Bruce Lee Hands-On

GDC Mobile, San Francisco--Indiagames was once a relatively minor player on the mobile gaming scene, but after a string of increasingly high-quality releases last year, the studio is moving quickly toward top-shelf status. Its newest branded project is an action game based on the legendary Bruce Lee, who single-handedly invested the martial arts movie genre with its acrobatic spirit and poor voice-dubbing practices. During a preview session at GDC, a beta version of the upcoming mobile game demonstrated some of the same indomitable moxie as its namesake, along with a lot of great fighting techniques.

Bruce Lee has an original story that sounds like it has been written right out of one of Lee's campy '70s flicks. Lee's master gets faded by a team of thugs called the Oolong Assassins, and Lee must seek justice through six levels. The venues include kung fu hot spots like the dockyards and the dojo, and they're crawling with a variety of thugs that you must dispatch with Lee's signature arsenal of lightning-quick strikes. The five key will throw a regular attack--which can vary from kicks to special power punches that will KO an enemy in one blow, depending on how much health you have--while the three key executes a flying kick that will knock down almost any enemy temporarily. Split kicks and power combos are accessed with the one key; you need to pick up special tiles to use combos, which trash your foes like so many fast-food wrappers.

There are a nice variety of enemies too, ranging from typical goons to giant sumo wrestlers that can absorb--and dish out--a ton of punishment. Luckily, Lee is skilled in a couple of weapons that help to get the job done. The bo staff and nunchaku each have unique combat animations, and they inflict a lot more damage on enemies than bare fists and feet, no matter how furious they may be. The weapons only last for a limited time, but they make Lee look even more realistic than he already does. The stringy hero looks great whether he's running pell-mell toward a group of enemies, sliding down ladders firefighter-style, or hanging from ledges. The version of the game we saw animated flawlessly on our preview handset, an N-Gage QD. It also included a volume control--the first time we've ever seen this revolutionary feature in a mobile game.

Bruce Lee will be making his way to US handsets by the end of March, and he ought to constitute another feather in Indiagames' cap, judging from what we saw. Check back here for the full review.