Colossatron: Massive World Threat Review

Whenever I see a new Halfbrick Studios game appear on the App Store, I get positively giddy. Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride are some of my favorites mobile games ever, so I expected big things from their newest offering, Colossatron: Massive World Threat.

As if the title didn't tip you off, Colossatron: Massive World Threat puts you in control of a gigantic monster that's rampaging around the world. Well, to be fair, you're not in direct control of this behemoth, but you're responsible for making it more powerful and helping it decimate cities en masse.

Colossatron is a gigantic robot snake that can be made bigger thanks to separate pieces of machinery called Powercores. There are many Powercores in Colossatron: Massive World Threat and they all have different effects, such as healing, providing more fire and augmenting Colossatron's armor. You can tell what a Powercore's function is by what color they are. The best part is that you can combine two Powercores of different colors to make a brand new one. With that said, we hope you've got a good working knowledge of the color wheel.

The entire game is played out like a breaking news special. I didn't know it before, but this is now my favorite presentation for a narrative and I hope all future games follow this conceit. Since Colossatron is a big, sentient death machine, it only makes sense that the media is covering his attacks.

Colossatron: Massive World Threat is presented as if we were watching the action happen from a camera that's in a helicopter flying overhead. Real-time commentary can be heard as more and more of each city is destroyed by Colossatron and warnings of the army's counterattacks let you know what to expect from General Mustache, Colossatron's archenemy.

As Colossatron slithers around cities, ravaging all in his path, you'll find different Powercores floating around the immediate area. You can grab these and snap them onto Colossatron in order to make him bigger and more powerful. Certain colors will combine to turn into more useful cores, so it helps to be very mindful about your placement. Haphazardly slapping cores onto Colossatron will get him to grow very long, but weaker than he would be if you made a conscious effort in combining different cores.

Outside of battle, you're able to upgrade his cores and change their functions. You're also able to spend Prisms, which can be collected in cities, to unlock devastating attacks that Colossatron can unleash when in a pinch. Upon successfully destroying a city, Colossatron will convert any extra Powercores he obtained into money to help fund his next attack.

Colossatron: Massive World Threat is an immensely fun game that features action that almost never stops. It's incredible how frantic the gameplay can seem as you snap core after core onto Colossatron while trying to prevent his other parts from taking too much damage and exploding. Even when Colossatron dies, the explosion that follows is so satisfying that you might not really mind repeating the level and doing it all over again.

It's not a perfect game and it can feel all too short at times, but Colossatron: Massive World Threat is a worthy addition to the Games folder on your iOS device and can be a brilliant way to waste time. Ladies and gentlemen, Halfbrick Studios has done it again.

8.5 out of 10 arcade sushi rating