Review: Alien Chaos 3D for 3DS

Unless you've played Mama & Son: Clean House - the game that precededAlien Chaos 3D - you've probably never experienced a game that involved both shooting aliens and cleaning up your mess afterwards.

In Alien Chaos 3D, you're not just cleaning for the sake of it, though: you'll need to wash the walls and sweep the floors in order to survive.

No, really.

This silly quirk really gives Reef Entertainment's game an edge. Throw in some perfectly designed controls, and there's a lot to love about this short but sweet indie title.

Messy business

You play "Really Shooter", a cleaning and guns expert whose mum has been captured by aliens. Naturally, then, you need to chase after them, machine gun in one hand and broom in the other.

Across a series of platforming arenas, alien robots will spawn and attack you. As you take them out, your ammo depletes. Yep, you're gonna need to find some more.

The only way to get ammo is by pushing the mechanical remains of your enemies along the floor and into rubbish bins, which will then spurt out bullets for your gun.

It's a simple concept, but one which works remarkably well. As your ammunition begins to run out, you feel an overwhelming sense of panic as you realise that you need to bound over the remaining enemies, grab the trash on the floor, and bung it into the box.

The action in Alien Chaos 3D is fast paced and exciting. Though the game is never too difficult, it's not especially easy, either. You really need to keep your wits about you and keep changing position to survive.

Sweep under the rug

Shooting enemies won't prevent your downfall all on its own - you also need to make constant use of your superpower, which causes an explosion with a half-decent blast radius.

You build this power up by - yep, you guessed it - cleaning stuff. As you spruce up the walls, your bar will fill up. While you're scrubbing, though, you're highly vulnerable.

It's this striking of a balance between cleaning, collecting ammo, and clearing the screen that makes Alien Chaos 3D a huge amount of fun.

Unfortunately, the game just doesn't last long enough. The most adeptAlien Chaos 3D players will be able to polish it off in around an hour. And while the supplied Challenge Mode and StreetPass options are nice side attractions, there's still not enough content here to keep us absorbed for too long.

Alien Chaos 3D is well worth grabbing from the eShop, though, especially if you're looking for an evening's worth of top-drawer arcade-style blasting.