Three Ordinary Kids Turn Into Spell-Slinging Fighters In Kids vs Goblins
Kids vs Goblins ($2.99) by Crescent Moon Games is a surprisingly fun action adventure game complete with RPG elements that make it both strategically challenging and addictive.
Though the game features cute graphics (aka, kids fighting in bear suits), decent environments, and a variety of skills, it was the core gameplay that sucked me in. It’s a little bit like Battleheart, in that you’ve got a team of heroes pitted against a horde of enemies.
The plot line involves three kids trapped on a magical island with a horde of goblins and monsters, who have kidnapped their baby brother. Since the island is magic, it gives them super powers, which they use to fight the goblins in order to rescue the baby.
You’ve got three heroes, which sort of have set abilities. The bear child is the one with the warrior skills, the girl is the standard mage/healer, and the archer deals ranged damage. Of course, it’s a bit more complicated because there are three different stances - fighting, healing, and support - and each character has access to a range of different spells in all three stances.
That means at times, the warrior or the archer can heal, while the mage deals fire or frost damage as a support hero or attacking hero. Stances mostly come into play with different missions that require them.
You see, missions aren’t all the same. They’ve all got slightly different objectives. For instance, sometimes the goal is simply to win, but sometimes it’s to survive for a set amount of time, survive with only two characters, or survive while fighting with a random set of spells that change every few seconds.
The gameplay is dynamic, so every level is a lot of fun. Attacking is done by drawing a line from your character to monsters, and movement is done by tapping a character and then tapping the ground. Double tapping a monster will cause all three characters to attack at once, and double tapping on the ground will cause them to move as a group. These controls generally work well, though I’ve had some trouble targeting in close quarters.
While the game is easy to pick up, learning the ins and outs of all of the stances and figuring out strategies for each level will take some skill, but it’s a fun challenge. I’ve actually been playing this game for over a week, and I’m entirely addicted.
My main complaint is that there’s no loot in the game. Every good battle game needs treasure! Instead, coins gathered from monsters are used to buy new spells.
There are six different areas to fight in, on beaches, in castles, on snowy mountains, and in deep, dark caves. There are also 30 missions and 60 spells to learn, which equates to quite a bit of gameplay.
Kids vs Goblins is a game that’s great for skilled and casual players alike. It’s universally fun, like many of Crescent Moon’s other offerings (Paper Monsters, Pocket RPG, Avalon), so you’ll definitely want to check it out.
