Cartoon Wars-Gunner Guide

This is a review/guide to Cartoon Wars-Gunner. It's a work in progress and I'm not done with either part, but I wanted to make this thread because this game is the best Dual Stick Shooter in the App Store. I want to create a larger fanbase for it and get rid of all the bad reviews on iTunes from people who are too stupid to figure out there are 2 shoot buttons. If you have any questions before you buy the game (Which you should immediately) please post them and I will answer.

Cartoon Wars-Gunner
Blue GNC
Appstore [$0.99]: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cartoon-wars-gunner/id344211481?mt=8


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Review \
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Cartoon Wars-Gunner is an amazing game. It's very similar to dual stick shooters such as iDracula, or Minigore. You play as a stick figure fighting his way through hordes of beasts with his projectile device(s) (Things that shoot stuff).

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Menus
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(••••)

The game loads within 7 seconds on my phone 3G. Once it is loaded you see a beautiful screen (*See first screenshot) with a list of options.

New Game - Starts a new game, but gives you a warning that it will delete the saved game in this save slot

Load Game - Immediately goes to the in game menu

Option -
• Difficulty - Set the difficulty you would like to play at, I found hard perfect for me (Easy, Medium, or hard)
• Save Slot - Choose which slot you would like to use (1,2,3)
• Sound - Allows you to toggle the music and sound effects, respectively (BGM [on/off], Effect [on/off])

Help - This gives you a good run down of the game using screenshots, hence minimal reading. The last page (of 4) shows the credits.

Rankings - Unfortunately this redirects you to a Safari web page and out of the game. It gives you a ranking, name (Warning: This uses the name that shows up when you plug your iDevice into your Computer, kill count, and stage reached. I'm not sure what the rankings are based on. Evidently, it might be kills per stage, but that doesn't make sense because if you have more kills per stage that means you had to replay each stage multiple times before you beat it.

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Cons
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Rankings - Overall very poor; you have to go on Safari to see them; I haven't unlocked 4 guns and I'm ranked 213, which means not many people submit their rankings; I'm uncertain of what the rankings are based upon, but If it's what I guessed then it's not showing very much.

No Flip Screen - You cannot flip the screen, which is very annoying to iPhone users with headphones. The game is stuck with the Home Button of the iDevice on the left side.

Weird Name – I’m not sure if this is on purpose, and I apologize if it is, but the menus all say “Catoon Wars”. It looks rather odd.
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Overall - Pretty good, no loading needed, 3 save slots, ability to play iPod music, but the bad rankings and no flip screen can ruin it for some

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Controls
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(•••••)

The controls are great! They work perfectly, just like a dual stick shooter with some changes that actually make the gameplay more fun and challenging. I’ll walk you through them; see one of the screenshots for reference.

In the top left corner you can switch weapons by clicking on the one you want to use. The HP bar shows your health and the MP bar shows your MP. The numbers to the right show your gold, which is going up while you’re playing so if you die you still earned gold. The button on the top right pauses the game. It may look small, but it has a wider reception range. The D-Pad in the bottom left moves your character 360º. The button with a bullet on it switches your weapon to the next one available.
The button in the bottom left IS A D-PAD. It’s not a single button. People that say the controls don’t work are completely wrong; they don’t understand that the shoot button is actually 2 separate buttons. One shoots to the left and one shoots to the right. It’s similar to iDracula, or Minigore except you can only shoot left and right instead of 360º. I prefer this left and right shooting because it makes the game more challenging and you have to walk around and avoid enemies more. Plus, there’s some aiming involved in the game. You can walk in any direction and shoot in any direction simultaneously (e.g. you can walk left, away from the beasts while still shooting to the right, at them.).

It works just like iDracula or Minigore except you can only shoot left and right, simply put. To rapidfire hold down the button. You should always have rapid fire on because the game’s weapons don’t run out based on how much you fire them, they run out based on how long you are holding them.

And right above the shooting pad are your available skills.

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Cons
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Virtual D-Pad – The virtual D-Pad is always controversial on the iDevice because it takes up valuable screen space and you can’t feel it. Most Dual Stick Shooters have the character centered on the screen; in this game the width (up/down) of the game is the size of the screen so you’re character is only centered in one dimension. But your character cannot walk below a certain border on the bottom of the screen so the buttons don’t really bother you unless you go in the very bottom right corner. Then your thumb might bock the screen a bit. Of course you don’t want to go in the bottom right corner in the first place because you’re… well, cornered.
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Overall – The controls are great. Like I said, the limitation of only shooting left and right actually makes the game a lot more fun. The controls feel really natural and you get used to them very quick.

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Animation
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(•••••)

The animation is very well done. Blues’s last game wasn’t very polished and looked chalky, but this one is beautiful and very smooth.

Drawings – There are tons of enemies and weapons; all of them are smoothly drawn in black with a smooth grey/white fill. There are three different backgrounds and they are all nicely drawn.

Animation – Every single enemy dies in a different way. Every single gun shoots in a different way. The animations are smooth and polished. Each enemy has their own style of walking and they react when they are shot. When you kill one they might be blown onto the ground and fade away or they might crumble into little pieces on the ground.

