Ready…fight! If you are a fan of arcade-style fighting games such as Tekken, Virtua Fighter, or Soulcalibur, have we got a game for you! Gameloft, in their infinite iPhone wisdom, have brought us the first full 3D arcade fighting game, Blades of Fury for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Review
Blades of Fury is a one-on-one 3D fighting simulation game that you can play alone or against your friends in multiplayer mode through bluetooth or WiFi connection. The goal is to prove your bravery and skill by fighting against the greatest heroes ever assembled.

Blades of Fury offers 10 unique characters with each having their own individual weapons, special moves and magic attacks. You are given 10 fighting arenas to choose from. Modes of play include story, arcade, survival and practice mode but, don’t expect any deep storylines within the game. There really isn’t one. You simply fight your way up the ladder, hammering away on the attack buttons in hopes that you hack away your opponent’s health meter to zero before they do it to you.

The game offers two types of controls; swipe or a virtual d-pad (or joystick). I personally preferred the joystick, as it was more responsive and more in keeping with the original fighting games. Charging my opponent or unleashing a combo was never a problem using this control option. The joystick appears on the left side of the screen while attacks are made by pushing a combination of buttons to your right. These buttons trigger light blows, heavy blows, defense (block) and one to unleash your special magic attack.

Those familiar with fighting games will easily recognize the format. You start off on the left side of the game, when playing against the computer and you simply unleash hell on your opponent until you win 2 battles out of 3. In the beginning, your first few opponents don’t put up much of a fight, but as you work your way towards the latter half of your opponents, they increasingly become more aggressive in their attacks and actually start defending themselves.

I personally went through the story mode in half an hour, but this is not to say this game doesn’t have plenty to offer. There are lots of unlockable fighters/costumes, you can save replays of battles and change up the game settings to suit your preferences. There is also a good stats section that lists how often you’ve played as each of the characters and the percentages of your victories. Last but not least, you have the option of playing against another human in multiplayer mode which I tested using WiFi and suffice to say, the game worked flawlessly. Connections were amazingly solid.

Tips
During a fight, you store up blue energy which is the source of your magic attacks. As a last resort, tap on the magic button to release a small amount of attack or hold the button down longer to unleash a more powerful one. This super attack is guaranteed to eat away half of your opponent’s health bar. I strongly prefer not to use magic attacks as it completely ruins the balance of the game. Come on…who doesn’t love a challenge?

Observations
Blades of Fury is a visually stunning game. It features characters and scenery that are superbly detailed. Gameloft has truly set the bar with Blades of Fury when it comes to fighting simulation games. They have provided us a game filled with colorful effects and perfectly smooth animations. The sounds within the game are well utilized, with its corny voiceovers and metal clanging against metal noises. Not only are you limited to the built-in game sounds, but you can also play songs from your iPod collection during gameplay.

While taking screenshots, I accidentally pushed the home button, quickly exiting me from the game. As I come to find out the hard way, the game lacks a save option. I literally had to restart at the beginning of the story mode and this I found quite a bit frustrating, especially by the third attempt. Yes, I unintentionally did it a few more times! I hope the save option can be included in a future update and perhaps the added ability to compete online, such as Homerun Battle 3D (aka Baseball Slugger). With those two additions, Blades of Fury would truly be a kickass game. Can I say kickass?!

Recommendation
Gameloft has delivered once again. Blades of Fury is immensely fun, it looks great and provides a set of controls that work flawlessly. This game has placed itself so far ahead of the pack, it sets the bar to those that dare follow in its footsteps. For $6.99 at the App Store, this game is …a kickass treat!

Photos

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