Iâve never liked Angry Birds. Not because Iâm angry with any birds in particular, but because I always preferred the free game that came before it, Crush the Castle
Rather than get bitter at Rovioâs billions, Crushâs developers (well, hosts) Armor Games, are sticking at it, and have released on iOS a revision of the game called Siege Hero
Seeking to swtich things up a little from the âhurl something from left to rightâ formula that both Crush and Angry Birds employ, Siege Hero is like a first-person entry in the genre. All you need to do is tap on the screen where you want the boulder/bomb/stone/fireball to land and thatâs exactly where it ends up.
This direct control (made simple with the fact you can hold your finger down to get a âscopedâ view zooming in on the action) makes things, on one hand, easier than Crush. Your projectiles wonât land approximately in the region of where you clicked, youâll be destroying stuff exactly where you want, first time, all the time.
To combat this, though, the puzzles seem to have become a little tougher too, requiring more precision in your tactics than the old âhurl it and hopeâ solution that always worked so well in Crush
It also lacks a bit of Crushâs old âMonty Pythonâ charm, with its graphics now iPhoneicised into small, slightly repulsive cartoon characters that donât feel quite as rewarding to crush. Its physics also donât seem as realistic, though that could easily be a consequence of the hardware.
Still, itâs a great take on the genre, and given the fact itâs not only from one of its pioneers â but also features vikings instead of birds â itâs a great time-killer for $0.99.
Siege Hero is available now on the iTunes store for both iPhone/iPod and iPad (sadly itâs not a universal app).
Siege Hero [Apple App Store]
You can contact Luke Plunkett, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
