Tag: Action Game »

What do you think of when I mention fur underwear, lots of muscles, and a really big sword? Okay, it calls a couple of different pop-culture icons to mind but what if I include flowing blond locks and an alter-ego that wears pink tunics? Couldn’t be anyone other than He-Man, could it? Well it is. And The Most Powerful Man in the Universe is getting The Most Powerful Game in the Universe at the end of the month by way of GlitchSoft (Destructopus, Star Marines) and Chillingo.

The developers have teamed-up with Mattel in order to bring the App Store an interactive celebration of the iconic 80’s action figure’s - I mean action hero’s - 30th anniversary. Hem-Man: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe is quite possibly the first iOS Tap n’ Slash, too. Players will tear through several different environments and over 25 levels throughout Eternia as they attempt to thwart Skeletor yet again. The game features destructible environments, un-lockable and upgradeable attacks, hidden artwork, a very tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and a surprisingly clever control scheme. I didn’t get the chance to play around with it at all but it looks pretty intuitive with the left side for the screen used exclusively for movement and the right for jumping, attacking, and a bunch of special moves.

The glorious homage to one of the manliest toys ever to have graced the 1980s - with its self-referential humor, giant boss battles, and promise of more content in the form of new playable characters and levels in the future - is due out in the App Store at the end of the month, specifically October 25th. I wasn’t able to get a solid price point but it should go for between $0.99 and $1.99. Very soon we’ll all HAAAAVE THE POWEEEEEER! Make sure to use it wisely.

Things are looking pretty grim. A despicable race of alien beings has planted a doomsday device called “The Cosmic Fuse” deep inside the Earth’s core. Rather than wait for a team of semi-washed up actors lead by Hillary Swank to ride a drill train through the center of the Earth we’ve enlisted the help of Verticus, the world’s first (so far as I know) free-falling superhero.

Verticus is a new “endless faller” headed to the App Store courtesy of Moonshark, Controlled Chaos Media (creators of Texting of the Bread), and Stan Lee. Yes, that’s Stan - The Man - Lee. The comic book legend has created a special story and superhero for his first iOS outing, as well as supplying his own voice as the player’s mission commander. Commence geeking out. I was able to have a chat with Moonshark’s CEO, Matt Kozlov, and he filled me in on the whole world-saving affair.

The titular do-gooder must fall his way through the Earth’s atmosphere, past cities and their streets, and beyond its very center in order to reach and diffuse the alien invaders’ bomb. Then he has to make it through to the other side. This isn’t a mere dodge-em-up, however. The fledgling hero will have both offensive and defensive abilities to aid him in his task, as well as a number of upgrades to earn and unlock through multiple playthroughs. So there’s obviously plenty of incentive for multiple replays, what with the upgrades and new suits to earn. It’s also possible (though not necessary) for players to purchase in-game cash to speed up their development if they so desire.

Verticus is slated for a release sometime this fall (we all see what you did there, Moonshark). If you’re too excited to sit idly by and wait for the action to commence, you can also check out the game’s official Facebook page for more details. Oh, and you can enter to win one of a few pieces of official Verticus artwork signed by Stan Lee while you're there, too. Wait, what?

Heroes love effortlessly cutting swathes through entire armies of badguys, don’t they? I guess success when faced with impossible odds comes with the territory. Infinite Warrior takes the concept of “There’s no way that would happen in real life” and turns it into a strange little mash-up of endless running (not really running) and a kind of rhythm game. It’s a weird combination that would work incredibly well if the whole thing weren’t bogged down by schizophrenic controls, diminutive text, and lighting issues.

A lone hero marches along as wave after wave of enemies come at him in progressively tighter clusters. Fighting off said enemies requires watching the on-screen prompts - either blood-colored arrows at the edge of the screen or bright yellow arrows that appear on passing foreground characters - then swiping in the indicated direction. Any gold earned from a run is kept, win or lose, and can be used to purchase special temporary gear that will enhance various aspects such as gold collection. And, as expected at this point, a series of different “missions” can be completed (i.e. survive five waves, collect X amount of gold, etc) to raise the hero’s level and act as an extra incentive to keep playing.

It starts off a bit slow in the first wave but once the action gets going Infinite Warrior can get downright fantastic. Once enemies start coming in small groups with little pause between their assaults simply staying alive will require a fair amount of focus and reflexes. It’s also more than a little cool to see successful swipes acted out as stylish cinematic takedowns, naturally. It’s an aspect that makes the lack of consistently responsive controls a major disappointment.

Granted I was able to figure out I’m “supposed to” swipe in order to not fail miserably each and every time (it requires a kind of steady, deliberate swipe with a slight pause at the beginning and end), but gesturing in such a manner becomes increasingly difficult as the attacks get closer together. More than once I’ve hit a proverbial wall simply because the controls made it impossible for me to progress. Having menu text that’s ridiculously small on an iPhone screen doesn’t help either as half the time I can’t even tell how much gold I have let alone how much an item costs. And forget about trying to play any of the night levels in a room that’s even vaguely well lit. The screen’s so dark I could only make out the bright yellow arrows and some shadowy movement.

I really, really like the idea behind Infinite Warrior, but the implementation needs some work. With controls that aren’t quite so finicky, text that can actually be read, and a little gamma correction it would actually be really awesome. Until that happens it’s doomed to be more frustrating than fun.