https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bardbarian/id766414929
.99cents, universal, 68mb. Light on the iap.
Loading this game for the first time brings back memories of the first time I saw "A Knights Tale" in theatre. The wife and I decided to go see a movie, didn't know anything about any of the movies showing at the time and figured, what the heck lets go see a period piece.
And 20 seconds in we realized two things. 1, the movie was nothing remotely close to a period piece. 2, the movie was going to be epic.
This game is like that. When you download the game your eyes instinctively skip over the Bard in the name and read barbarian. You see the app icon and think, barbarian. Infact if you dont read the description you'll be stepping in to this game expecting some light graphic hack'n'slash rpg. And you'd be very very wrong. Loading the game for the first time, you see a barbarian, a call to duty and then the first raised eyebrow happens when the barbarian decides not to take up weapon and smash skulls in defense of the village. And then his weapon of choice... what? And then... the music starts.
What we have here is a endless hack'n'slash mobile tower defense hybrid of sorts. You are the barbarian but the barbarian has decided he no longer wants to swing weapons. Instead he turned one of his weapons in to a guitar and wails 80's era rock god solo's. How the village is defended comes from companions the barbarian summons using energy he builds up by simply wailing on the guitar. (standing still makes the energy generate faster btw) With these companions in tow you run around analog style getting the guys within range of enemies moving from right to left on the screen. Your goal is to keep them away from the village crystal. You earn coin as your companions kill, you spend the coins upgrading the barbarian, the village and your companions. The entire game takes place over the course of a day, four stages, morning noon evening and night.
IAP is present but entirely optional and if you pick up the golden axe (.99cents) coin doubler the other iap is completely unnecessary.
Music is awesome, god rock guitar wailing and solos. Lots of fun heh.
Graphics work very well with the theme and no doubt keep the game working on a great deal many ios devices.
Upgrade system. You'll earn coin as you kill baddies and when you eventually die/fail you will go back to the shoppe to upgrade everything before making another attempt at defending the village. Upgrades are spent in three catagories. Companions, Bardbarian and Town. The companion upgrades improve and unlock additional companion types of which there are about 15 and each companion can be upgraded 5 times. The bardbarian's upgrades involve health increases, formation of companions, speed, buffs, energy regeneration, etc. Town upgrades bring out more participation from the villagers, loot pets, crystal health, etc.
Aside from the main four stage story there is also an endless mode where you go at it with increasingly difficult spawns trying to simply survive as long as possible. In order to keep things fair the developers decided that in this mode you have no control over companion composition in your group, they spawn around the area randomly. Same with foods, and you have no buffs or energy regeneration. Keeps it hard, and the leadboards at least somewhat 'fair'.
Anywho, the game is 99cents, the golden axe another 99cents. Those two purchase combined guarantee you a enjoyable trip across a really funny smart playing awesome music game. Enjoy.
Gamecenter, yes. Achievements, yep. Leaderboards, yeppers.
o/
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