I’m amazed that shooters/shmups aren’t released by the boatload. They’re relatively simple to program and inexpensive to produce, plus they cause people who like big exploding thingies to grin with much glee. Perhaps the collective gamingverse O.D.’d on the genre during the ’80s to mid-’90s shooter glut, but like beat ‘em ups, they deserve much more than being regulated to a popular category from yesteryear. Ion Assault, the first Xbox Live Arcade title from  German studio Black,Inc./RTL Interactive, looks to add to the genre’s long history. From the press release:

In 2183 humanity discovers an energy source that facilitates travel into new regions of space. Gigantic mother ships collect the newly discovered fuel from the distant energy fields and transport it to Earth. When the fleet is destroyed in an alien attack, the player sets out on a perilous journey home in a small harvester. In Ion Assault, instead of conventional weapons, players use the free energy particles that are abundant in space to fend off swarms of aliens. The particles are bundled and the player is able to shoot them at asteroids and enemy ships. The particles are not destroyed in this process, but are redistributed in space, ready to be magnetically attracted again and re-used. Their random distribution makes for dynamic gameplay and calls for a more strategic approach.

The action is spread across four different scenarios, with each featuring different enemy forms, bosses, and backgrounds. During the heat of battle, players will be able to upgrade their ships’ hardware (that will enable faster traveling speed and an enlarged collected particles radius) and collect power ups (such as the ability to create temporary black holes). Ion Assault will also have multi-player modes, and an online high-score leaderboard. it will be available for download this summer for 800MSP.