After the success of Geometry Wars on the XBOX 360 XBOX Live Arcade, it would seem like a bad move for Sony not to have something similar available at launch; enter Blast Factor stage right. Although, while the visuals and controls may be similar in nature, the overall gameplay is not. Thankfully though, it’s a pretty fun and inexpensive graphical effect showpiece that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy.


Kill Kill Kill!
You move your nanomachine with the left analog stick, shoot with the right, and execute special attacks with the face buttons. Blast Factor also features probably the best use of the Sixaxis motion sensing technology of the entire Playstation 3 launch as well as you can tilt left or right to make ripples in the liquid below your ship. This pushes enemies away giving you much more time to react and plan your attack. Some enemies with a hard shell can even be flipped with this technique, opening them up for attack.

Oh and in case you were wondering what the deal with the liquid is, it’s the base of a Petri dish which is holding viruses that you must obliterate. There are 100 levels that are split up into sublevels called cells which you progress through in branches depending on how well you do. Also there are bosses that are for the most part unique and exhibit some really cool patterns that you must master. So in essence the structure is nothing like Geometry Wars and much more similar to Mutant Storm.


Special attack comes through.
Everything else aside, the real star of the show are the enemies. There are several kinds that vary wildly as you make your way to level 100 and they exhibit a large range of attack patterns from cell to cell. While things are random at times there are definite patterns that you can recognize and learn to help you on your way to the top. There are enemies with shells that are a lot easier to take out with special attacks that you can pick up as well as blood looking drones that explode with ease.