An unexpected gem.
I’ve had my iPod Touch for a little less than a month, but I’ve tried out a lot of the applications that are available. From free games, such as Paper Toss and Papi Jump, to paid games, such as Rock Band and Assassin’s Creed. I just want to set the tone for the rest of this review with the following sentence: Linkin Park 8-Bit Rebellion is, arguably, the best game on the iTunes Store.
I’m a huge Linkin Park fan, and that was a 100% deciding factor when I bought this game. While it’s true that the game involves Linkin Park and the plot involves their music, this story really has little else to do with the band.
The game begins with your customized character being recruited by Jess, a member of the Linkin Park Underground, to assist the band in attaining a song that has been stolen by Pixxelkorp. Pixxelkorp is an evil corporation that is trying to turn everything hi-def, and ruin the “awesomeness” of the 8-bit world.
This game plays like I remember a lot of old school platformers. It especially brought back memories of Mario is Missing for the SNES. The plot involved the main character completing quests for supporting characters to retrieve pieces to solve the problem and find the stolen disk.
The NPCs in 8-bit Rebellion are given hilarious dialogue that, at times, had me laughing out loud. From the extremely obese, make-up obsessed girl named “TeamEdward97″—whose best friends are werewolves, I hear— to the random baby that threatens to kill you if you look at it for too long.
The gameplay is pretty simple. You can use either the “touch” controls or select an on-screen D-Pad. I found the latter about 30 times better, as attempting to attack with touch controls was usually unresponsive. You can attack the hostile NPCs with a wide array of weapons, including a flamethrower, a lightsaber, and a laser rifle.
While the game is outstanding in its retro presentation, there are a few major flaws. The aforementioned touch screen controls seem to be unresponsive at points, and call for the user to switch to the d-pad controls. The most infuriating problem with this game is that if you create an online profile for your character, you will have to log in to be able to access that character. While this may seem as no problem for iPhone users, iPod Touch users will have to find a wireless network to access the game. This proved to be a significant problem when trying to play the game at school.
Despite those flaws, Linkin Park 8-bit Rebellion is an outstanding effort on the iTunes App Store. The game provides an exhilarating experience on the iPhone, where most games are watered down. 8-bit Rebellion also adds the culture of Linkin Park through characters and 8-bit remixed soundtrack, while leaving the game open enough to entice those who may not be fans of the band. For $4.99, I really can’t say enough that this game is as close to a must buy as you can get on the iPhone.
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