App review: Ragdoll Legends for iPhone

After the excellent iDracula, developer MoreGames seemed to be one iPhone developer worth watching. So how have they fared with their latest release?

Not as well as we were expecting, sadly. As you can guess from the title, this one’s a ragdoll fighting game – far from a first for the format, with both Rag Doll Kung Fu and the recent Stick Fu already proving popular. It is, however, easily the best looking; from the sumptuous scrolling backgrounds to the 12 very different fighters to play with.

Each has their own costumes and weapons, including a mummy, sumo wrestler and dragon. Once in the ring, however they all move in largely the same way; a kind of balletic slow motion as they loop through the air or bounce off the scenery.

It’s not the pace that undoes Ragdoll Legends, it’s the control. Grabbing your fighter round the middle and flicking at your opponent may be hilarious to watch but it makes for an infuriatingly random beat em up, where a successful hit is often more down to luck than skill.

After all, why give the fighters different weapons if they behave in exactly the same physics-defying fashion? The only thing that matters is timing, releasing your fighter at precisely the right moment to at least make contact with the other fighter, who annoyingly strikes with perfect accuracy almost every time.

Once you get used to the imprecision, Ragdoll Legends proves curiously addictive as you might expect, particularly with the added gore that rewards each blow with cartoon spurt of blood. With a few mates to play against, it’s still a laugh and there are four subtly different playing modes involving head to head or armour combat in either tournament or solo battles.

Nonetheless, given the developer’s pedigree and the game’s potential, it’s not as accomplished as it might have been.

Price: £1.25
Verdict: 6/10

Popularity: 1% [?]