Partake In Some Good Old-Fashioned RPG Fun With Swordigo
Swordigo ($1.99) by Touch Foo is yet another great platform adventure game from the makers of Soosiz. this time with some great RPG elements like levels, items, and skill ups.
The game is actually a lot like an old school Zelda title - the hero wears green, there’s jewel-filled grass to chop up with your sword, and the sound effects will bring back instant memories of the days when you used to spend your afternoons glued to the TV helping Link defeat Ganon.
This is more of a platformer than an RPG, and it is well done. The controls are spot on - jumping is accurate, as is swinging your sword and using magic spells.
What keeps it from hitting true RPG territory? The story. It’s there, but it’s weak. The general idea is that you’re off on an adventure, exploring dungeons and towns, while defeating monsters and gathering treasures to eventually defeat a spreading corruption.
Movement is controlled with left/right arrows on the left side of the screen, while jumping and sword swinging are on the right. I didn’t like the close proximity of the jump and attack buttons, but I solved my problem by using spells instead, as the spell button is above the jump button rather than next to it.
Speaking of spells, as you run through levels dispatching enemies, you will earn experience points. Every time you level up you can increase one of your attributes: health, attack, or magic.
As the game progresses, you will unlock new abilities and spells to use for different purposes. For example, a magic missile kills enemies, but a magic bomb destroys obstacles.
Each level is filled with monsters, and some of them can be quite challenging. There are bats that swoop around above your head and chargers who run fast and head straight for you. It’s likely you will spend some time revisiting levels, because running out of hearts means game over and you lose a half every time you take a hit.
There are gate checkpoints where you will restart, and all of your actions remain completed. For example, if you opened a door and then died, the door stays open - you don’t need to repeat the action that opened it in the first place.
There will be a lot of key seeking and puzzle solving as you work out how to open doors and get around barriers. The world is semi-linear, but you can use gates to travel back to any other gate at any time (including the healer’s house).
I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the graphics. They’re basic and overly simplistic, but still, they look crisp and I’m willing to overlook the art style for the great gameplay.
I invested a lot of time in this game, and I’m still not even close to being finished, so there’s quite a bit of gameplay. There are also Game Center achievements and leaderboards, plus iCloud sync.
Honestly, if you only buy one game this week, you should choose Swordigo (yes, even over Angry Birds Space). I’ve played a lot of games on iOS, but this is one of my favorite platformers to date. With perfect controls and challenging but fun gameplay, Swordigo is well worth your $1.99.
