Metal Gear Solid Touch is not bad!

Metal Gear Solid is certainly a franchise that no gamers wouldn't know. The 20-year old series (I think now is 21 years old or so) certainly has captured a lot of attention, especially when the 5th episode, i.e., Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was released last year. I myself have played through Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (and Plus) on PSP and LOVING IT! It is short and sweet with definitely near-perfect visual. Now, Metal Gear series expands to iPhone/iPod Touch. I certainly welcome such addition. The graphic certainly lives up to PSP one, and the gameplay fully exploits the touch feature. Moreover, Kojima really renders the whole game sweet and short in one go, that makes it perfectly fit into its portability.



Story: It follows the same story line of Metal Gear Solid 4 without the epic cutscenes, dialogs, dramatic visualization, etc., replaced with some text. I personally don't have any objection on that, in fact, since I don't have Playstation 3 (man, how much I wish I have one), I now can enjoy the epic story of MGS 4 on iPhone. That certainly is welcomed by other people like myself, who do not have Playstation 3.

Control: It fully uses the touch feature, and I must say, perfectly applying it! To aim, we just needs to move our finger to the target, and to shoot just quickly tap it. To avoid the bullets, just remove the finger from the screen. It is certainly intuitive enough that even without reading the instruction, gamers can just straightforward plays it and figures out in one second. One thing to mention is that the gameplay is merely shoot and dodge, yet so much fun so. Snake is not going to move around like in Playstation 3. I think it is very nicely designed to fit on iPhone/iPod Touch.

Graphic: Like I said earlier, the visualization is really sweet and neat! I think, this might be the best looking iPhone/iPod Touch game. Of course you can argue that I rarely play any iPhone/iPod Touch games. But, you would agree with me when you play this game. Somehow, I hate to admit that the graphic beats PSP version of MGS.

Sound: What can I say, the sound is great! The gun shoot, background music, etc. everything is done very well. Kojima's team certainly has nailed it one more time on this! Well done, well done!

Overall: I will certainly give it 4.5/5!!

Review : Crystal Defenders

Square-Enix starts showing some love for Apple. Crystal Defenders is the first love! So, I decided to give it a trial, and somehow paid for it afterward. I guess somehow I just love whatever Square-Enix produces. What is the game then? It is simply a casual game that fits nicely on an iPhone / iPod Touch. For USD 7.99, does it worth it? I guess it really depends. So, the game is simply like the Tower Defense game.

Basically you have to deploy a number of Final Fantasy Tactics characters with different jobs such as soldier, monk, thief, black mage, etc. And, what they are going to do is to beat or eliminate those marching monsters and protecting those crystals from being stolen. Each of these characters has its strength, speed and attack range. So, the player has to plan carefully to deploy the characters because each deployment consumes some amount of Gils, and it is limited. But, you can earn Gils by beating the monsters.


Story: There is no story... So, nothing to say about this. Basically, just deploy as many strong characters as your amount of Gils allow you to to defend your crystals. Another thing, there aren't a lot of levels or scenarios to choose from. In total, I think there are only about 12 scenarios... I mean seriously!
Control: Honestly, the control is a bit clumsy on iPhone. There is a big orb with some directional arrows around it at the bottom of the screen. And, they are not that useful and intuitive. I have to do some trials to know how it works, and the directional "button" certainly is not that responsive.
Graphic: It is satisfying for me. I can really see those cuteness of the FF Tactics characters. And, the presentation is certainly stunning on the small iPhone.
Sound: The quality of sound is cool, but I have to complain about the music. As far as I know it only replays the one song over and over again at the background. I am a bit disappointed, really. I mean Square-Enix should do more than that!

In conclusions, does it worth USD 7.99? Like I said, it depends on yourself. For me it is good enough, but of course always the more the merrier. So, I give it a 2.5 out of 5.

Square-Enix is showing more love to Apple

Square-Enix, yeah... you can tell somehow the stuff produced by this company always fits my taste perfectly. It has shown a lot of love in PS3, PSP, NDS, and some love on XBox360 (nowadays). And, I certainly love Dissidia: Final Fantasy on PSP, so love that I cannot stop talking about it. And now, Square-Enix is showing love on iPhone/iPod. Crystal Defenders is the second game after Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes produced by Square-Enix for Apple. Well, I haven't tried Song Summoner mainly because I couldn't find it on iTunes Store. And, I somehow enjoy more Final Fantasy related stuff. This game is not about Final Fantasy, but it does use Final Fantasy characters, jobs, items, monsters, etc. So, it does give me a nostalgic feeling.

Crystal Defenders probably is one of those casual games, and it fits smartly on iPhone/iPod. What is the game all about? Simply put it, it is like that flash game Tower Defender. Basically, just pick and deploy any character with a job (e.g. archer, soldier, mage, etc. from Final Fantasy job classes) on the field, and start the wave of enemies (i.e., monsters from Final Fantasy) from stealing the crystals, i.e., reached the end of the route. There are quite some RPG elements too, like Gil (money of Final Fantasy). To deploy or upgrade the character, you have to spend Gil, but you can earn that by killing the monsters.

Easy and casual! Yeah, good for my iPhone!