G-pinions

Everyday Shooter is one of the few games I have ever played that seamlessly combines the creative appeal of conceptual art with the exhausting demands of a hardcore game. My favorite games that strive towards something bigger - games that are commonly referred to as art - rely on movie conventions to create an emotional bridge between the game and player. Titles such as Okami and BioShock use epic stories and clever characters to deliver their message. And they do that beautifully. But Everyday Shooter attacks the art debate from a much different angle and provides an experience that is just as compelling.

Everyday Shooter is an extremely ironic game. Though the action itself is all about blowing up enemies in classic shooter fashion, the art elements create a backbone of beauty and creation. From a purely gameplay perspective, ES is merely a Geometry Wars clone. You control a tiny ship lost in a sea of antagonistic debris. Using the left stick to move and the right stick to shoot, you fly around the arena trying to dispense deadly objects in the most efficient way possible. This type of game has existed since the very first video games were created thirty years ago. But to look at just the gameplay in Everyday Shooter would be doing a huge disservice to this incredibly deep game.

From a visual standpoint, this game is every bit as striking as high budget productions tearing up the sales charts. But it will not make you scream "Wow" with particle effects or bump mapping. Rather, it is the color and patterns of your enemies that is truly breathtaking. Every level offers a completely unique visual experience that made me literally smile with joy. The pictures are so simple, composed predominantly of primary colors, that it seems as though a small child may have been the lead art designer. But the way the colors contrast with the background, or explode and evaporate, is just so striking. It's a gorgeous game.

The sound is even more impressive than the graphics. Instead of listening to the roar of your missiles and the blast of exploding objects, the world spits out a song with every one of your attacks. Your shots and kills essentially provide the harmony to the ever changing background music. With a random assortment of notes bursting through your speakers, you would think this musical mishmash would sound unpleasant. And sometimes the music does sound rather abrasive. But when you find the correct pattern in a stage, and you start to execute the correct strategy, the music comes together as well.

To me, this game is about creation and living in the present. The creation element comes from this ability to make music while you are destroying objects. Even if a swarm of enemies is overwhelming your tiny ship, you can still create a riveting soundtrack and beautiful images to make the passing into your next life really easy. Believe me, I spend a lot of time dying in this ridiculously hard game, so I know all about making the process as enjoyable as possible.

But the second thematic element of this game is what is really striking to me. So many games seem to focus primarily on getting to that next point. Whether it's the next level or a new high score, the act of playing is oftentimes overshadowed by the ultimate goal. Though Everyday Shooter still has levels to pass and high scores to strive for, the actual levels are constructed very differently. I spend so much time trying to make everything look and sound "right" that I don't really get bothered by my low scores or my inability to get far in the game. It is about being in the present, making my level perfect, more than anything else.

Everyday Shooter is not the gameplay revolution people may expect from the PlayStation 3, but it is a new level of art game. It is physically beautiful and aurally pleasing. Without question, it's one of the most interesting and rewarding games to come out this year.