In the first of a regular series looking at how review sites cover key iPhone releases, this week we're looking at Mountain Sheep and Chillingo's Minigore.

Released on 29th July 2009, the game is variously described as "a survival shooter" (ZTGD), "a dual stick survival shooter" (Slide To Play), "an awe-inducing representative of the survival shooter species" (Mountain Sheep’s own blog).

The action centres - literally - around John Gore, a small Rambo-type figure who you control with virtual touch joypads - the left to move and the right to rotate and fire.

In the initial App Store release, the only mode is single player survival where you're attacked by wave after wave of enemies called furries.

Two bites from them and it's game over. You can however prolong your experience with additional weapons and an invincible god mode. High scores are supported online via the OpenFeint social network.

First blood

The opening salvo came from ZTGD, which reviewed a pre-release build.

"I love the storybook style, and the look of Minigore will both charm and impress. The animation of the furries (particularly the Firefurry) is great," reckoned reviewer Cathlin 'Catastrophe' Sentz. "I can't wait to see what's in store for Gore in Episode Two." [9/10]

Matt Casamassina over on IGN Wireless also highlighted the "fantastic art style" as well as commenting positively about the "main character, who regularly breaks the fourth wall and comments on the fact that he has killed one-hundred characters or should be running out of bullets by now".

Yet he pointed out; Minigore is a "very straightforward shooter without any genuine surprises". [7/10]

It was a theme taken up in Pocket Gamer's review. Jon Jordan [disclosure: that's me] said: "The sharp point of debate with Minigore lies in judging what we currently have versus the various updates we know are coming down the line." [7/10]

On Slide To Play, Chris Reed similarly concluded; "Our only real complaint about Minigore is its limited scope ... We want more of everything. We would also love to see health power-ups and a multiplayer mode". [3/4]

Flaming threads

Over on the Minigore Touch Arcade forum thread, words such as "fun", "very fun" and "sick" were flowed fast but the debate quickly boiled down to the argument whether it was better to have a simple one level 99c game now against a $4.99 game with more content later.

The most balance in a single post came from Steve, who said:

"Despite the fact it's £0.59, I can't help but want more. I've played it through about 5 times, and in the same way I wanted more from Flight Control, I want more from this. I am sure I will go back to it, but yeah… If it can inherit the same kind of updates as Flight Control and Harbour Master, it'll be just fine. I really love the audio in the game, and the visuals a close second!"

The developer replies

These reactions were no surprise to executive producer Jouni Mannonen however, who explained the decision to release a stripped down version 1.0 of the game thus:

"We had to release 1.0 with such a limited featureset because our fans were getting too impatient. With 3,500 replies in the TouchArcade forum thread, we couldn't sit on it any longer. People wanted a simple version first while we polish up the co-op, and this is what we're now looking to do."

Future updates to the game will include new playable characters such as Lizzy the Lizard from iPhone game Sway, and the Enviro-Bear from driving simulator Enviro-Bear 2010, plus co-operative multiplayer, and more modes and levels.

Minigore version 1.0 is now available priced 99c or 59p. Hit this link to go direct to the App Store.