CTIA 2005: The Legend of Zorro Hands-On

SAN FRANCISCO--Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment is preparing a suite of mobile products to launch with the upcoming Zorro sequel, The Legend of Zorro. The marquee mobile game in the lineup will be a like-titled action game starring the Big Z himself--black attire, sword, whip, and all. We hopped into Zorro's boots at a recent CTIA preview session to see what all the fuss is about.

Don Alejandro de la Vega, portrayed by Antonio Banderas in the movie, is an Old California nobleman by day, and a folk hero named Zorro by night. In The Legend of Zorro mobile game, Zorro ("the fox" in Spanish) is in hot pursuit of a thief named Ladron ("the thief"), who has made off with a precious artifact called the Sun of the New Land. We weren't told exactly what this doodad is, but apparently it's valuable enough to allow the villain to fund his own private army and take over California...or something along those lines.

Over the course of 10 levels, Zorro must piece together a map to Ladron's hideout and then confront the brigand to regain custody of the Sun. This will involve a lot of rote, but solidly assembled, platforming action. True to form, Zorro's got a bunch of tricks up his sleeve. Most guards will succumb to a few slashes from his sword--but chucking a stick of dynamite you might find in a crate will also take them out. Zorro can also play defense by parrying his opponents' attacks, jumping high into the air, or latching onto certain points in the background with his whip to swing over gaps. Every enemy you dispatch fills up your special attack meter, which will produce an unblockable killing blow when ready.

We found The Legend of Zorro to be a fairly enjoyable play on our test LG VX7000, mostly because it moved at a speed appropriate to an action game. The controls were pretty simple to grasp, too. The first few levels of the game we tried were playable with one hand, but we were assured that the gameplay would grow much harder a little further into the adventure. We look forward to seeing how much there is to the game when it comes out on October 28.