The scrolling shoot 'em up is a phone game classic genre, of course, but IronShip Space adds a slight twist by using only accelerometer input as the means of controlling your space ship. Together with auto-fire, this means that you only ever need to tap your screen to fire special weapons like the occasional smart missile and to enter 'boost' mode. So less sweaty fingers and no obscuring the gameplay, which is good.
The neon graphics won't be to everyone's taste, but they do fit the 'casual space game' genre, I think... In the screenshot above, I had sound, music and vibrate all turned off because I was playing late at night, but you can have fun with them all turned on if there's noone to be disturbed. The music rather comes and goes and vibration only kicks in if you're hit or for missiles, but it's still a fun experience all round, at this price.
The neon-tinger energy graphics and the pixel perfect rotating asteroids (which, yes, break into smaller pieces when hit) are all done well. At the top right of the screenshot above right, you can just see one of the alien ships coming in, energy weapons blazing. The 'N' button lights up when your smart missile system is active and can be deployed - hit anything then and everything on the screen explodes.
The 'B' icon activates some kind of boost and the scrolling speeds up, which does at least help when trying to get away from one of the 'boss' ships, shown above right - this has lethal lasers, which lock on, and you don't want to be in range of these for long. The accelerometer control does take some getting used to, but after a while you'll be riding the 'centre' of the screen, dodging asteroids and dispensing missiles with the best of them.
With gameplay that starts slowly and then very quickly gets more and more frantic, IronShip Space is a lovely little arcade distraction for your coffee break or while waiting in line - how far can you get before being blasted into smithereens?