First things first - £2.99 playing on an iPhone 3GS.
This is an interesting combination of RPG and gem puzzle fighter.
By far the best thing about it is the Symphony of the Night style and it is dripping in it. The story mode follows the events of the game seen through the eyes of Alucard. You move through the castle room by room and engage enemies in a one on one battle akin to Puzzle Fighter.
The music is as it was with the original PSone release – fantastic. Some of the sprites have been redrawn (including a horrible new render of Alucard himself) but the backgrounds look as they should.
Controls work alright, you can tap anywhere on the screen to rotate your blocks and swipe down to immediately drop the block to the bottom of the screen. The actual mechanic seems to be quite good as well, you match up 3 of the same colours and they disappear. Chains deal more damage and damage builds up with a timer, each time the hour glass flips all the damage you have amassed from destroying crystals is dealt to your enemy. Hurt them enough and you win.
Chaining is aided by 'hard' blocks which are darker and you need to explode a normal block next to it to destroy it, it is very helpful for building longer chains.
The RPG aspects include levelling up, which looks to be decently complicated, you can customise the strengths and weaknesses of your character depending on your playstyle. You also collect items and equipment which can be used or equipped to improve your stats. You can assign 4 spells or items to be used on a quickcast button during fights, haven’t got any yet but I’ve only had time to sneak a brief play at work.
All in all it seems like a lot of thought has been put into making this a complete experience rather than a simple cash in with SotN sprites. A lot of thought has clearly gone into establishing a well designed single player mode.
There is also an arcade option which I presume just drops the quest elements, not had time to try it out yet. All in all this one looks like you can sink a lot of time into it and I have a feeling that I will. It is worth the price of entry just to hear the SotN music in my opinion.
As is always the case with the iPhone though, I do wish it had a d-pad. I would snap this up if it were released on the PSN as it would be immense on the Go.
3/10
This is an interesting combination of RPG and gem puzzle fighter.
By far the best thing about it is the Symphony of the Night style and it is dripping in it. The story mode follows the events of the game seen through the eyes of Alucard. You move through the castle room by room and engage enemies in a one on one battle akin to Puzzle Fighter.
The music is as it was with the original PSone release – fantastic. Some of the sprites have been redrawn (including a horrible new render of Alucard himself) but the backgrounds look as they should.
Controls work alright, you can tap anywhere on the screen to rotate your blocks and swipe down to immediately drop the block to the bottom of the screen. The actual mechanic seems to be quite good as well, you match up 3 of the same colours and they disappear. Chains deal more damage and damage builds up with a timer, each time the hour glass flips all the damage you have amassed from destroying crystals is dealt to your enemy. Hurt them enough and you win.
Chaining is aided by 'hard' blocks which are darker and you need to explode a normal block next to it to destroy it, it is very helpful for building longer chains.
The RPG aspects include levelling up, which looks to be decently complicated, you can customise the strengths and weaknesses of your character depending on your playstyle. You also collect items and equipment which can be used or equipped to improve your stats. You can assign 4 spells or items to be used on a quickcast button during fights, haven’t got any yet but I’ve only had time to sneak a brief play at work.
All in all it seems like a lot of thought has been put into making this a complete experience rather than a simple cash in with SotN sprites. A lot of thought has clearly gone into establishing a well designed single player mode.
There is also an arcade option which I presume just drops the quest elements, not had time to try it out yet. All in all this one looks like you can sink a lot of time into it and I have a feeling that I will. It is worth the price of entry just to hear the SotN music in my opinion.
As is always the case with the iPhone though, I do wish it had a d-pad. I would snap this up if it were released on the PSN as it would be immense on the Go.
3/10
Comment