Blades of Fury

It certainly seems that you can’t look away from the AppStore for more than a few minutes without Gameloft releasing another game into the mix.

In fact, they move so quickly their next game has been released (and reviewed here) before I could get this finished. But, let’s forget that for the moment and focus on Blades of Fury!

Now, the first thing you’ll notice is that like Gangstar (a GTA Clone) and like Sandstorm (a Call of Duty clone) Blades of Fury owes more than a few tips of the hat to games like Soul Caliber. Now, I’ve heard people complaining at this, asking where the originality is? But, the bottom line is that Gameloft do what they do extremely well, and fan of the bigger developers or not, you can not argue that they are pushing the iDevice hard.

So, you should have guessed already, but for those that haven’t, Blades of Fury is a good old fashioned beat-em-up. I had a lot of fun with these button bashers back in my day so had high hopes for this. But was really curious to know if I could still button bash when I had no actual buttons?

Luckily, I was in for a surprise, Gameloft really have mastered the whole virtual joysticks and the controls are easy enough, with a joypda/dpad on the left that controls your character and a number of buttons on the right to control type of attack, defend and magic the controls really work well and don’t seem to hinder the ability to get the combos going and cause some damamge to your opponent. At the top, unsurprisingly, you’ll see your health bar (in red) and the magic bar (in four chunks of blue) just below.

On first play, we get the (still impressive, but somewhat annoying opening video that can’t be turned off) and then a tutorial which takes you through the basics. From there, it’s time to get fighting. The game offers four modes of play, Story, Arcade, Survival and Practice, with five levels of difficulty; ranging from easy to hardest, this game allows new-comers and hard core gamers an equal chance to enjoy the mayhem. With a range of characters, each with their own range of impressive attacks and combos (although some characters do need to be unlocked via Story Mode) and 10 arenas in which to do battle, this game promises plenty of game time.

If, after a battle, you feel the urge to show your skills off to a friend, you can always save your replay. There’s no way to share it online at present and I was unable to successfully log into Gameloft Live (and have heard that no-one has been able to manage this yet). That doesn’t mean you can’t whip out your iDevice next time your friends are round and show them your skills.

Back to my previous comment. Don’t think that when I say “good old fashioned” that I’m referring to the graphics. This is a 3-D fighting affair, and all 10 of the levels are beautifully rendered, these range from a forest, though a graveyard and even the back of a dragon.

The game also offers multiplayer action through local Wi-Fi, although I was unable to test this due to a lack of an opponent (and lack of local Wi-Fi). Add to all this a decent soundtrack and let’s face this, another winner from the Gameloft Team.

I do hate not finding at least one fault in a game, feeling that if I ever did find a game with no faults I might as well stop reviewing. And Blades of Fury does have a couple, the story line is a little stale and with rather useless voice acting. But, thinking on that, this is a beat-em up and I’d expect nothing less.

That aside, if you’re a fan of this genre of games, I seriously recommend that you think long and hard before dismissing it. How can you complain that it’s a clone of another game when it’s done so well? It’s a shame that Gameloft Live doesn’t appear to be working, but this is the first game to include it so hopefully this will be fixed soon. Right, that’s enough of that, ready?… FIGHT!

Current Status: Highly Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.0.6
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1
Download size: 126MB
Released on: 08 September 2009
Retails for: £3.99 / $6.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G / iPhone 3GS (Requires OS 2.2.1 or later)