As you wish
“Heroes. Giants. Villains. Wizards. True Love. – Not just your basic, average, everyday, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, ho-hum fairy tale.” or so goes the tagline to The Princess Bride, one of greatest adventure films of the eighties, in fact of all time. So when Amazon had The Princess Bride from Gameblend studios as their Appstore free app of the day, would I not download it? Inconceivable!
I have to say the prospect of testing my skills in a battle of strength, or wits, or steel or fighting off huge Rodents of unusual size, or any of the other memorable moments from the film may have coloured my outlook on what to expect from the game, sadly the end product doesn’t really live up to them. Instead you’re presented with four mini-games (presently, though more are apparently going to arrive as a free update) of relatively simplistic design, and whilst the cartoony graphical style looks good and the odd line from the movie dotted in for colour, they simply don’t live up to charm of the source material.
That said there really is nothing inherently wrong with any of them, and indeed a younger or more casual player would probably find some entertainment in them, as it stood for me though I grew tired of them rather quickly, and not even the prospect of differing challenges for extra stars could keep me coming back other than to unlock the later games. Another criticism I have is a rather light attempt at freemium (and be aware this game is sold for upwards of £2.50 in both both iOS and Android stores) in that they sell Magic Pills as continues in their store along with instant unlocks of the games, which is slightly depressing really, even though it’s not exceptionally difficult to unlock them. Can I complain if the app was free? (well it was app of the day free which is different) but actually charging money for something and then putting in a mechanism for charging even more just smacks of cynicism and leaves a sour taste really, and leaves me only one thing to say to the developers Gameblend;
“Freemium, You use that word but I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
Or in other words don’t charge for the main game if you’re going to add cynical cash grabs like buying continues into it. Pick one or the other, not both. But I digress….
Before each game you’re treated to a few images from the movie to pepper it up a bit as well as a specific challenge to complete in each board, which earns you stars which you use to unlock the other mini-games.
The first game Shrieking Eels is a simple button tap game. The premise being Buttercup is stranded in the water with eels coming to eat her and you have to stop this by bashing the heads of the eels as they pop out of the water. A nice touch in these games is that the rounds seem to be reasonably random so there is a little bit of replay-ability built in, not to mention the challenges ranging from collecting coins, to beating the first boss etc.
The second game is the Cliffs of Insanity. It uses your phone (or devices) gyro to allow you to control the rope and a tap mechanic to climb faster allowing you to avoid seagulls and falling rocks which again come in waves. To be fair this is actually a reasonably decent mini-game and the mechanic is well executed, at least it was on my Aous (Android of unusual size) the LG G3.
The third mini game is the Battle of Steel, and to be fair it was the one I was most looking forward to seeing, though sadly I feel they’ve missed a trick. Instead of any kind of even remotely skill based sword fight you’re treated to a simplistic game involving hitting icons of swords as they appear on the screen and avoid the masks mini game whilst the battle between Westley and Inigo goes on in the upper third of the screen without your input. I feel this one was a real let down to the source material if Im honest and instead they’ve gone full casual on it.
The fourth and currently final mini game is the Battle of Strength where you square off against Vizzini’s Giant. Again the game is relatively simplistic in its control method either swipe left, right or up dependant on Fezzik’s stance and then put him in a sleeper hold. Rinse, repeat.
Im not saying there’s anything inherently bad about any of the mini games, but considering the source material it does seem like a missed trick, because other than the graphics, there are simply better examples of these styles of game on the market. It certainly doesn’t fill me with any kind of excitement for any future update when it finally arrives. On a positive note the mini games are at least well executed for what they are and if you like short simplistic bursts of fun then they may appeal to you.
In short though personally I wouldn’t have wanted to spend actual money on this, which just feels like four mini games missing an actual main game. I kind of see what they were going for, but sadly the execution is a little lacking, or the ultra casual design just doesn’t sway me. Maybe when they release the rest of the mini games there may be cause to justify its price tag because currently I don’t think it does.