Wall Street Titan’ Review – Taking Down The 1%

‘Wall Street Titan’ Review – Taking Down The 1%
There are many things people are sick of.

There are many things people are sick of. For some, it’s trying to find a good arcade game on the App Store that isn’t hindered by touch screen controls. For others, it’s the CEOs who are quadrupling their incomes while the rest of the world is becoming poorer. Thankfully, Wall Street Titan , by Dark Tonic Game Studios , is looking to relieve both of these frustrations.

The story starts off with a suit named “Filcher Crapsworth” unveiling the Wall Street Titan , a gigantic robot that sits twenty five stories tall whose mission is to protect the “good” people of the city while getting rid of the “evil” citizens like the “hippie protesters”. Sound familiar? Crapsworth is attempting to get rid of the occupiers around New York. It’s very much reflective of today’s society as the story continues with a fellow anonymous hacktivist who reprograms the Wall Street Titan as the scientists forgot to turn on the firewall. The Titan is now in your control and truly designed to protect the innocent.

The game will start you off mowing down a plethora of government agents, while they don’t attack back it is important to take them down as they’re trying to escape and bring in the police. The longer you can hold out, the better. As each level progresses you will see higher tiers of enforcement come in ala Grand Theft Auto style. Eventually you’ll have to deal with the SWAT team, and a sort of hired mercenary looking group who are not only equipped with rocket launchers, but will also barge in with tanks and helicopters. These vehicles require you to save up your power and then take them down as weaker uncharged attacks will have you staring at a game over screen fairly quick.

You’ll be taking on all these enemies in some very cleverly designed levels. You start off in Zuccotti Park where there are tents pitched everywhere with fellow occupiers inside. You will have to avoid these 99 percenters otherwise you’ll lose points that coincide with your leaderboard score. Other levels include Wall Street Station and the Stock Exchange. Here you’ll have to make sure the government agents fail to make it to the subway below or get in a government-issue car and escape.

While you’re playing you will encounter various consumables you can use such as a pepperspray can, a bomb that does extra damage in a concentrated area, and a satellite that disrupts vehicles. Money trucks and ambulances will also pass by and you’ll be able to tap on them to raise your score and gain back your health.

Don’t think you’ll be able to get away with just attacking though. The game gets seriously hard once the tanks, helicopters, and rocket launchers get involved. In those cases it is best to mix in some defense, that’s where the shield comes in. If you tap and hold down on the screen with two fingers the titan will bring up a shield which will last for a brief period of time or until you let go. I found it was best to let my enemies finish their missile barrage and then unload on them with my charged attack.

Wall Street Titan comes with Game Center leaderboards and ahievements. Sadly, there are currently only six achievements amounting to a measly 5 points each. Given that there’s plenty of objectives in the game I feel there could’ve been a lot more achievements overall. Thankfully it will take some serious strategic planning to climb the leaderboards which adds a lot of depth to the gameplay and overall longevity to the game.

One gripe I first had with the game was my confusion with which mode to play. You are presented with a flashing Play Now mode with a Facebook icon, and a less obvious Offline Mode below it. However, The offline game mode is the exact same thing as Play Now, minus the Facebook integration. That means that it is technically online as you’ll still be ranking up in the Game Center leaderboards. Strangely, I ran into some problems with the Facebook integrated Play Now mode. After the first level ended my high score and objectives didn’t update. This caused the game to lock up resulting in me force closing the app to get back to the game, starting completely over. This happened three time before I gave up and found the Offline Mode was the same thing anyway. It’s a shame too as the Facebook mode is at the forefront of the game’s menu.

In the end, Wall Street Titan is more than just a game that revolves around the occupy movement. There’s plenty of details added in that speak to the morally sound. For instance, the Titan runs on bio-fuel! If that’s not your type of thing though, Wall Street Titan manages to be a deep arcade shoot em’ up that just happens to have a cool modern-day premise to boot.

If you act now you can pick up Wall Street Titan foras part of the release sale. Hurry though as the deal will be ending soon!
[review pros=”Fun Challenging Gameplay, Unique Premise, Great Presentation” cons=”Facebook Mode Freezes, Few Achievements” score=88]