Medieval Combat: Age of Glory Hands-On

The fighting genre is exceedingly difficult to re-create on mobile phones, mostly because of the devices' inadequate directional controls and slow processors. By our count, there have only been a bare handful of mobile fighting games that could be considered enjoyable, and these few success stories have had to adopt some pretty radical workarounds to keep the action flowing smoothly. Medieval Combat: Age of Glory, Gameloft's upcoming Dark Ages-themed fighting game, looks as though it'll be one of the most successful efforts yet at putting a fighter on mobile. This brutality fest is outrageously fun, even on slower handsets like our test Motorola V551.

Medieval Combat looks as though it's been modeled primarily after a combination of classic SNK fighters, like Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters. The five starting characters are familiar fighting game archetypes--there's the white knight, Arthur, an upright flower of chivalry; a freakishly agile jester, Makiavel; an axe-swinging executioner, Skurd; a big lizard monster, Skorn; and a pretty elfin assassin named Elwyn who wields a mean scythe. These characters look good enough to be featured in a free-standing arcade machine, even though they're appearing on a cell phone. They pant with exertion after every clash, and all of the weapon techniques are highlighted with streaks of color. Plus, these warriors can also lose their helmets or shields if they get hit enough times. It's hard to tell if this decreases the effectiveness of your defense, but it's a great effect nonetheless. The sound effects are also phenomenal, for a mobile game of any genre.

Instead of trying to assign complex button combinations to special moves, Gameloft's taken the liberty of giving each character a "magic meter," which charges during combat. Your magic meter has three different levels, each of which denotes what sort of special move you can perform by either tapping or holding down the magic button. The quicker special moves usually involve some kind of projectile attack or full-body tackle, while blowing your entire meter at once will unleash the forces of hell on your opponent, provided you type in an easy button combination under a time limit. This usually takes the form of an unblockable deluge of fire, or something similarly harsh. Each character also has access to regular and strong attacks, which can be chained together into lengthy combos, jump attacks, dash attacks, throws, and even counterattacks. In other words, committed arcade loiterers will feel right at home with Medieval Combat.

All in all, Medieval Combat: Age of Glory looks as though it's got what it takes to revolutionize the fighting game genre on mobile. The game is due out in the next few weeks, and we will be ready with the full review as soon as it goes live.