Play Shake Spears! And Become The Most Powerful Knight In All The Lands

Upon opening the app, you’re taken to a map that shows you all of the various kingdoms and jousting arenas, which are unlocked sequentially as you finish each one. Tapping one takes you to a tournament, where there are five progressively difficult levels.

The controls are simple and easy to pick up, but hard to master. During the jousts, your knight will ride from the left while the enemy will ride from the right. Aim your lance by swiping with a finger on the right side of the screen, and control your shield by swiping on the left side.

Your objective during these duels is to knock the opposing jouster from his horse, which is done by depleting his hit points by carefully aiming for select body parts.

You and your opponent are both clad in full armor with shields, and they will mitigate damage until they are destroyed by blows. When armor is broken down, or if you score a hit on an unprotected area, damage is increased.

Scoring is based on how many tries it takes you to unhorse your opponent, with three stars being the maximum. Three stars earn you more gold, which can be exchanged for armor upgrades or spells.

Spells are bought in the magic shop, and there are four categories: knight, alchemist, warlock, and mechanic. You can buy spells from any section, and the more powerful ones will cost you more gold.

These spells are used in jousting matches for abilities like power boosts, armor degradation, equipment repairs, and defense. Each ability can be used once per jousting match and can give you a significant advantage over your opponent.

When you upgrade your armor, it counts as a new level, which also bestows additional health, strength, and armor bonuses to your knight. Leveling up is an important aspect of the game, because in each tournament, you will face knights and enemies that continually increase in level.

At times, the amount of gold earned will not allow you to level up to face the next castle, so replaying tournaments for extra gold is usually required, a process that can be tedious.

If you’re not up to par, you may lose to the last knight in a tournament, a foe that’s always a bit tricker. When you lose during one of the final matches, you have to redo the entire tournament, so it’s important to keep an eye on your level.

Instead of spending time redoing matches for cash, you can also buy gold as an in-app purchase. A dollar will get you 5,000 gold pieces, while 50,000 gold pieces will cost you $4.99.

For competitive types, Shake Spears! features both Game Center and OpenFeint integration. There are achievements to earn, and leaderboards where you can keep track of your score and compete against friends.

Despite its simple, repetitive gameplay, Shake Spears! is an engrossing game. It takes a fair amount of strategy and skill to successfully operate a lance and shield, and as I got progressively better at it, I found myself enjoying the game even more.

Visually, this game is gorgeous, and I think that’s half the reason I liked it. It was fun watching my knight strut around and defeat enemies in pink-tooled black armor with a pink feather plume adorning his hat. The 2D graphics are some of the best I’ve seen on the iPhone, and make for an engaging game.

I played Shake Spears! on both the iPhone and the iPad, and while the graphics aren’t quite as impressive on the iPad, the larger screen allows for more accurate aiming. I enjoyed the game on both platforms, and found the controls to be equally functional on both screens.

Shake Spears! is a unique, refreshing game that is well worth downloading. It’s a nice change from lobbing birds and pigs at various objects, but if you’re not convinced, there’s a lite version available for download so you can try it out.