Aside from a jellyfish attack or a sudden downpour, another guaranteed thing to a ruin a day at the beach is an attack by the entire Japanese Imperial Navy.
Blood Beach puts you in the unenviable position of a soldier who must take down the entire Japanese WWII fleet alone. You're holed up on a thin stretch of beach in the Solomon Islands and must take down the waves of planes, boats and foot soldiers landing on the beach. Although there's no one else to help you, you do have an impressive arsenal of guns, with more weapons becoming available as the game goes on, including the M2 MBG, Bofors 40mm, and the Thompson SMG.
The graphics in Blood Beach are highly impressive, with accurate detailing on the planes, a realistic beach environment and cool explosion effects. Plus, you can control the amount of blood you see, which is great news for gore fans. The sound effects are fantastic too, from the petrifying roar of the planes above you, to the blood-curdling screams of the soldiers you fry with your machine guns.
The action in Blood Beach is pretty intense from the start, and taking down the planes is no mean feat, especially due to the rather fiddly control system within the game. I found the on-screen joystick to be a bit too small to facilitate accuracy, and the fire and reload buttons are too close together. Switching to the 'Touch' or 'Analog Pad' control methods doesn't help either, and these two systems are equally cumbersome.
What I loved about Blood Beach is the depth of the game. More than many other sniper games, you have to think tactically in each level, choosing the right weapons and figuring out who to take down first.
Despite its fiddly controls, Blood Beach represents a gripping World War II shooting game. You'll never look at a beach in the same way again!
