PS3 Fanboy

Why are we so excited about Everyday Shooter? It's hard to explain until you get the controller in your hand and you experience the unique blend of visuals, music and gameplay that Jon Mak's PSN indie title offers. The trailer on the PlayStation Store does little to give full insight into the game's potential, and we feel like simply watching the title doesn't do it justice. Regardless, here are some new videos from the game, and hopefully you'll understand exactly why we're excited. It won't be everyone's game ... which is a shame, considering its name.

One PSN title captivated us more than any other at E3: it's Everyday Shooter, an award-winning music-shooter game. The smooth visuals, combined with the absorbing music, and addictive gameplay, made it one of our favorite (but underrated) games of E3. We had a chance to talk to Jon Mak, after his incredible E3 showing to talk more about Everyday Shooter, and working with Sony as an indie game designer.

We've been having trouble describing Everyday Shooter to gamers. Maybe you'll have a better way with words than us: how would you describe Everyday Shooter?
Everyday Shooter is like a music album, except instead of it being a collection of songs, it's a collection of shoot-em-ups. Each track/song/level is completely different visually, musically, and in terms of gameplay. You can see the screenshots to get a feel for the diversity in levels.

Each level focuses on a different chain reaction system that is not explicitly explained to the player. So with each playthrough, the player gains a sense of wonderment as they discover the nuances of each enemy and how they relate to form the greater chain reaction system. Although this gives a slight puzzle-y aspect to the game, make no mistake, this is a SHOOT-EM-UP, and not a puzzler.

One popular aspect of Everyday Shooter is the way it treats audio. All the sound effects in the game are guitar riffs harmonizing over an all guitar soundtrack. Bigger reactions causes bigger riffs to play. Thus you'll feel as if you're playing along with the music, except that your intstrument is the shoot-em-up!

Everyday Shooter made a big impression at GDC earlier this year. Winner of the Game Design Innovation award from the Game Developer's Choice Awards, Everyday Shooter took a unique approach to the dual-sticked shooter genre. N'Gai from Newsweek reports that the indie title will appear on the PlayStation Network in 1080p, at 60fps. "It didn't take us long to realize that we were playing something special. After five minutes, we were hooked; after an hour, we had to tear ourselves away to meet up with some fellow journalists for drinks."

The game focuses on creating chain explosions. Each enemy explodes in a unique note or riff, based on a musical theme. The experience is seemingly nothing less than a cacophony of chaos. The synesthetic approach will certainly appeal to fans of Mizuguchi titles, such as Rez and Lumines. Although the game takes a more musical approach, we're wondering if games like Super Stardust HD haven't already satiated the average gamer's appetite for an everyday shooter.