Not the prettiest shooter on the system, but it does have some highlights worth checking out.
Heavy Weapon is a side scrolling shooter from Pop Cap that resembles a flash game more than anything else, but I suppose at the low asking price on PSN you might not expect much. And I'll admit, the art style of the game doesn't do a whole lot for me, it's very plain, and while there are some bright colors and it does pop on an HD display, it's also very amateurish looking, and not enough detail to the enemies, background, and nuclear tank you control to warrant the high-def presentation.
That said, I actually think Heavy Weapon is pretty fun to play, even if the stages you have for the single player game seem to be a little drawn out by the end. The game starts off deceptively simple, you just pilot your tank along the bottom of the screen, which auto scrolls, but still gives control to the player when it comes to moving the tank back and forth. The right stick controls your fire and direction, so the controls are like most twin-stick shooter games. Enemy planes, tanks, and other vehicles will try and attack you or simply run into you, and you'll do your best to dodge them or shoot them down as you advance towards the big boss at the end of each stage.
When you start off, the game is cake. Enemies are easy to avoid, their rate of fire is slow, and you'll rack up shields, rate of fire increases, and super-weapons without much trouble. You'll wonder why the game even bothers to give you three screen clearing nukes and even the first half of the boss fights can be taken on without much trouble. However, once you reach the later stages, all the little enemy increases and types that have slowly introduced themselves to you really start to pound away, with tons of fire, and different types to boot, making it legitimately difficult to block all shots and continue your own stream of attacks.
The pacing for the difficulty feels spot on for the most part, as you beat each stage you're given a point to spend in a number of different upgrades. You can equip your tank with a laser, heat seeking missiles, lightning attacks, and a few more random attacks. As you progress through each stage you'll get additional drops like shields and what not too, and stuff will carry over from level to level. Your upgrades you've purchased will stay with you even if you die, so at least there's not a large penalty to losing a life, other than only have three to get by on.
If you enjoy some multiplayer, Heavy Weapon has a few different types to check out. They're both survival modes, where the game times you and slowly starts tossing more and more enemies at you as you progress through a never ending level. There's the War Party mode that allows your team to continue and respawn as much as they want, as long as one member is still alive. The other mode, Arms Race, gives everyone three lives, and works much like the single player survival mode with more players tossed in. There's also another single player game type called Boss Blitz, which is pretty self-explanatory, but needs to be unlocked by finishing the single player campaign.
All together, Heavy Weapon is a surprisingly challenging shooter, but not necessarily the best looking one out there. My only real gameplay issue with the game is that it's almost too slow and easy at first, and the plodding pace that the auto scrolling levels go by can start to bore a player before you get to the harder stuff in the mid-game section. If you're willing to overcome that obstacle, I think you'll enjoy the game, despite the really bland art style. Not a bad way to waste a few bucks, certainly, and the online bits help the game have a little life beyond the single player experience, at least for a bit.
