As many of the offerings in the App Store can attest, it is easy for developers to ignore the iPhone's specific strengths and weaknesses in favor of falling back on tried and true video game genres and tropes. Get Outta My Galaxy avoids falling into this trap, but is hindered by unresponsive controls and uninspired level design.

Get Outta My Galaxy! is an unusual game. Though the small planets that serve as levels initially point toward Super Mario Galaxy as inspiration, the game has little else in common with that title. Users control a four-armed, grimacing alien called All that Waka, who must traverse these small planets in an effort to rid them of the alien race known as Wikus.

The game embraces the iPhone as a platform, allowing users to control All that Waka with the device's accelerometer, and direct him to slap Wikus by simply touching the screen. Unfortunately, Get Outta My Galaxy!'s controls are wonky at best, and unresponsive at worst. The game is nowhere near sensitive enough to the iPhone's accelerometer, necessitating that users tilt their device all the way forward just to get All that Waka moving at a decent pace. Even worse, is that once your character finally gets moving, it is just as difficult to stop him or turn him around.

While the graphics in Get Outta My Galaxy! are generally very good, with cute, likable character designs, the constant extreme tilting of the iPhone makes it difficult to appreciate the game's aesthetic. As all the action takes place in space, Get Outta My Galaxy is a rather dark game to begin with, and once you start tilting the iPhone at extreme angles, and glare begins to factor in, it can be near impossible to get a good look at what is happening on screen.

Even with its unresponsive controls, Get Outta My Galaxy! could have been saved by some truly compelling gameplay. Unfortunately, the levels offered never branch out in any significant fashion from the game's very basic core mechanic. Early levels see All that Waka stomp around small, visually similar planets, slapping at different colored Wikus. But with nowhere for them to run, and no real way for All that Waka to take any damage, the levels are easy, repetitive and dull.

As the game progresses, the developers do attempt to make things more interesting, but it is too little too late. The game's power-ups are minimal and unimpressive, and obstacles like spiky grass and doors attached to switches are more annoying that challenging. For such a unique game concept and execution, it is disappointing that the developers did not take more time to fully explore what they created.

While the game's developers are apparently planning to release more levels eventually, as of now Get Outta My Galaxy! is extremely barebones. While $0.99 is not an outrageous price for a game by any means, with so many Apps available for free, Get Outta My Galaxy! really should offer additional gameplay modes or options to make it worth your George Washington.

Ultimately, Get Outta My Galaxy! is a huge disappointment, due in large part to the fact that it gets so much right. The graphics, though dark, are beautiful, and the general idea for the game's controls are right on, even allowing gamers on the go to play one-handed. But until the developers tweak the the game's tilt sensitivity and its uninspired level design, Get Outta My Galaxy! is simply not worth the space it takes up in your iPhone.

Final Score: D