Gamertell

Title: Kroll
Price: $4.99
System(s): iPhone, iPod Touch*
Release Date: September 27, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Digital Legends Entertainment
Rating: “9+” for mild horror, fear, themes and mild cartoon/fantasy violence.
Pros: Pretty easy to play, great graphics, good sounds and continuous action.
Cons: No mid-level saves, no blocking move and some areas of perceptual knockdowns. Only a couple tiny control issues (thumb blocking peripheral view and accidentally hitting the exit button).
Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb sideways; 85/100; B; * * * 1/2 out of five.

Kroll is a 3D side-scrolling, button-mashing, hack-‘n’-slash fighting game. The graphics are way above average, looking (and playing) more like a PS2 game than something meant for an iPod.

Me Play Kroll

Kroll is essentially God of War Lite without the puzzles. You play using six on-screen buttons, two for hard attacks, two for quick attacks and two to move left or right. You can also either shake the device or tap your warrior to activate a more powerful wide-range attack.

Creatures come from both sides, starting with smaller, low-to-the-ground nasties who nip at your legs, approaching from both sides. As you progress, opponents get bigger, faster and require more hits to knock down.

The game consists of three chapter, each with three levels and a boss battle with a Titan of sorts where you have to tap a skull icon as soon as it appears on the screen. The game begins with the Normal difficulty level with hard unlocking as you play and Insane unlocked after you complete the game.

Do Kroll be Good?

The game looks great and plays very well considering that you really only have three attacks (quick, hard and special). Opponents will lash at you from both sides regardless of who it already hitting you or you are hitting, so you can get caught in a perpetual knockdown.

Difficulty is scaled pretty well considering the relatively short length of the game. You start with easy-to-kill groundings and work your way up to taller lance-stabbing nasties, although the opponent’s height never really matters since all attacks land regardless of their stature.

The controls work surprisingly well and are well placed, making the iPod Touch feel like a an old school controller, albeit super thin. There a, however, two small negatives. The first is that your thumbs will cover the side of the screen, blocking a bit of your peripheral view of oncoming opponents. The other is that your right thumb (since the game is played sideways in the landscape or widescreen position) may occasionally knock the square button if you are not sure-fingered, immediately exiting the game and losing you mid-level position (but retaining the status of your completed Chapters).

Kroll Good

Kroll is priced well at $5 even though it might seem very short to handheld console gamers. It plays well, looks good and even has decent sound. Considering it was developed in only two weeks, this bodes very well for future iPod Touch and iPhone games.

Download [Kroll] Site [Digital Legends Entertainmen] Photo Gallery [Gamertell]

*NOTE: Game was reviewed on and screen shots were taken using an iPod Touch.

Check out the gallery: Kroll iPod Touch screen shots