From dishing out pizzas for a zombie clientele to sinking pirate ships, there are plenty of reflex/timing-based games on the iPhone. The latter is a new addition to my review list, aptly titled iPirate.

iPirate takes the concept of an on-rails shooter and mixes it up with a little bit of strategy and tactics. Enemy ships prowl the horizon while players load cannons to fire at them. Titling the iPhone will cause cannon shots to swerve right or left (you really should use this to your advantage), while tapping and holding onto a cannon will cause the resulting shot to cause more damage.

iPirate

Complications arise when enemies start firing back. There’s a bit of a suspension of disbelief when enemy shots can be deflected by just tapping on them. Personally, I wouldn’t want this feature to be in considering that you can repair your ship on the fly during the heat of battle.ย  There is however, a caveat. Repairing on the fly consumes repair points,ย  without which you cannot carry out repairs. This finite resource can be replenished in between levels.

The levels have a progressive day and night cycle which is pretty cool. The night battles aren’t too dark to the point you can’t see but the darkness makes it more challenging to see how many ships are out there based on the silhouettes.

ipirate2

Sinking enemy ships nets gold and players have the benefit of spending it on new cannons, ammunition and ship upgrades and repairs in-between levels. Don’t forget that your cannons can take damage too and you’ll need to repair damaged ones before they can dish out maximum damage.

The later levels of iPirate turn out to be very frantic and exciting affairs, with the constant juggling of between using the right kind of ammo, what ship to shoot at first and when to hit the repair button. The multi-touch screen allows for more than one cannon to be tapped at the same time, so I couldn’t help but have my own “Master and Commander” moments while playing the game (always a plus point).

The guys at GoGames did a bang-up job with iPirate and I wholeheartedly recommend it. The game is now priced at USD 1.99 (click here to download), with a Lite version available as well (click here to download)