Nice Distance Effect – One thing I’m not sure if everybody appreciates is that if a character (whether it’s you or an enemy) goes farther back they become smaller to give you a nice sense of distance. I really appreciate this and I think it makes the game look much more polished than it would without this effect.

Menus – The menus are nicely polished with cool backgrounds like in the game

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Cons
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None – The only “problem” I have with the graphics is that I hunger for more enemies, backgrounds, and weapons. The game has a fine amount, but you can never have too much.
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Overall – The graphics are just great. They are as polished as possible without loosing the game style or feel.

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Guide \
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Skills
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Each weapon in the game has 4 skills (Most of which you need to unlock by upgrading the weapon). There are passive skills, which happen automatically as you play, and there are active skills, which you need to activate in game and use up mana. Next to each skill is the Acronym used in the Weapons section.

Passive
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Increase Cooling Speed – CS
Attack Point Increase – AP
Replenish HP Slowly – RH
Attack Speed Increase – AS
Moving Speed Increase – MS
Gain Extra MP – EM
Gain Extra Gold – EG

Active
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Refills HP – HP
Cooling – CD
Electric –EW
Missile – MW
Fire – FW (Launches meteors on the field that only affect your enemies)

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Weapons
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Next to the name of the weapon you have the price needed to purchase. Next to that are the 4 skills (in acronym form) accompanying the projectile device along with the level you need to unlock them (e.g. [Level needed to unlock skill].[skill]). Then below that line, listed by current level, you have the price to upgrade, moving speed, power, and firing range. (1 Being the original and 2 being 1 upgrade) (e.g. [Price]. [Speed]/[Power]/[Range]).

1.) Bow and Arrow []- 1.FW .HP .AS .AP
1. 6/2/9
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. 2,000. 6/4/9
2.) Handgun []- .EG .FW .RH .EM
1. 200. 6/2/5
2.
3.) Rocket Launcher []- 3.MS 5.MW 7.AP .AS
1. 500, 4/5/9
2. 800, 4/5/9
3. 1,000 4/5/9
4. 2,000 4/5/9
5. 3,000 5/6/10
6. 4,000 5/6/10
7. 6,000 5/7/10
4.) Rifle [8,000]- .HP .EG .EM .MW
1. 5/3/7
2.
5.) Double Handguns [18,000]- .EW .CD .EG .RP
1. 5/5/6
2.
6.) Sniper Rifle [20,000]- .FW .EG .MS .AP
1. 4/6/4
2.
7.) Samurai Sword [25,000]- .HP .EW .EM .RH
1. 7/6/3
2.
8.) Laser Blaster [35,000]- .MW .MS .CD .EG
1. 3/7/9
2.
9.) Box [35,000]- .MW .EM .RH .AP
1. 4/6/9
2.
10.) Staff [50,000]- .FW .EM .MS .HP
1. 4/7/9
2.
11.) Machine Gun Suit [80,000]- .MW .CD .MS .EG
1. 3/9/9
2.

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Status Upgrades
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Status upgrades are permanent upgrades you can buy that act similar to passive skills except they do not require you to hold a certain weapon. Below you see the name of the upgrade and the cost per level (e.g. [Current Level]. [Gold needed to upgrade to next level])

HP1 – Max HP Increase
1. 100
2. 200
HP2 - HP Recovery Speed Increase (This only works if you are using the “Replenish HP Slowly” Skill)
1. 100
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. 600
MP1 – Max MP Increase
1. 100
MP2 – Increase Mana Gain
1. 200
2.
3.
4. 800
DF – Defense Increase
1. 150
SP – Moving Speed Increase
1. 200
LC – Increase Gold Gain
1. 150
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. 3,000
CL – Increase Cooling Speed
1. 100
2. 200
3. 300
4. 400
5. 500
6. 600
7. 700
8. 800
9. 900
10. 1,000
11. 1,100
12. 1,200
13. 1,300
SK – Increase Skill Power
1. 100
DM – Damage Increase
1. 100
2.
3.
4. 400

 

Yeah, it's a mazing. I'm really picky; I download tons of paid apps, but only keep a couple pages that I really enjoy playing. And even if it's a good app, if I don't play it much I delete it. iDracula and Minigore are good, but they start out slow and boring. This stages thing is really enjoyable for me because you get right into the action. Also I somehow think the right, left shooting is much more fun. sk8erdude50, would you rather play this after you're fully upgraded or play iDracula/Minigore? Also, anybody who wants to say anything about the game in this thread won't be off topic.

 

Really? What features make you prefer it?

 

What's wrong with the controls?

 

This is a completely different story, but I actually think iDracula is better than Minigore. I've only played the first Minigore though, before I deleted...

 

Well, I haven't gotten up to there yet so I'll have to wait and see. But the dev is updating, there were just some bug fixes a few days ago, but he says he's working on a new one with a new enemy and weapon. Still, for a buck I think the gameplay leading up to the mech suit is fun.