Skeletor where art thou?
He-Man: The Most Powerful Man in the Universe™ (you simply must give him his full title) has recently crashed onto iPhone courtesy of the rather spiffing Chillingo Ltd, and the muscled one has brought his chums along for the ride too. And his enemies (otherwise we'd just end up with a friendly Sims type game which would be crap.)
Defend Castle Grayskull against that fiendish (but cool looking) Skeletor and crew and glory shall be yours in this platformery, hack n' slashery fest! All for the cheap as chips price* of 69p. Sweet huh?
There are 7 main levels in the Map Of Eternia to battle through, each with around 3-4 stages, and they don't disappoint either, especially if you were a fan of Masters Of The Universe back in the day (and lets be honest, who wasn't? Its He Man ffs!) Its looks LUSH, and not only that but Chillingo Ltd have slapped the cool soundtrack in the background. When you look at the complete package its hard to believe they are letting gamers have it for a measly 69p. You could pay £2.99 and not feel overcharged. iOS and iPad owners really are spoilt rotten. Oh yes we are!
Controls are simple: left finger touch to move and right finger to make He Man jump and slash his sword. Ah yes that sword. I do have (an albeit minor) gripe about this. Here we have the mightiest guy in the universe right? A man built like the Hulk, I should feel some of that power when I play this game (like playing Arkham City makes me feel a bit like the Batman.) But because there is just one swipe-down slash move I feel more puny than powerful. Don't get me wrong, it works as you can smite baddies to dust but to me at least it doesn't FEEL as satisfying as it should.
Of course you can buy special moves from gold earned in game, and having He Man throw beasts towards you and smashing into the iPhone screen is freaking awesome but when they cost 2,500 coins each, you won't be doing it much.
For less coinage you can have Man-At-Arms help you mid fight but I think he's been hitting the Scotch because 9 out of 10 times ive tried using him, the idiot fires his lasers in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION of where the thugs are!? Man-At-Arms? Man-At-Bottle more like. Lets hope my friends are a it more helpful as I progress into the game because in spite of these grumbles im thoroughly enjoying He Man's first dip into iOS waters and would be well up for another adventure or two.
But wait theres more! As well as the game we also get a Masters Of The Universe 'Lore' area which is packed with bios, artwork, comic covers and concept artwork. Like I said, we are spoilt to the gills and its a nice touch if you happen to be into this kind of stuff.
Comics Me gives this a solid 4/5
*You can purchase Power Ups for more real dosh in game.
