Galleon: Dawn combines a platformer's obstacles, a fighting game's strategy and timing, and the story elements of a role-playing game to create a satisfying, though sometimes shallow, experience. You must battle thugs and sword-wielding pirates, leap over pools of lava and other obstacles, and swim through water-filled caves to track down a powerful, magical ship before it falls into your enemy's hands. The game draws from the Xbox game Galleon, but this story comes across as muddled and difficult to follow. Nevertheless, Galleon: Dawn offers a challenging combination of jumping, climbing, and swordfighting.
Galleon: Dawn presents a 2D side-scrolling environment. You use your phone's number pad to move, jump, kick, punch, and attack with a sword, should you find one. You have a health bar that dwindles when you suffer injuries, though healing items seeded throughout the levels keep you going. You can climb vines and leap onto platforms, jump to grasp and climb ledges, and even leap high enough to jump over your enemies. In some sections, you must dive into water to continue through a level. While underwater, your health meter is replaced with an air meter that measures how much longer you can swim without air. If it dwindles to zero, you drown.
The combat mechanics in Galleon: Dawn are sometimes frustrating. When you use a kick, punch, or sword blow, your attack remains extended for a second or two. If an opponent makes contact with your outstretched attack, you score a hit. Your foes employ a similar attack, leading to some strange-looking moments as you extend an attack and watch an opponent blunder into it. If you make a mistake in timing a strike, you remain in the extended pose while your enemy moves in for a counterattack. Reach is a critical component of your attacks. The sword-armed pirates are deadly enemies, as they can slice at you from beyond the range of your kicks and punches. You have two different unarmed strikes, and the punch is almost useless compared to a kick. A punch inflicts more damage than a kick, but it requires you to move so close to a foe that you almost invariably draw an attack. The sword is the ultimate weapon, but you must find one during the course of exploring a level in order to use it.
The varied terrain in Galleon: Dawn also adds to its challenge. In some of the more hazardous areas, falling victim to an attack can send you into a downward spiral. When you sustain a hit, you stumble backward. If you happen to stand on a ledge, you can plummet down a cliff or into a bubbling pool of lava. In either case, you must climb back up to your opponent, and while doing so you might sustain an additional injury. In several cases, you must defeat an enemy who waits just at the edge of a difficult-to-reach platform. At other times, you have no way of viewing the area at the base of a cliff or a platform from which you must jump. In these cases, whether you land safely or you suffer damage after leaping into a pool of lava is really all a matter of luck.
While these difficulties could prove frustrating, Galleon: Dawn features multiple save points throughout each level. When you cross one, you can continue your game from there with a full bar of health. The inclusion of this feature makes Galleon: Dawn a great game for short bursts of play, as you can work your way from one checkpoint to the next without worrying about losing your progress. It also makes the difficult jumps and fights more satisfying, as defeat does not catapult you all the way back to the beginning of a level.
Galleon: Dawn has nice, colorful graphics that help give a sense of motion and action. Your character's hair trails behind him as he runs, as does his long coat. As he leaps and jumps, he assumes believable, fluid poses that help fuel the action. The levels are well-drawn, as each has a unique feel. The enemies are a little dull, such as the shirtless thugs who shamble about almost like zombies. On the other hand, the sword-wielding pirates, with their vicious cuts and quick movements, more than make up for the thugs' ponderous moves. Conversely, the game's sound is relatively dull. The game lacks any sound effects during play, and aside from a dull series of tones when you select a menu option, it remains silent.
Overall, Galleon: Dawn is a fun platform adventure game that is well-suited for mobile. The controls are easy to use, and the action is a nice blend of timing, speed, and planning. It doesn't do anything particularly impressive, but it serves as a very playable and enjoyable--though not spectacular--example of its genre.
