iTunes Game Review: Deadliest Warrior Game for the iPhone

iTunes Game Review: Deadliest Warrior Game for the iPhone
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Spike’s Deadliest Warrior

Deadliest Warrior: Defend and Conquer is a tower defense strategy game for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices. It is available from iTunes for 99 cents, or you can get the Lite demo version for free. This game is based on the Deadliest Warrior television show that airs on Spike. Later in July, a much more detailed console version of the Deadliest Warrior game will be released, but this iTunes game is a far cry from what I’ve seen of that release. I found this game to be rather buggy and boring.

Gameplay (3 out of 5)

Deadliest Warrior 1

This Deadliest Warrior game for the iPhone is what you call a tower defense game. You play on a small map where enemies come down pre-chosen paths and you have to block their movement by setting up enough defenses to kill them before they get to the other side. There’s a bit of strategy in laying out the proper defenses so that some units can weaken them while others finish off the enemy. In this game, you have a variety of units that have ranged and melee weapons, and the goal is simply to stop the enemy on-rushers from getting to the other side of the screen. It may sound simple, but it can get to be pretty complicated and difficult as the enemies keep coming.

The problem here is that iTunes is already full of tower defense games just like this one, including some that are much better. I know the control system on Apple’s handheld devices is somewhat limiting in terms of what kind of games can be played, but to have yet another boring tower defense game is lame.

Controls (2 out of 5)

The control system in this game needs some work because I had a lot of trouble with it. For starters, it just didn’t seem to detect my tapping properly. Maybe it is because the individual units are so small on screen and my fingers are too big, but many times I would bang on the screen with my finger and get no response until I hit it just right. It’s even worse when you have to move your main guy around because you’ll accidentally tap on other units.

Graphics and Sound (4 out of 5)

Deadliest Warrior 2

I thought this Deadliest Warrior game for the iPhone was visually impressive, although sometimes the amount of graphics on screen got in the way of the controls. You will have a bunch of different units available in this game, such as ninjas who throw stars or guys with pikes or spears. Although everything is very small on the screen, the detail is very good. I also thought the map layouts were nicely detailed with realistic outdoor textures. The sound effects are repetitive since this type of game is very repetitive, but I usually keep my sound turned down to the lowest setting for most games.

Bugs and Crashes (1 out of 5)

I read a lot of user comments on iTunes where people complained about this game crashing or freezing. I didn’t personally experience the game closing itself, but what I did run into was it not sending the next wave of enemies. I suppose this essentially counts as a freeze, even though I could still manage my own units. I had to quit to the main menu and then resume my game to get the next wave to appear. Many of the user reviews on iTunes are negative because of the bugs in this game, so consider yourself warned.

Overall (3 out of 5)

Overall, I think the Deadliest Warrior game for the iPhone is a bust. There are already way too many tower defense games on iTunes, and much better ones than this.