Real Steel – Review – You’ll need nerves of steel to survive

Our rating:

By: Jump Games Private

Version #: 1.0.7

Date Released: 2012-01-27

Developer: Jump Games Private

Price: 0.99

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Yet another game riding on the success of it’s movie counterpart, we’ve seen them all. From Captain America to Transformers and even Iron Man, I must say I have never been a big fan of such tie-ins. However, Real Steel might just change my opinion of the genre. Based on the movie of the same title starring Hugh Jackman, Real Steel serves us a hefty dose of Rocky Balboa meets Optimus Prime.

Not your typical fighting game, Real Steel replaces traditional fighters of flesh and blood with that of metallic robots. Think tin cans lugging it out Street Fighter style, with the splatters of blood replaced with sparks. Players choose from a selection of robots featured in the movie to slug it out in a boxing ring. The controls appear to be fairly simple, with the directional buttons on the left and the attack buttons on the right. However, while basic maneuvering is easy, finishing moves are no walk in the park. Expect the game to be tough too, for the first game I played had the opponent launching a flurry of punches which I struggled to block. Once I had a good idea of the controls though, everything came under control. I was able to launch my own barrage of attacks, but the game still provided enough of a challenge to not go stale.

Real Steel scores well in terms of aesthetic pleasantries. The graphics are rendered beautifully and at the start of every fight, there is even a little cut scene that serves no actual purpose than visual appeal. Throughout my testing of the game on my iPhone 4S, I experienced no drops or lag and everything was delivered very smoothly. The color scheme choices of the game were also very apt, for the blend with and compliment each other. Nowhere in the game did I encounter something irritating blotch of awkward color that stuck out like a sore thumb. Sound wise, while there isn’t much to rave about, there’s nothing much to complain about either. Just the generic cheering and background music often heard in fighting style games.

While this is quite a decent game, Real Steel isn’t quite worth the price. At $0.99, one would expect to be getting his money’s worth but the developers decided to have additional robots unlocked at yet another $0.99 per pair. While I would still buy it, the game would have been worth the money if everything could be made available upon purchase without any in-app purchases, especially since the lead character himself has been placed as an add-on.