TUAW's Daily App: Van Pershing

As the App Store has matured, so have the apps on it -- many iOS games today are complicated, deep affairs that require strategy and finesse. But sometimes you just want to kill zombies, and that's what Van Pershing is all about. The title is a straight-up side-scrolling shooter. All you have to do in the game is move along, shoot a variety of weapons forward or backwards at different monsters and collect the loot that drops without dying. That's it. The action's simple, but the graphics are well-done, and there's enough variety and upgrades to the weapons to keep it interesting as a simple arcade game.

There is one major issue: later in the game, the upgrades don't quite come fast enough to stay alive, and unfortunately, there's no default weapon or attack to use; once you're out of ammo with your various guns, you basically have to run for it and hope to survive. It'd be nice to introduce a little more skill to the game with some basic attack that you could use to get by enemies, even when you're in trouble.

But until that point, the game's fun and well-designed, with 40 different levels and a nice cartoony style. It also has full Game Center integration. There's a free version to try out if you're so inclined, but the full game is just a buck anyway. Give it a look if you just want a little straightforward shooting action.