If someone were to have recommended the game Nun Attack to me, I probably wouldn’t take them seriously. “That sounds ridiculous,” I would have said, scoffing at the game because of its title alone. This would be a mistake, however, because behind the gimmick of “nuns with guns,” there’s a really fun and engaging experience. You just have to be able to give it a chance.

Nun Attack is a tactical action game, in which you utilize the Vita’s touch screen to direct the four playable characters. The story is relatively flat—you use your guns and holy powers to defeat the Fallen Nun and restore balance to the world. That’s the main objective, and to accomplishing it, you lead your four nuns across 40 stages, each containing multiple levels and 150+ battles. Aiding you in your quest are many unlockable guns, each with their own unique effects, and global abilities called Miracles. These have effects ranging from freezing all enemies on-screen, to healing all of your nuns to full HP.

The gameplay is fast-paced and frenetic. You control the four player characters (Eva, Rosy, Olga, and Mandy) by clicking and dragging on the touch screen. They each have their own specialties. For example, Olga is the tankiest, and has an ability that can pull all the aggro that’s on other nuns onto herself. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Mandy, who has support-oriented weaponry and can deploy a healing aura. If you enjoy real-time strategy games or MOBAs, you’ll feel right at home playing Nun Attack.

Successfully micro-managing all four nuns on-screen, using their abilities to their fullest, and dodging bombs and projectiles can be pretty taxing, but it’s always rewarding when you successfully complete a mission that was giving you trouble. My sole complaint about the gameplay is that once you’ve unlocked all four of the nuns to play at the same time, once there are several enemies on screen, it can become pretty difficult to actually select your characters. This gets quite annoying in later stages.

The art direction is a treat. The nuns are well-rendered, each sporting their own unique looks, and the enemies and backdrops look like a lot of hard work was put into them. The sound design bugged me a bit, mostly the repetitive gun noises. I feel like they could have been done a bit better; they’re just a series of loud pops, which got annoying really quickly on classes that have a high rate of fire. The music was average, with a very limited selection of forgettable songs.

Unfortunately, once you’ve beaten the core story mode, Nun Attack doesn’t have much replayability to offer. Once you have all the guns from chests, upgrade them fully, and have defeat the final boss, I can’t say there’s much else to do. I don’t think this should deter potential buyers from playing the game, however—the story mode lasts pretty long, and the amount of content you get for the price is outstanding.

Overall, Nun Attack is a quality addition to the Vita’s library, and the fact that it’s only $2.99 USD on the PlayStation Store means that if you’re into strategy/action games, this one should definitely be on your memory card. A few hiccups keep it from greatness, but they’re forgivable, and I can’t see anyone regretting spending a paltry sum on this enjoyable app.

Nun Attack is made by Frima Studio, and is rated T for Teen.