I was at a kid’s party a few weeks back and got to relive my youth with a number of arcade game from the 90’s. Babeorella is an arena-style shoot-em-up / survival game that is very similar to the arcade game Smash TV. The story line behind this game is that you (Babeorella) have crash-landed on a planet inhabited by killer robots. In your best Jane Fonda-cum-Barbarella outfit, you have to fight your way through numerous waves of robot attacks.

Each wave of robot attacks gets progressively harder as new robots come after you and their weapons increase in power. To counter this, you start the game with the ability to launch three kinds of attacks – close combat, long-range and a ‘special attack’. For the first few waves, your primary weapon is going to be the whip but you need to pick up the upgrades and power-ups that are scattered throughout arena to be able to survive the upper waves. doublesix plays on a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor throughout the game as one of your weapons is named a “Bimbo Bomb” (and this does the most damage of all of your weaponry).

The controls are very similar to a console game where you move Babeorella by sliding your finger around the virtual ‘joystick’ control. The attack buttons are on the right side of the screen and the type of attack is automatically selected based on distance from your enemy. The “Special” button allows you to dash by your enemies with a Bimbo Bomb attack.

Like Smash TV, there is just one arena, but a DLC option within the game implies that future game boards will be forthcoming. To keep things interesting, there are several challenge modes within the game which you can start via the occasional exclamation mark that pops up on the map. Successfully completing these challenges upgrades your skills (which can be a life saver) and unlocks new costumes (which is a bit of a ‘ho-hum’).

Babeorella is available for $2.99 in the iTunes AppStore.