Digital Legends spills the beans on Kroll for iPhone

Kroll is probably the most eagerly-awaited iPhone game right now, thanks to a starring appearance at this year's Apple WWDC conference during Steve Jobs' keynote speech.

This, despite the fact that what was shown was a 40-second trailer, with few hints about the actual gameplay. Actually, that fuelled the subsequent buzz around the game, as people speculated wildly about Kroll.

In the months since, developer Digital Legends has stayed mum, partly at the request of Apple, and partly because it's been working its socks off to finish the game.

Which, by the way, it has. Kroll is due to go live on the App Store very soon. (UPDATE: It's live now - check out our exclusive gameplay video).

We met up with Digital Legends' Xavier Carillo Costa last week, who talked us through the game before handing his iPhone over so we could play it.

Let's start with the game itself, which isn't quite the 'God of War for iPhone' that some had speculated after the WWDC Kroll video. Instead, it's a side-scrolling beat-'em-up in a fantasy setting, with your character running along levels from left to right laying waste to monsters.

"We wanted to mix cutting-edge graphics with very simple and accessible gameplay," says Carillo Costa. "We were inspired by the '80s, from arcades, so we've basically made a scrolling fighter. You can play one level on the bus, or you can play through if you want a longer experience."

Kroll is divided into three 'chapters', each of which includes three scrolling levels followed by a boss battle. Rather than use an onscreen joypad, you control the game by tapping six icons spread around the outside.

Two in the bottom corners make you run left and right, while the icons at left-centre and right-centre trigger quick attacks left and right. Meanwhile, the icons in the top corners are for slower, but more powerful attacks.

Finally, as you build up your mana bar by killing enemies, you can shake the iPhone to trigger a magic attack, which affects all enemies around you. At one point during development, shaking was used to jump, but the team felt the magic attack was more useful.

"It's very simple, using very basic principles," says Carillo Costa. "We didn't want to fake an actual controller onscreen, because if you do that, you're effectively telling players that the iPhone is lacking a controller. But it works well: you need to be combining quick attacks with more powerful ones, and moving back and forward, too."

The first chapter takes a beach setting, the second moves into some mines, and the third is set in a prison. The visuals are pretty spectacular, too, delivering some of the best iPhone has seen yet.

So what about those boss battles? You actually battle one boss three times - he's a persistent chap. The battles are a string of animated clips, where skull icons suddenly appear onscreen. Jab it with your finger quickly enough, and your character will do something good, turning the battle in your favour.

"Basically, it's like having cinematics, but with some interaction," says Carillo Costa. "We wanted to make it more than just watching an intro movie. And if you miss one, you don't die immediately - you just start that sequence again."

Kroll has three difficulty levels: Normal, Hard and Insane. Carillo Costa estimates it will take players between one and two hours to complete the game, depending on how good they are and what level they're playing at.

The biggest danger for Kroll is in the heightened expectations of iPhone gamers following that WWDC video. If they're expecting God of War, will they be satisfied with a scrolling fighter? We'll find out when the game is released.

So what next for Digital Legends? Well, the company is already turning its thoughts to a Kroll sequel.

"We have a huge wishlist, so we are already working on pre-production on Kroll 2, gathering the ideas and deciding which of them should be in the game," says Carillo Costa. "We've got plenty of crazy ideas, so we're exploring which of them we can put into it."

Meanwhile, Digital Legends has enjoyed working on the iPhone itself. "It's a really capable platform," he says. "There's a lot you can do with it. But what's important is to adapt gameplay to the platform, rather than just porting an existing game."

We'll have a full review of Kroll for iPhone this week, but if you just can't wait, click here to watch our video of the game itself, and click the 'Buy It' button below to, well, buy it.