same colour either horizontally or vertically or a combo of those, then the blocks disapear. This can of course then allow other blocks nearby to fall back which may in turn complete a set of four and this would be the old favourite 'a combo'

As some of the blocks contain special abilities like freeze or explosives or such, you can get some nice tasty combos going. You lose if the line of blocks reaches the bottom of the screen before you have gotten the levels task completed.

I mention the 4 sections as you can play different parts of a rather naff storyline, but to fully progress in all of the setors you will need to get past certain points in other sectors.

Now its a very derivative title but its quite polished and as with all of these types of game, going right back to Klax on the amiga (which I think is the closest thing to this game for a comparison), its very addictive.

But major 360 issues arise.

Its impossible to get to the later levels with the 360 controller. The game needs a mouse and as someone who finished it fully on the PC, I felt massively frustrated with it on the XBox. I even used the 360 joystick thingy to see if that would work but no way could I get to the end.

In fact the achs for this game are ridiculous. As I said I have finished this on the PC and yet I could only get to 85/200 ach wise on the 360 after a long long time playing.

The last issue is one that might actually stop you even being able to play at all.
The game requires us to change screen frequency. Not a problem if you have an old 360 and connect by composite, but if you have a HDMI connection only and you cannot fool your 360 into the correct Hz then the game will not let you play. I have posted a work around on one of the tip sites for this, but TBH I would not bother.

This is a good game but it is not for the 360. If you like this stylee then get it on your PC

Score

Game 7/10
on 360 4/10

A thorough and good review mate.

I have this game and its good fun, but NUCLEAR hard to get achieves!