The Last Pod Fighter was developed and published by Fighter9 and was released for Xbox Live Indie Games on May 9th, 2011 for 80MSP. A copy of the game was provided by the developer for review purposes.

The Last Pod Fighter is an arcade style 3D space shooter that throws players into battle against several other space ships. It features four different pods (the game’s powerups) at your disposal to help you defeat the waves of enemies. There are two styles of game play at your disposal: arcade, in which you fight enemies round by round trying to get to the capital ships (bosses), and survival mode, which is self-explanatory.

Here’s what we liked:

Concept – The premise behind the game is simple; use the ship’s pods and guns to fight off the waves of enemies so you can reach the boss, known ingame as a capital ship. Along the way you can grab pods such as shields, speed boosts, missiles and nukes. Use everything at you disposal to beat each round in arcade mode or to survive as long as you can in survival mode.

Weapons – As we all know every space ship in an arcade shooter comes equipped with a rapid fire gun, but it’s the backup weaponry that always makes the difference when it comes to surviving. In this case you have shields that not only protect you from fire, but regenerate your health every time they are used. There’s also a speed booster and rocket that you can use. Where these weapons stand out is on the fourth pod which consists of three styles of heavy weaponry.

Here’s what we didn’t like:

Controls – The controls are just way to loose to ever feel like you can get full accuracy. You constantly find yourself overshooting the target you’re aiming for. On top of this you also have a barrel roll at your discretion to dodge incoming bullets, but lose all control over your ship as you spin sideways constantly finding yourself losing your targets and having to chase them down.

Levels – Each level feels just like the last with nothing allowing you to see or feel anything different between one or the other. The only thing that lets you know you have change levels are words that pop on the screen letting you know you have advanced. It”s a major disappointment as it makes the game feel very drab and boring very quickly no matter how many enemies you might be fighting with. Even a change in the stars and nebulas every few levels would have helped.

Mode select – Although there are two modes to select from there’s nothing that really distinguishes them  apart. The only difference they have at all is at the end of every level in arcade mode the ship’s life goes back up to 100% while in survival mode you’re only given the one life and must stay alive for as long as you can. Other then these differences the two modes are identical; even the bosses are the same.

The Last Pod Fighter is a rather standard 3D arcade shooter; there isn’t much to make it stand out from most other games in its genre. Despite its flaws, The Last Pod Fighter manages to hold up pretty decent, supplying you with a good amount of entertainment for the cost. So if you are a fan of shooters or just cheap entertainment this game might just be for you.

Score: Try it!