Swords and Soldiers, (sold separately for iPad, $2.99), published by Chillingo, is a side-scrolling RTS (real time strategy) game with a lot of tower defense components from the creators of the iOS classic Toki Tori.
It’s not a surprise that this WiiWare, PC/Mac port was featured as the App Store game of the week – it’s funny, even a bit crazy. The devs at Two Tribes deliver again, offering a great story, excellent graphics and addictive gameplay.
The game is all about three factions: The Vikings, the Aztecs and the Chinese, each of which help gamers on a specific and completely unique campaign.
The Vikings are the easiest, and the place to start, but each group has some crazy stories and characters. The Vikings like brutal barbecues with very good rib sauce, and Aztecs protect the Holy Pepper. Did I mention the Chinese fire-breathing dragon kites and ninja monkeys? I laughed almost as much as I played.
Each faction offers players different types of special powers that help in their quest to defeat enemies. Go for the healing powers of the Vikings or would blowing things up with the Chinese be more fun? If not, the mystical powers of the Aztecs may be the way to go.
While the game is best described as a side-scrolling RTS it’s probably not for diehard RTS fans.
There’s not much strategy or tactics involved here, but this is what Chillingo does best. They find popular games in all categories, buy them and reinvent them for casual gamers using Apple’s touchscreen devices. This is a great example of how they pull that off.
In Swords and Soldiers, players just build and fight in small numbers, which makes everything quite manageable and allows time to just enjoy the graphics and chuckle when unleashing some “special” powers.
There’s hours of gameplay here, as there are three campaign modes to be completed. If that’s not enough there’s a fully customizable “Skirmish” mode that adds at lot of replay value. Add Game Center and Crystal Network for achievements and leaderboards to keep players hooked.
There is no online multiplayer available, which would be great for an update, but it does offer you the option of a local two-player mode. Also, I tested this game on an iPhone 4 and had no issues, but there are reports of crashes on original iPads.
Swords and Soldiers is perfect for gamers who don’t want to worry too much about strategy and harvesting resources. The crazy characters and humorous storylines will put a smile on any face and the gameplay will keep players coming back for more. Both the iPhone and iPad versions are currently 50% off so grab it up now.
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