Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Hwa David
War seems to take many different kind of forms in video games. For me personally I have always been partial to games that have some kind of intergalactic war, but I also like to play classic war games. And I also like war games that take a some what medieval style. Which is what A Little War is going for.
First time I fired up A Little War I thought that it looked like the classic side scrolling beat em up Castle Crashers that is on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. Which for me was a fantastic looking video game. I love games that have a cel-shaded type of graphics and to me that is the best way to describe how A Little War looks.
Now the game play of A Little War is very difficult to describe. The reason for this is because if I am being honest for the most part it felt like I never really had to do anything. The basic idea of the game is that you play this big tough dude who has a army of lets just say cannon fodder soldiers who are willing to die for him. Your opponent has the exact same thing. And your goal is to take out there big leader guy. Of course you will have to get through all of the little soldiers in order to do this.
You need to decide how to command your soldiers. Do you want them to wait or unleash an attack like shooting arrows or maybe attacking with there weapons. If you win you can then buy upgrades. You can buy new soldiers to make up for the ones who were killed in the heat of battle. Or you can increase the number of soldiers at your disposal. There are a few different ones and each one does actually serve a good purpose.
That really is all there is to the game. You never feel like you have any control over what is happening. You just click to tell your soldiers what you want them to do, and then you watch as it unfolds on the screen. This can lead to you getting pretty fed up quite early on. Which is a shame because from a presentational point of view this is a game that has a great deal going for it.
Now A Little War is a free to play game, but this has one of the biggest slap in the face of an in app game store I have every come across. You see you will come across treasure chests as you play the game. These chests are full of a number of goodies, but there is a big catch. If you want to open these chests up then you better get your wallet out and buy a key from the in game store. I get that they have given us the game for free and they need to make money somewhere, but this was a little to on the nose for my liking.
In all A Little War I feel would have been a great game if it just gave us a little more control in battle. But I will say that for those who have always wanted to play a strategy war game, but found them a little intimidating to get into then this could be a great place to start.