There are only a handful of different casual game formulas currently out there, though surely there must be more waiting in the wings, looking for their chance to breakout and start something new. Though Planet Busters isn’t that revolution, it’s certainly a rough around the edges attempt that takes a formula tried and true by now – the match three – and gives it enough unique flavor to expand on the genre and start those steps into a new age of casual gaming.

The Earth has been destroyed and you’ve been called back into action, a member of the Earth’s space Army essentially. As a member of this elite unit, you’ll have to battle the wicked aliens that destroyed your home world, taking the battle to them by launching missiles at their commanding ships, their own homes, and space stations and hiding places as well. So how exactly do you combat these aliens? But with missiles of course – duh! Oh, did we not mention you’ve got to create the missiles before they can be unleashed? Thus comes the crux of the match three formula.

Each level is presented as a grid system that can be average in size, rather small, large and expansive, etc. The grid basically acts as the screen of your ship, portrayed in a holographic like manner. At the bottom of your screen you’ll see a row of colors that will shoot out and advance towards the top of your grid (think the movement of Tetris but in reverse). As the pieces move towards the top it’s up to you to maneuver the pieces into position so that three of the same color match up together, unleashing a volley of missiles for each matched grouping.

As you move pieces into position for matches, there is a wide variety of environmental obstacles and difficulties that can make some levels truly sadistic. First up, instead of a timer system, you’ve got a shield system, which is a neat way to represent time given that the game plays like you are actually battling in space against these aliens. The aliens shoot beams at you, which diminish your shield, thus shortening the time you have left to fire off your required amount of missiles in order to win the level. Other obstacles include space debris that stands locked in your way, only moving once you’ve made a connection touching it. You’ve also got to worry about roaming meteors, which come off screen and floating from one side of the screen to the other, screwing up potential matches by hitting your pieces and then sliding into a place you didn’t need them. Another obstacle problem comes in the form of life support pods, which will be destroyed if you make a match touching one; you’d think you’d be trying to save them by matching with them in some way, not by trying to avoid them. Beyond the environmental difficulties you’ve also got things like shield boosters that basically give you more time in a level to fire off the amount of missiles you need to complete the level.

Besides the natural difficulty of the game, the design decisions of the gameplay hamper and make things sometimes more difficult than they need to be. For example, though the grid system of the board is interesting from a graphical standpoint, sometimes the depth perception problem can throw you off, making it look visually like you might be getting ready to make a match, only to notice afterwards that there was another space there that didn’t seem to be there before. Another problem comes by way of the controls, which though simple – arrow keys move your pieces and Z and X rotate them around – a looseness about them (as if gliding on ice) sometimes makes it so that you’ll accidentally pass over your intended placement and ending up completely ruining your chance at completing the level.

The game isn’t a beautiful work of art, as the game is pretty jaggy and overall the graphics just don’t seem as polished as they possibly could be, but it’s still a decent looking game, featuring an interesting game grid that moves up and away like the Star Wars scrolling text, and there are some nice explosions to go along with the animation of missiles flying away and smashing into your enemies. In terms of audio the game sounds like it looks – it’s decent and average at best, but by nowhere is there any epic quality or amazing work.

Though the game has some problems, Planet Busters is still a pretty fun little indie game once all things are said and done. Sure it could look prettier and the controls could’ve been tightened a little, but it’s easy to overlook some of those issues from time to time when you see how they didn’t go out to try and make just another match three game, but rather tried to stretch the boundaries of it to create something new and refreshing; in that regards Planet Busters fairs remarkably well.

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