In my last ‘It’s Angry Birds, just with XYZ!’ post we saw Microsoft bravely strapping ballistae to Kinect with Wreckateer – and now we’re looking at practically the same game on on touchscreen ground. Developers Wicked Witch and their masters at Chillingo have seen to it that wicked knights are helping a dragon keep a princess captive. This just won’t do, however, so it’s up to you to knock them off the rickety structures they’re taunting you from.
Catapult King’s ballista is great fun to use – you angle the contraption, pull back the elastic like a giant medieval Dennis The Menace and take square aim at the spot on distant wooden piles that’ll provide the most gravitational calamity. Sure there’s as much of a random factor at work as in Angry Birds, and some of the knights have been glued on to their plywood platforms a little too strongly, but the simple act of destruction is pleasing. Especially when those little knight shits tumble into a river.
Those who want to sacrifice fun gameplay for a slightly cheat-y physics attack, meanwhile, can spend magic points (whether earned or bought) on Earth Shock and Lunar Strike projectiles. The former makes the earth move from under Knight feet, the latter drops meteors on their heads – both get results, but neither allows for self-congratulation.
A good game, then, but one that makes me pine for a iOS version of Crossbows & Catapults even more. Or, indeed, a full-on touchscreen siege sim that allows for blood, boiling oil and plague-ridden bodies chucked over crenellations. Get on it please game development people.
