Hands on with eight-way iPhone online shooter iMech

Is there a market for online shooters on the App Store?

It’s not a genre you’d expect to be madly popular with fans of Trism and Peggle, but as sure as exit wound follows entry wound, this is the ground on which hardcore game developers will always make a competitive stand.

So while ngmoco is priming its four-way Quake III-powered KillTest, San Francisco developer Flying Dino is close to releasing its eight-way iMech.

Set up by developers originally from Namco Mobile, Flying Dino is a small codeshop that’s banking on carving out a reputation with its online multiplayer games for iPhone and iPod touch.

The original concept for iMech was to create a simple online game, but as development rolled on the idea coalesced into a 3D mech-based shooter. Partly this was due was co-founder Henry Ho’s love of the MechWarrior games.

“My first PC came with MechWarrior 2 installed and I played it to death,” he recalls.

Of course, this type of third-person game is not without its limitations. For one thing, mechs are cumbersome to turn compared to the floating camera of first-person shooters. Other traditional FPS techniques such as rocket jumps and bunnyhops are also out of bounds. Unlike many Japanese games like Virtua On, iMech doesn’t include mad jetpacks and the like.

Instead, Flying Dino plans to keep the game as simple as possible.

At launch, it will be online-only - via wi-fi so without support for the less reliable, slower 3G services - and consist of five arenas. The only mode will be a free-for-all Skirmish, with each battle lasting for five minutes. There won’t be any bots either so all combatants will be human.

Hence, ensuring there are enough players available so you’re not waiting around for games to start will be vital. To start with, at least, there won’t be any skill filtering either.

“The arenas are designed that with eight players shooting, everyone will frag and be fragged,” explains Ho. “The action is so frantic, no one player will be able to own the level.”

A statistic system will track the number of kills you make, and this will link into a levelling up process that will unlock two new mechs, although compared to the default mech, changes will be cosmetic.

The stats and leaderboard will be accessible by a web page, although if you don’t want to register, there will be a guest log-in option too.

Future plans for the game include more modes such as Capture and Flag and Odd Man Out. In addition, a single player mission mode is on the cards, as are more mech designs.

As for playing the game, the controls come in two forms, with an advanced dual joypad set up with right sided button to fire and locked horizontal camera and autofire for beginners.

There are three weapons that you always have access to: a machine gun, a laser that you hold down to power up, and a gorgeous flamethrower for close-in melee damage. Other options include mines that you pick up. You select between these weapons by tapping icons on the bottom of the screen. You can also select from pre-set text taunts from the top right of the screen.

In terms of playing the game, we only had three mechs in the arena, but that was frantic enough for my first time. The graphics are great, with neat touches such as smoke coming out of a mech just before it’s about to cook up.

Another interesting option is shield-boost system. You can boost your mech left or left by tapping with your left hand, but this uses up your shield. In testing, some players started to use this to perform quick sliding attacks with the flamethrower.

You can see a video of a flaming death action sequence from the game here.

We’ll be looking out to see how what reaction iMech gains when it’s released during the next couple of weeks. The price is expected to be $2.99.

There is a final cautionary note for European readers, however. The game will initially only be launched on the North American App Store, as that’s where the game servers are located.

Hopefully, though, Pocket Gamer will get a chance to test the performance from the UK. And, in time, Flying Dino expects to add non-US servers too.