He-Man Game Review – An under performer with weak controls

Our rating:

By: Chillingo Ltd

Version #: 1.0.1

Date Released: 2012-10-25

Developer: Chillingo Ltd Web Site

Price: 0.99

User Rating:

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Yippee! He-Man and his friends are on iOS. If you are excited to play as the Prince of Eternia, don’t be! It is not as good as it sounds.
If you have seen the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series, you will be familiar with the game scenario. He-Man is the protector of GraySkull, the home to all secrets of the Universe. Skeletor  has obviously been the bad boy and the game starts with his attempt to invade Grayskull.

This game is another 2D platformer (we are seeing quite alot of these, recently). He-Man is chasing Skeletor but is blocked by his evil soldiers. Three swings of the sword and the soldier is squashed. Jump your way over pits and blocks, avoid falling platforms and thorns and  slash through the skeleton soldiers to reach the end of a level. You can cut anything on your way home, including lamps, bricks and even the pillars. Killed enemies as well as broken items pop out gems and hearts. Gems can be used to purchase goods and hearts heal you.

At the end of certain levels, you will come face to face with Skeletor but he sends out villains like Beast, Mermaid and Trapman to make things difficult for you. Don’t worry, because you are not alone either. Like the cartoon series Orko, Man-at-arms and Sorceress are here to help you. Summon the powers of Grayskull when the sword icon lights up and you will be Super He-Man!
Once a level is completed, you will be rewarded a maximum of 3 stars based on your play. 81 stars over all 27 levels, makes you the ultimate hero. If you fail a level, Orko helps you with a random spell cast. If you are lucky, you can continue from the last checkpoint else, be satisfied with some free gems.
Although the basic graphics is better than the lot, overall gameplay is below my thumbs up threshold  The physics engine is very buggy. Sometimes, I find myself standing on top of a skeleton soldier while other times, I fall over a thorn bed without hurting myself. Also, I can jump and slash my sword a dozen times in the air, before landing back. Furthermore, if multiple enemies attack me at the same time, only one of them can hurt me. After spending some time with this app, I am sorry to say that I’m quite disappointed with the developers at Chillingo (the same folks behind the epic Cut the Rope game!)
Another major flaw is the controls, one of the worst I have ever used. The swipe up to jump works only once in a thousand times. Quickly turning back and attacking an enemy behind, is a dream with these controls. Such flimsy controls, especially in an action game like this, is really annoying. In addition, none of the conversations have voice. Instead all the exchange of words takes place via speech bubbles. Comm’on devs, we are paying 99 cents; atleast give us some good sounds!
Fortunately, all the flaws are software related and can be solved by an update. I hope that the developers are looking into it, right now. So, unless you see a heavy update soon, stay away from this app. There are better ways to waste a dollar!