Twin-stick shooter Ion Assault will be a victim of choice, specifically the publisher’s choice to bring it out during gaming’s busiest season. It’ll also be hurt by the developer’s choice to build a game within an already over-saturated genre, particularly on Xbox Live Arcade. Sadly, the fact that it’s a reasonable video game with a fairly engrossing play mechanic is unlikely to be of much consequence.

In Ion Assault’s favour, it does have a unique shtick, which is something that so many games of its ilk lack. Instead of using traditional lasers to destroy enemies, Ion Assault’s ships use an impressive, flowing particle system. The game’s Geometry Wars-like box arena has pools of these energy particles lying around its sides and corners. Players can hold LT to collect these energy pieces into the pool held in front of their ship, and then release the trigger to unleash a destructive particle beam. 

This effect is both mechanically and visually impressive, as there’s clearly plenty of physics in Ion Assault: particles rebound at speed off the arena’s edges to create glowing swirls of dust, and your ship chaotically bumps off rocks like an attention-deficit squirrel. This unique form of combat does present a new challenge that piques interest immediately.

Unfortunately, the controls are less impressive than the physics. Rather than simply aiming the right stick to fire the beam in an intended direction, the stick controls an aiming line for the players’ ship. This line remains set even when the player lets go of the right stick (think of it like a rotational Resident Evil-esque laser sight). It’s an unnecessary, sluggish limitation seemingly implemented to emphasize the particle mechanics’ individuality, given how traditional twin-stick controls would be much simpler. After repeated playthroughs, the controls will eventually feel less ungainly but never natural, as holding and releasing a trigger button for 30 minutes is pretty uncomfortable in itself.