It has been done hundreds of times and it has been done better. The top-down shooter genre has seen many great entries on all platforms. Wasteland Angel joins the league of top-down shooters with pretty disappointing results. The game is not all bad although it could have used more diversity in terms of terrain, characters, vehicles. The main goal in this game is to protect a little village and its citizens from marauders in cars. So what do you do? You shoot them all up of course. Destroy a car and the driver walks away, you let him and he will come back in another car so finish everybody off. There are two aspects in the game that break the monotony a little bit. One is the boss fights which take longer than normal levels to complete and offer a little challenge. The second (and the most interesting feature) is the bonus levels where one enters the perspective of the driver, transforming the game into a first-person-driving-shooter (?). The downside is that it takes a while to get used to the control but it is however a great change of pace from the usual restricted top-down view.
The Good:
-It works for what it tries to be which is a simple $8 downloadable arcade shooter.
-Graphics get the job done and the sound effects are passable although a bit repetitive.
-Boss fights and the bonus levels are a nice change of pace.
-Good 3-part tutorial.
-Only $8.
The Bad and the Ugly:
-Camera is more deadly than the enemies.
-Speaking of enemies, they are dumb and stupid. (Blame the AI)
-Repetitive until the point of utter monotony.
-Generic and boring vehicle designs and weapon choices.
-Barely passable comic book-style storytelling.
So there you have it, Wasteland Angel. If you are interested for a cheap and somewhat entertaining arcade shooter than Wasteland Angel should satisfy your needs. If you want deep gameplay mechanics and immersing story then don't waste your money.