Aug 15, 2016

No goblins allowed in Tiny Archer.

The game starts with aplomb, and Adam is a character that the game nudges one to pick. Our boy Adam happens to be the Guardian of the Northern Kingdom. We also learn that he is tasked with protecting the tower from dastardly goblins, and he accomplishes this task by keeping the monsters away with his rusty bow and arrows.

The shooting mechanism mostly defines the game. The archer is perched up high, arrow ready to fly, waiting on individual goblins to break into view on the right. The game utilizes an arcing line to show the arrow’s projected flight path; this can be adjusted by dragging a finger on the screen.

The interesting trick is not to just get the arrow to hit a stationary enemy, but to gauge its forward progress, such that one has to actually aim a few “game feet” ahead; when one gets it just right, it’s possible to kill or slow down an oncoming goblin. The built-in tutorial is helpful here, and practice makes perfect.

Headshots are especially valuable, and other hits generally reduce the monster’s lifebar. You can’t let a monster get to close, because the shooting angles become impossible when it get’s closer — too many monsters accumulating at the base of the tower means death to the defender. After a set number of incursions, the level is hopefully passed and goodies issued.

As the game goes on (and XP increases), the enemies get tougher, and so do the weapons available. There are other archers that can be unlocked too. You can use boosts, and craft more weapons in between. Bosses, multiple incursion paths, enemy projectiles… yep, yep and yep.

The gameplay develops at a reasonable pace, with advanced weaponry mostly becoming available right in step with the arrival of tougher villains.The other elements aren’t too tough to comprehend, and the changes in pace help keep the concept somewhat evergreen.

The combination of graphics and shooting mechanism work well, and allow this title to live a bit beyond the confines of its genre.

Nonetheless, it is a tough genre to break into, and even with the engaging action mechanism, it might feel a tad monotonous after a while.

Nothing wrong with doing what it does well.

Jun 3, 2011

Paring down a game so that it works on a touch screen phone is a difficult job. Essentially, you have to utilise the space you have on screen as a control system as well as a display. In other words, whatever a player’s fingers are doing, it can’t get in the way of the action that’s happening in-game. One way to counter this is to make a player’s finger taps and slides an integral part of the gameplay itself.

Such is the path of Battleheart, a new RTS/RPG hybrid from Mika Mobile. Eschewing story for a charming art style and simple character progression, Battleheart lets you control epic fantasy battles with a few swipes and taps on the characters involved. It’s not quite an intuitive system, but it does work very well. Most of the time.

Battleheart is a lovely game to look at, full of quirky, cartoony detail and charm. It wears its fantasy cloak with a wry grin and a cheeky wink and never takes itself too seriously, which is good for a game that deals with wizards, rogues and barbarians. The game itself is pretty simple – you hire mercenaries, wipe out any resistance in a level, rinse and repeat. Of course, there’s more to it than that, with levelling up, team balancing, roles, gear and skills all to be taken into consideration as well. Micromanagement of funds, characters and equipment is the key to victory, as well as some nimble fingers and a keen eye.

The game doesn’t quite get its control system right, unfortunately. There are times, especially when the screen is full of enemies, when getting the right person to do the right thing becomes too much of a chore. That’s a far from ideal situation for an RTS to find itself in, but it’s a minor price to pay for what is a lovely game.

Battleheart is a perfectly bite-sized mobile game that’s deep enough to get lost in if you want, but has enough pick-up-and-playability to appeal to the less tactically minded as well. Add to that a great art style, a wicked sense of humour and a smooth UI and it becomes a no-brainer. You should play this game.

Note: The Android Market version of the game doesn’t work on some devices, such as Galaxy S phones, because of download cache issues. However, the Amazon Appstore version should work for those devices affected.