Mega Drive classic Shining Force for iPhone out now in New Zealand

For those that enjoy a good RPG, Shining Force will be available on the App Store as of - well, now if you live in New Zealand, and at whenever it turns midnight wherever you live.

In Shining Force, you begin your adventure in the Land of Guardiana as Max, the main protagonist of the game and leader of the Shining Force. You set out to prevent the evil Darksol from opening the Shining Path and resurrecting the Dark Dragon (causing the destruction of the world as we know it). And so on.

Along the way, you recruit allies, explore towns, and battle enemies.

The gameplay is essentially the same as in previous versions, in that battles are turn-based with the environment is divided up into a square grid.

Each ally you acquire takes up a square on this grid, and depending on the proximity to the enemy you can perform a number of options, including searching the area and attacking enemies using magic and melee tactics to gain experience points.

Regardless of any battle’s outcome, however, there's no Game Over, and your army gets to keep any experience points gained during a skirmish (although it loses half its funds).

Shining Force was originally released for the Sega Mega Drive way back in 1992, and has been re-released in almost every format you can think of either as a standalone game (Wii), or as part of a compilation (Sega Smash Pack 2 for the Dreamcast and PC, and in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox360 and PlayStation 3).

It also underwent a subsequent remake for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 (Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon.)

This latest version for iPhone is a direct port of the original Sega Mega Drive version. It's priced at £1.79 / $2.99.