Game Reviews

All-Star Troopers review - "A mix-up of genres that pretty much works"

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| All-Star Troopers
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All-Star Troopers review - "A mix-up of genres that pretty much works"
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| All-Star Troopers

Innovation and iteration, in the mobile gaming sphere at least, are pretty close bedfellows. And that's certainly the case in All-Star Troopers.

It takes ideas from plenty of other sources, then blends them together into a simple midcore strategy title. Is it a MOBA? Is it a shooter? Is it a tower defence game? Well, in a way, it's all of those and more.

And while it throws a bunch of concepts into the mix, its levels are short enough to be perfect for mobile play. Sure, there are problems here, and some people will find the whole thing pretty flat, but if it tickles you in just the right way, it's going to have some staying power.

You're an all-star

The game sees you controlling a team of three different heroes. There are loads to collect, but the basic makeup of your squad is always going to be pretty similar. You'll have a damage dealer, a tank, and a healer.

You'll only have one of these characters out at once, but their buffs roll over. Pick your healer, throw out their healing aura, and then swap to a damage-dealer and the ring of healing remains.

That adds some interest to proceedings, and sees you bouncing between the members of your team on a regular basis. It also means new characters are always in with a chance of getting slotted into that rotation.

All-Star Troopers iOS review screenshot - Big explosions

You've also got a small army of minions. They follow your hero character automatically and attack anything that's close to them. They've got their own cooldown, but if you've got some left when that cooldown runs out, they'll remain to fight alongside the newcomers.

Alongside the single player campaign there's a multiplayer component. Here you're attacking other players' bases to nab their stuff. You need to fortify your own compound as well, levelling it up to unlock new and more powerful weapons.

So there's building, shooting, strategy, and just for good measure the game throws in card-collection as well. Yes, it's a little bit by the numbers sometimes, but there's fun to be had all the same.

Get your game on

This isn't the sort of game that's going to get anyone not interested in the midcore on board. It sets out its stall from the get-go, and doesn't sway from it no matter how deep you get into the experience.

But if you're looking for a mash-up of a bunch of ideas that, for the most part, manages to gel together into a coherent whole, it's worth wasting some of your time with.

All-Star Troopers review - "A mix-up of genres that pretty much works"

Go play All-Star Heroes if it sounds like your sort of thing. If it sounds awful, nothing the game does will change your mind
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.