Pocket Titans Review

Blending simple puzzle-solving with simple RPG elements, Kumotion LTD's Pocket Titans hopes to bank on the aesthetics of Triple Town while infusing them with some turn-based strategy battling. Don't let its childish appearance fool you, however; sometimes, beneath a seemingly-simple facade lays a marvelously complex game.

That, unfortunately, isn't really the case here. Pocket Titans is every bit as simplistic as it seems. Most of your playtime will be devoted to combat, which is a mix of Chuzzle and a turn-based RPG. You'll slide rows or columns to line up your characters with your enemies in order to attack them, and rely on the special qualities of your characters to take down your foes before they take you down. When enemies are defeated they grant you experience points, gold, and occasionally equipment. As you level up, your characters' stats increase, and you'll unlock a few more special attacks. At base, this sounds like it could make for a good game, but thanks to several oversights it all ends up being more mediocre.

A large problem here is the pervasive lack of choice. You don't choose to equip stronger gear; the game decides to do it for you, making it a non-choice and leaving you feeling like purchasing the gear was kind of pointless. And while it's true your characters do have a few different moves at their disposal, like ranged fireballs, diagonal arrow strikes, and area-of-effect sword skills, it all ends up feeling too random. Characters decide what they're going to do, and which targets they're going to attack, without you getting to choose. This generally isn't a problem, but there are times where your characters will make the stupid choice and attack one character instead of taking out the one you want defeated. Also, before they attack, characters will sometimes say a little phrase, and when they can't attack they'll remind you that they can't. This is fine... the first time. But when the healer reminds you turn after turn, battle after battle, that she can't heal what she can't see, you're going to get very sick of seeing those dialogue boxes pop up.

Pocket Titans utilizes a very simplistic graphical style. Very simplistic, like, embarrassingly so, and it's at its worst when the game zooms in close to show the action. Action, in this case, being a mediocre attack graphic splashed across an overly pixelated, static sprite. Everything feels lazy, like the developers were trying to do the bare minimum they could to create a game. Pocket Titans will cost you real money to purchase, but if you want to spend real-life money and nullify any semblance of challenge to most of the game by having too much gold/equipment, you can do that. Still, there's a lot of gameplay here for those looking to kill some time, with a decently-long story mode and a multiplayer mode both ready to let players sink a few hours into.

It's a shame when you come across something like Pocket Titans; with more polished gameplay and aesthetics, this could have been a really fun game. As it stands now, it is likely destined to be forgotten among the many mundane apps available for the unwary gamer.

App Store Link: Pocket Titans for iPhone & iPad | By Kumotion LTD. | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.00 | 42.6MB | Rating 4+