Mecho Wars Review

Touch Warfare just got real

Mecho Wars isn't a title that attempts to redefine the turn-based strategy genre. It isn't something that will shatter the earth or make a man find religion. What it is, though, is a title that will charm, enthrall and dazzle you with its simplicity. Another thing that Mecho Wars is not, is simple. Behind the facade of cute, yet twisted characters, is a deep strategy game that will keep you glued to your iPhone or iPod Touch on those long commutes.

Mecho Wars is the brain-child of Luc Bernard, creator of Eternities Child. The stylistic presentation is quite faithful to EC with Bernard's creative artistic blend of Tim Burton and Dr. Seuss.

Presentation

Mecho Wars is a turn-based strategy game, much like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. There are three modes in this game: campaign, challenge and multiplayer.

The campaign mode is your standard single-player romp through Mecho Wars' story. The game starts out simple by introducing players to the game mechanics. I enjoyed this as the game allowed the player to become fully situated with how each unity works. Most strategy titles seem to throw everything at the player after the 2nd or 3rd mission, so this is a great game for people playing TBS games for the first time.

Challenge mode is simply a single player skirmish. Multiplayer mode allows for online play (coming soon) and device sharing. Players trade the iPhone between each other to make their moves during these device sharing. The menue system is very simple and clean. Simplicity is often a good thing, but I felt that a small tutorial for explaining the tap feature would have been a nice addition.

The art style of Mecho Wars is fantastic. You would be hard pressed to find a better looking title than this. The world is quite detailed with charming characters and a land scape that seems to be very Wind Waker-esque. The way I can best describe Bernard's art style is that it is as if Tim Burton re-made "A Nightmare Before Christmas" while tripping balls on acid. The game is not dark in any way, but more twisted, as if Bernard has a severe case of mania. We're only so lucky if that is the kind of glimpse we can get of what he sees in his mind.

Sean Beeson provides an industrial inspired soundtrack that has almost ethereal elements. Mobile games have never impressed me with a soundtrack like Mecho Wars has. In fact, I didn't expect much by way of the sound. I was pleasantly surprised.

Gameplay

Turn-based strategy games play very similarly to a game of chess. Certain units can travel either a long distance or short distance, which is depicted by squares. The radius of squares that surrounds the unit are the squares that it can move to. Smaller units can move farther than larger units and air units can fly over water.

Mecho Wars combines turn-based strategy with unit and resource management. The mechanic works well and the control of resources can really swing the flow of the battle. Each side has a base with an HQ, factories and barracks. Factories generate revenue at the start of each turn. Barracks generate infantry every two turns.

Weather and terrain plays a major role in Mecho Wars as bodies of water will be frozen during the night. This allows land based units to move freely over the water. When the water melts, all units on the water will be destroyed. Terrain also allows for movement or attack bonuses and units can use a cactus to recover.

The player uses his finger to manipulate the movements of troops on the battle field. This works well for the most part, but I felt that some fine-tuning could still be used. I found that a single tap was sometimes read as a double tap and that often made for some frustrating moments. The A.I. is quite schizophrenic. It often seems as though the A.I. has terrible prioritizing as I was able to capture bases without so much as a little bit of resistance.

For example, on one mission there were two land masses linked by 3 bridges. The middle and right sides were at a complete stalemate, while the left side was left completely open. I was able to take one infantry unit up that left side and capture the base without any resistance. The enemy units totally disregarded my infantry unit and that took me out of the game a bit.

The Final Verdict

The Good: Awesome artistic vision, soundtrack and overall presentation. The game runs smoothly with literally no hitches that I found.

The Bad: No Multiplayer. Tap feature needs some work. Single taps were sometimes read as double taps.

The Ugly: The A.I. definitely needs some work on prioritizing units to engage with.

BUY THIS: Despite the A.I. flaws, this game is challenging and very fun to play. It is currently $4.99 on iTunes which is an absolute steal for this caliber of a game.