Ars review if you prefer a well written piece than me gushing over it:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2011/03/walking-on-water-ars-reviews-superbrothers-sword-sworcery.ars
First off, this game has just been released today for the iPad. It will be coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch in April. However, after only spending a half hour with this game, I must say, by God, if you have an iPad, get it for that.
Let me paint a picture of what this game is like. Take a traditional fantasy world. Combine it with an exploratory play style not unlike Monkey Island, but simplified. Throw in some amazing pixel graphic design, with rich colors and smooth animation. Spice it up with engaging sound effects, and an incredible soft, atmospheric soundtrack. Add simple two button combat, that is reminiscent of Punch Out, and tie this combat into the storyline directly.
Puzzles exist, and although simplistic in the first session, I have the feeling they will grow more intriguing as the game progresses. The story builds rapidly, and you feel tied to the character you play. You feel directly responsible for the actions, and consequences. Combine this with whimsical, but modern dialogue, all encapsulated in small Twitter-sized bites. In fact, you can tweet directly in the game any text you encounter, much of which is creative, funny, and somehow befitting the world they create. For example, the rather simple minded main character, remarking about a woodcutter he encounters: "To the mountain folk of The Caucasus he was known as 'Logfella' & he seemed cool."
Controls and interaction are smooth, responsive, and easy to understand. It feels natural. Only entering combat seemed confusing, until a helpful tip appeared, but that combat becomes an important story mechanic. The UI is extremely minimal, only revealing itself upon interactions with 3 small buttons on the screen. The first, being the "tweet this" button, only appears during dialog on the right. The second is a status and inventory menu, at the top. And the last is a quit button, on the left. Combat is started by rotating the device into portrait mode, and provides context-aware shield and sword buttons (as only some areas require the sword, etc).
I'll reiterate that I'm only 17% of the way through this game. After spending only a half hour, I was already prepared to state that this was, hands down, the most engaging and creative game I've played on a mobile device since I've purchased my iPad. And that's saying a lot, as I've tried numerous games already, including big name games like Angry Birds and Real Racing HD.
I had to post a preview-review of it, because I felt this was something important to gaming. It's unique, and I hope we will see more games like this. It's a game that encourages you to truly be immersed, including asking you to use headphones (which I wholly agree, it's not required, but highly suggested!). It even breaks the gameplay down into sessions, encouraging you to sit down and play through the whole session in one sitting. This is not a game you should pick up and play casually (although you could, it does save your progress regularly, but you will lose the atmosphere).
The kicker of all this is, if you've already got an iOS device, this game is only $5. I consider it a steal, unlike some games I've played. It is short, and perhaps that is a consideration, but I haven't felt this strongly about a game in a long time. I won't go crazy and say it's the best game I've played in years, I'll reserve that until I have beaten it. But it's definitely the best one on a mobile platform right now; be that iOS/Android, the Nintendo DS, or otherwise.
Get it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/superbrothers-sword-sworcery/id424912055?mt=8
Or view an introductory trailer, which does a great job of not spoiling anything:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2011/03/walking-on-water-ars-reviews-superbrothers-sword-sworcery.ars
First off, this game has just been released today for the iPad. It will be coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch in April. However, after only spending a half hour with this game, I must say, by God, if you have an iPad, get it for that.
Let me paint a picture of what this game is like. Take a traditional fantasy world. Combine it with an exploratory play style not unlike Monkey Island, but simplified. Throw in some amazing pixel graphic design, with rich colors and smooth animation. Spice it up with engaging sound effects, and an incredible soft, atmospheric soundtrack. Add simple two button combat, that is reminiscent of Punch Out, and tie this combat into the storyline directly.
Puzzles exist, and although simplistic in the first session, I have the feeling they will grow more intriguing as the game progresses. The story builds rapidly, and you feel tied to the character you play. You feel directly responsible for the actions, and consequences. Combine this with whimsical, but modern dialogue, all encapsulated in small Twitter-sized bites. In fact, you can tweet directly in the game any text you encounter, much of which is creative, funny, and somehow befitting the world they create. For example, the rather simple minded main character, remarking about a woodcutter he encounters: "To the mountain folk of The Caucasus he was known as 'Logfella' & he seemed cool."
Controls and interaction are smooth, responsive, and easy to understand. It feels natural. Only entering combat seemed confusing, until a helpful tip appeared, but that combat becomes an important story mechanic. The UI is extremely minimal, only revealing itself upon interactions with 3 small buttons on the screen. The first, being the "tweet this" button, only appears during dialog on the right. The second is a status and inventory menu, at the top. And the last is a quit button, on the left. Combat is started by rotating the device into portrait mode, and provides context-aware shield and sword buttons (as only some areas require the sword, etc).
I'll reiterate that I'm only 17% of the way through this game. After spending only a half hour, I was already prepared to state that this was, hands down, the most engaging and creative game I've played on a mobile device since I've purchased my iPad. And that's saying a lot, as I've tried numerous games already, including big name games like Angry Birds and Real Racing HD.
I had to post a preview-review of it, because I felt this was something important to gaming. It's unique, and I hope we will see more games like this. It's a game that encourages you to truly be immersed, including asking you to use headphones (which I wholly agree, it's not required, but highly suggested!). It even breaks the gameplay down into sessions, encouraging you to sit down and play through the whole session in one sitting. This is not a game you should pick up and play casually (although you could, it does save your progress regularly, but you will lose the atmosphere).
The kicker of all this is, if you've already got an iOS device, this game is only $5. I consider it a steal, unlike some games I've played. It is short, and perhaps that is a consideration, but I haven't felt this strongly about a game in a long time. I won't go crazy and say it's the best game I've played in years, I'll reserve that until I have beaten it. But it's definitely the best one on a mobile platform right now; be that iOS/Android, the Nintendo DS, or otherwise.
Get it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/superbrothers-sword-sworcery/id424912055?mt=8
Or view an introductory trailer, which does a great job of not spoiling anything:
![[http://ski.ihoc.net/abom_h.gif]](http://ski.ihoc.net/abom_h.gif "http://ski.ihoc.net/abom_h.gif")
