Iron Wars (99 cents) is not your ordinary top-down shooter. You do all your shooting while in command of a tiny sphere that rolls around the map with a variety of weapons at your disposal. While not the most exciting or impressive game, its value is what might be attractive.
The maps are quite beautiful, with a variety of environments, and different vertical levels to navigate around. The iron balls, on the other hand, are not as nice. They look like colored golf balls, and appear to have sunglasses on. They also sport some awesome flashing bulbs on the side. They don’t look like fierce killing machines. However, their weapons do make up for the lack of intimidating looks. You can fire the standard rifle, rocket launcher and other cool weapons, picking up new ones as you roll along.
The controls are simply adequate. You have a virtual thumb stick for moving, and a button to tap on to fire. The thumb stick is a bit too large for this type of game. It doesn’t allow for quick responses and direction changes.
My biggest criticism is the lack of momentum for the iron balls. When you release the virtual thumb stick after moving, your ball will instantly stop in its place. There is no sense of momentum to carry the ball a bit further after you release the stick. Also, when you change direction, it does so instantly, instead of slowing down first. Momentum is important to give the game a more realistic feel, especially with characters that are spheres.
In addition to the momentum issue, the game needs more sound effects. There is no sound for the ball movement at all. When you bump into something, there is no sound, not even when the iron ball rams against a metal mining cart. These sound effects would, once again, add to the realism of the game, allowing for a more immersive experience.
Even with some flaws, Iron Wars is a game worth checking out. For the price, you’re getting a ton of content, plus multiplayer support. With some updates, this could be a great game.
