Gatling Gears

Gatling Gears is not the game you trek to a trade-show for.

It's not the game that immediately leaps out of the embargo list handed to you by your local PR before the event, sandwiched as it is between names such as Portal 2 and Shadows of the Damned.

Nor is it the game you head straight for upon entering the show-floor, its solitary demo pod squeezed in as it is in one corner of the room, flanked by multiple TVs for Alice: Madness Returns or a platoon of PCs hotwired to showcase EA's Play4Free range.

But it is the game, despite being shouldered out of the way as it is by some of the biggest titles due this year, that makes me lose my professional decorum by high-fiving its developer upon downing a screen-sized boss as we blast through a cooperative campaign level.

If anything, Gatling Gears is the game that regresses you back to the kid from a 90s video-game advert.

This, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. It suggests Gatling Gears has the sheen and calibre that other quality shooters in the genre possess. But unlike other titles, G.G is being stacked with enough settings to make it accessible to all.

The basics first: Gatling Gears is a twin-stick shooter, big on the bullet storms and tiny on that space between them that'll swing your life expectancy from Keith Richards to a chicken in a KFC lorry with one mistaken step.

We're not sailing the galactic seas of the universe in the sexy curves of spacecrafts, but hunkered down on good ol'terra firma in two-legged juggernauts that are outgunned by waves of enemy troops and outsized by screen-sized bosses.

Its steam-punk with pastel colours rather than dull browns, with the finished product looking so colourfully boisterous that for all intents and purposes it looks like Steel Battalion if Treasure had a crack at it, or if Willy Wonka created WMDs instead of chocolate bars.

Bullet numbers and boss energy bars are dictated by difficulty setting. I'm paraphrasing the developer here, due to my hands being full trying to avoid certain death rather than scrawling notes, but it explains that it wanted a game that everyone could finish, but offered the harder road for those that wanted the challenge.

And what a challenge it is. There are six levels in all, each offering five unique stages. My time of the game is spent on one stage, with the developer increasing the difficulty after assurances of my ability to have a longer lifespan than a Lemming in these situations.

The overhead view gives you a decent line of sight, but you're navigating bridges and tight mountain passes in-between dodging bullets and laying down fire. Left thumbstick controls your tank, right fires a continuous stream of bullets. A pull of RT will unleash your rockets but in doing so will lock your directional aim - the rockets are infinite, but need time to recharge between every half-dozen barrage.

You've also a grenade launcher, but you've got to direct its landing arc with the right stick. Anyone that has spent several years watching subtitled films will be at a advantage, as you need to keep your eyes on the action in your immediate vicinity to avoid harm to your tank, while simultaneously plotting your grenade landing to maximum effect.

This proves more daunting with the boss that crawls out of a canyon at the level's end, as you need to take out its central core as sweeping blades swing by you and dislodged boulders crash around your tank. On easier difficulties the boss will flounder with its first energy bar being drained - hit Hard, and expect a multi-bar siege ahead.

The experience is tense and a lot of fun, in that bullet-dodging place of zen these type of games can bring you to.

It's nowhere near as crazy as Cave's titles, and definitely a few rungs down the ladder from either Ikaruga or Radiant Silvergun, but with upgradable weapons and abilities available via a in-game shop and quirky world setting, there's a charm here that is missing from those other straight-up suicide runs.

The mission over (there's something strange about playing a game alongside its creator - especially when they're the ones that have let the side down), grins and handshakes are exchanged, and I ask when the title rolls out onto PSN and Xbox 360.

I get the vague response of "spring", but notice a subtle glint in the eyes and a slight nod to the head. Guess we'll be seeing Gatling Gears sooner rather than later.

Its definitely a title to check out, decked as it is from top to bottom with personality and enjoyable gameplay. I'm glad I wandered over (truth be told, I swing back a few other times during the day of EA's Showcase event, but every time there's a queue). Information on these digital titles, especially new properties are hard to come by, usually only within a few days before they're released.

And its definitely nice to be excited about something that I won't have to wait until the end of the year to play again.