The story starts as the townspeople choose our spiky haired hero to bring peace to the land, after finding out that his elderly master has been slain by evil forces. So now it is up to you (the player) take up the sword, learn some magic, and search the land to obtain powerful weapons to banish the evil forces.
Swordigo is a side-scrolling action title peppered with RPG and platforming elements. You gain experience for each defeated enemy, and you can use ranged spells, call upon items to restore health, level up and customize one’s character with an emphasis on life, attack power, or magical ability. Items can be collected, blocks must be carried to place on switches, treasure chests exist to be looted. So if you have played Castlevania: SOTN or any Legend of Zelda game, then you know what I’m talking about, and playing this game is like walking in familiar territory.
The game’s simple interface allows the player to have responsive controls. You will have two button control direction, if you were to double tap either of these it will allow your hero to sprint. There are additional buttons to allow the player to switch between magical powers (such as bolts or bombs, for instance). The control in this game is to be commended especially in a genre that typically suffers from sloppy touch screen controls.
If you do not like backtracking in games, then this game may not be for you. Swordigo does present plenty of backtracking opportunities, players at some point will have to return to pervious areas in order to open new areas, once an additional weapon has been obtained. (Metroid or Castlevania, anyone?) There is a pleasing amount of variety in the level design all of the stages naturally subscribe to the traditional fantasy setting, you’ll find yourself fighting through dark forests, dank castles, and spooky citadels. There are also boss enemies to face off against, many of which will test your skills to the limit.
The game is strong and well produced, but the game does have some minor issues, now take for instance, if our hero does fall into a bottomless pit, he will respawn near or at the last piece of solid ground. And another issue that I have with the game is none of the characters in the game are memorable at all. But again these are only minor issues, and there are easily overshadowed by the pros of the game.
Swordigo will take anyone from under 10 hours or more to complete. The visuals could have been better. But it was clear that the developer attempted to pay tribute to classic games. So if you are a fan of old classics then you can download this free game onto your Android device.
