Game Reviews

Hero of Sparta (iPhone)

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Hero of Sparta (iPhone)

If blood, guts, and glory are the way to a gamer's heart, then consider Cupid's arrow to be lodged in our chest. Hero of Sparta arrives with unparalleled action and slick visuals that ensure its status in the pantheon.

Awaking on a beach skirting Oracle Island, the warrior Argos endeavours to return home through Hero of Sparta's eight mission journey. Aside from knowing where home is and his identity, Argos is at a loss for how he ended up on the island and why. No matter - he's eager to pick up arms and fight, delivering the finest bloody action on iPhone this year.

Trekking across the landscape of ancient Greece involves a touch-sensitive analogue stick situated in the lower left corner. On the whole it works well, yet it does lack the comfort and precision of actual hardware.

Navigating the beautifully detailed 3D levels can be trying, as Argos routinely gets stuck on various objects lining his linear path. The analogue stick is responsive about half the time, while the other half you need to take your thumb or finger off the screen and then back down to trigger movement in the desired direction.

Attacking, on the other hand (literally), is without issue. The right side of the screen features 'attack' and 'block' icons that take an easy tap to activate. Holding your finger down on the attack buttons also works, stringing together a few attacks.

As you acquire new weapons later in the game, you can even switch among arms by hitting the 'swap' button in the upper right corner. Along with Argos's starting sword and shield combination, you come into a massive scimitar, bow and arrows, and an axe.

Your diverse arsenal contributes to the variety of action that makes Hero of Sparta so satisfying. The slithering gorgons, skittering scorpions, and ugly minotaurs that ravage the landscape make the current Greek riots look like a playground quarrel.

Mashing the attack button gets you pretty far, although special attacks help in defeating tougher beasts. These blows require spending a bit from your blue ability-gauge that automatically refills over time.

Strong enemies can even be taken down in mini-game form, prompting you to tap skull icons that pop onto the screen. Nail them quickly and the creature falls, but if you miss a chunk of your health is taken. Occasionally, you even have to defend against enemy blows with a quick icon tap - another illustration of the game's dynamism.

Executing enemies in this way is a good idea not just because it's fun, but because it rewards you with more orbs for upgrading Argos's weapons.

Red orbs collected from fallen foes can be siphoned into weapon damage or special attack categories for each armament. The effect of these upgrades is questionable, though. It's not apparent that your attacks are stronger following an upgrade.

Hero of Sparta champions more than just action on iPhone, but visual fidelity as well. This is assuredly among the best-looking games for the device, which makes the audio design such a letdown.

The sound effects are downright laughable, sounding muffled even when using headphones. A rather cliched score would be passable if it didn't loop in such short intervals. The uneven presentation highlights how important audio is to the gaming experience, even on a handheld.

Tuning up the analogue stick and re-sampling the sound effects would transform Hero of Sparta from an imperfect champ into a gaming god. Despite these recognisable shortcomings, few games surpass it.

Hero of Sparta (iPhone)

Control annoyances and lame sound effects can't shackle otherwise epic action in one of the best iPhone games of the year
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Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.