iPhone double games review
In a store that has tens of thousands of games, it can be a struggle for a diamond to shine through amongst the rough. When games are being published that are as rough as Soldier of War and Colosseum, it’s no wonder we struggle to find the good titles out there.
It has been debated often enough that with no quality control on the app store to ensure rapid growth, Apple has diluted the potential success games that stand out should get, as they will invariably get lost in the sea of first time publishers’ titles struggling to make a name for themselves. With such an opportunistic market it is hardly surprising that this is the case, as success in the App store can turn a profit for first time publishers on a scale that is not possible anywhere else.
Anyone with a Mac can get the tools from Apple to start creating games so it’s no wonder that the store will see its fair share of poor titles. Even on the established consoles, poor quality titles get released often enough to question the quality control of the developers themselves. Unfortunately on the App Store, when your product is priced at just 59p or 99c there will always be plenty of consumers willing to take a chance on your game if the description is exciting and the screen shots favorable.
The user reviews themselves go some way in indicating whether the game is going to be any good, but is undermined with many a user given 0 stars if the game fails to load or crashes, or five stars even when they are critical of the game. True success it seems is generated from word of mouth and from website to website, forum to forum, friend to friend.
Until recently no mainstream reviewing sites had been scoring iPhone games, but with remakes of big titles such as Monkey Island, China Town Wars and Broken Sword being released, no longer can the iPhone and iPod Touch be ignored as a gaming platform.
Soldier Of War is as misguided as it is poor. The premise is simple; you keep the bad guys away from your civilians by touching a button that activates a crusher, disintegrating them on impact and a slider that open up a trap door for fleeing civilians to escape to your bunker. With such a simplistic premise the game could work if the controls are tight and there is humor or originality in execution. After all there are other games in the App Store that have less controls but are wonderfully playable (a la Canabalt).
The artwork is, I hope, intentionally simplistic, favouring a hand-drawn and crayon colored sketch of the scene depicted between “missions” whilst the gameplay itself is at top down affair. It would be easy to call it a rhythm game similar to Tap Tap Revenge in one way, having to tap or slide as the sprites come hurtling down the screen.
What disappoints however is the vulgar language and coarse script. The word “Bastard” is in every single screen (even the screenshots in the marketplace have it as it is so prominent in the game) and within seconds of playing you are reading word like “rape” and others we can’t even mention. I’m no prude but for a 12 rated game it’s pushing the mark a little.
What it adds up to is a developers choice to cash in on a marketplace by using American history and vulgarity, which if the gameplay was decent could be excused if not condoned. But what we are left with is a poor example of what can be done with a proven platform.
3/10
Colosseum on the other hand is executed well but lacks any staying power. The sprites, animation and collision detection is spot on and for the first fifteen minutes can be great fun to play. Hacking and slashing your way across the colosseum can be great fun, unlocking weapons and shields to suit your style of play. The colours are bright and enemies will eventually vary enough to give you a challenge, though on easy mode this will take a significant time to get challenging and will put you off quickly. Even on Normal or higher however, with no background change and weapons and enemies repeating, it’s almost like getting trapped in a 30 minute loop of gameplay.
No continue feature means once you’re gone you are gone, but if you come out of the game mid way through playing you can pick off where you left off when restarted. It’s an admiral attempt at offering a decent gameplay experience and for the price does offer good value for money and with updates from the developers it could turn out to offer more than the sum of its parts.
As it stands now however, the game becoming boring and repetitive is its biggest failing and one that no game should ever be accused of.
5/10
