Game Reviews

Pocket RPG

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Pocket RPG
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| Pocket RPG

While the mere mention of elves, orcs, and trolls may be enough to get some Tolkien-obsessed gamers slavering over even the most average RPG title, the vast majority of the games-playing public rightly finds the genre a little bit intimidating.

With that in mind, the blissfully straightforward Pocket RPG is like a breath of fresh air in a dank and stale goblin fortress. It combines exciting action with mild role-playing elements to create an adventure experience that's perfectly suited to mobile.

Elf warning

In Pocket RPG, you select a character class and descend into a series of dungeons packed with the usual cast of monsters and beasts. As you might expect, you earn experience points in combat, and you can also collect gold and restorative items from treasure chests.

Where Pocket RPG differs slightly from other games of this ilk is in its combat. To all intents and purposes, it plays like a twin-stick shooter, with some welcome melee elements brought in for good measure.

The game's transition to the Xperia Play solves one of the biggest criticisms we had of Pocket RPG on iOS - the finger-mashing control system.

With movement mapped to either the eight-way D-pad or the left-hand analogue touchpad and attacks controlled by the fascia buttons, the interface is nigh-on perfect.

This is yet another example of Sony Ericsson's much-maligned phone making an existing touchscreen game immeasurably better thanks to its physical controls.

Be my fantasy

But the improved interface can't solve the other shortcomings we highlighted: the random nature of the dungeons, the unfair advantage afforded to melee characters, and the generally lacking nature of the storyline - the latter being a cardinal sin for some dedicated RPG players.

Still, Pocket RPG doesn't profess to be a hardcore role-playing epic, but instead offers a light snack to nibble on in-between your grand, orc-slaying quests. In that respect, it's a definite success - and the Xperia Play's physical controls make it even more playable.

Pocket RPG

While Pocket RPG's deliberately light gameplay may not suit all tastes, it offers hours of entertainment, and this Xperia Play version scores points over the iOS original thanks to its superb controls
Score
Damien  McFerran
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.