Review: Might and Magic
Score:
59%
Version Reviewed: 1.00
Like many gamers my age who gamed on computers in the 90's, the name Might & Magic brings back fond memories of pizza laced evenings in front of a monitor working towards "one more level" before bed. Using the Might and Magic name on this game was my first clue that I was going to be disappointed. This is not a dungeon crawl or even a first person perspective RPG. No, it's not even really an RPG at all. Gameloft's latest offering is more of an action game with puzzle elements than anything worthy of the Might and Magic name they decided to bestow upon it. This major misuse of the brand name has left a very bad taste in my mouth, but like a good reviewer I set aside those feelings and tried to enjoy what was presented. Without further ado, my impressions.
This Might & Magic is an isometric action title where players take the role of Ewan (He’d better not be in a kilt or I’m sending the lawyers in! - AAS's Ewan). Later on in the game you can switch to some of his allies. But no matter who you play, you are on a journey through Erathia to save the King, and put down the arch fiend. To say that the plot is interesting is fair, but its execution was just silly and often left me feeling like I was playing a poorly written contest entry rather than a quality Gameloft title. Regardless, there is a story in there, complete with cliche characters and badly written dialogue – and by badly I mean "All your base are belong to us" badly.
While the story is less than exciting it is in fact the controls which just about kill this one. The isometric view maps really horribly to the controls of the phone. I tried this game on both the N-Gage & N-Gage QD, which have probably the best directional controllers of the Series 60 devices. I was left feeling like I was in a horrible car accident and had to re-learn how to walk. This pain was entrenched when it came time to fight anything because you are always instinctively trying to push in the direction you want to move and that just doesn't work. After walking into enemy attacks time and time again you will retrain yourself but it is an irritating adjustment to have to make just to enjoy a game.
You read that right, I am enjoying the game. Despite some harsh flaws, Might and Magic manages to be a nice little diversion for cell phone gamers of greater quality than many, mostly due to some fun, simple, puzzles and some really great graphics for a Java title. Whether it's worth it is mostly a measure of what it will cost you to get it on your phone and what you are expecting from it, but if you ignore the name and set your sights low you'll have some fun. I did. In the grand scheme of things though, Might and Magic only musters a slight 59%.
Reviewed by Chris Rydberg at