TL;DR version : Voltron was fun, but overpriced and a bit too repetitive for my tastes.
Long version : I just got around to getting some games on the iPhone, and one of the recent ones I picked up was “Voltron : Defender of the Universe”
The game really is fun… for awhile. The controls for the game are overlaid NE, NW, SW and SE buttons and there’s also a missile button, a special attack button, and a “swipe” button. The cutscenes are actual clips from the original cartoon, and there’s a real kick in being one of the main lions, running around defending planet Alura from bad guys.
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You have unlimited missiles and each lion has a special attack to use. And after every lion completes their mission, you are treated to a cutscene of Voltron forming just like the original cartoon series had. Then you get to be Voltron and stomp all over that level’s Robeast. The game even stays true to the original cartoon storyline with the Robeast sequence and Voltron’s semi-evolution.
But the whole game gets repetitive real fast.
There’s no real change in being any of the lions. Each level has you a one of the lions needing to fulfill a particular task and then get to a “finish” marker, but the levels can be beaten by just racing to the finish marker most of the time.
Although you have unlimited missiles, they often fly off target and completely miss who you were shooting at. You can “swat” away enemy missiles and bad guys and can beat just about everyone without firing a shot, but you better be facing the right direction at the right angle or otherwise the “swat” won’t work and your lion will take damage.
About midway through the game, the designers drop in a completely unnecessary tool for the bad guys… lasers from space. You can’t shoot the orbital laser ship down, and they never run out of power. They randomly target an area around your lion and fire at you. About 8 hits and you’re dead. Believe me, this gets annoying very quickly.
And then, when you are Voltron, the game turns from an overhead view to a Mortal Kombat style game. You can duck, block, strong attack, weak attack and special attack your opponent. But you can’t move anywhere. And most of the bad guys can be beat with constant button mashing.
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You do get awards you can post on facebook for various things you do in the game. Plus you can go back and be a robeast you have defeated in the Robeast arena later on.
The nostalgia value is great. But those damn lasers and repetitive actions make the replay value pretty near zero for me. The game is priced at $3.99, but I think it’s really worth $1.99.
Overall: 3 out of 5
