Does this game even need an introduction at this point? Regardless, it certainly deserves one. We saw something truly amazing during the Apple Keynote; Unreal Engine running on an iPhone 4. Since then, the world of impossibility has become the realm in which we now game, at least as of tonight. In that demo we saw Epic Citadel, a large castle and city fully explorable by thumb-sticks, swipes and taps. It was jaw-dropping. The graphics were superb by any standards. Then during the demo of GameCenter, “Project Sword” was revealed. It was an awesome demonstration of  iron-clad sword fighting warriors going at it toe-to-toe complete with Unreal Engine under the hood. We later found out the two were one, and eventually named Infinity Blade, we knew that this was going to be, to say the least, epic. Headline of the night; Infinity Blade is epic.

Gameplay 10/10

Infinity Blade is a game-play based game. Shouldn’t all games be game-play based, you ask? Well yeah, but they’re not. Despite having the best graphics of any iPhone game to-date, Infinity Blade is not about exploring the beautiful world in which the adventure takes place. Open-world RPG exclusive fans will be disappointed to find out that this is not one to add to that genera. Infinity Blade takes place entirely (at least while out of combat) on a tap and move basis. By tap to move I mean you choose a location and there will be a short cut-scene of you moving there and low-and-behold, you will end up there.  Once there, you can look around and pick up money or health potions scattered about. Usually you move about once before encountering an enemy. Once you do you’ll approach in a menacing way and have a stare-down. From here you can initiate a battle or tap the info button to display some minor info.  Once a battle has started the real fun begins. All battles take place purely on a swipe and tap basis. Every swipe gesture you make is mimicked by your avatar, you swipe left, and he swings his sword to the left. Your opponent will be throwing similar strikes and you must either parry, dodge or block his attack. Parrying is done by matching his swipe, dodging by tapping either the left or right dodge button and blocking by hitting the block button. Block too many times and your shield could break, meaning you’ll take damage once you block henceforth. Dodging is your best bet but it can be difficult to figure out which direction his attack is coming from and then time the dodge just right. If he swings to the left, you dodge to the left, just under his sword. dodge to the right and you’ll step right into his attack. Later on in the game, precision and timing are completely crucial and every attack must be timed just right. The depth to the battles is amazing and every one is a pulse-pounding battle to the finish. Every encounter plays out like a very long cut-scene, yet you control the action. Most battles come in stages of three parts, after damaging him so much, you’ll knock him back and continue fighting. After the final knock back, you’ll finish off your opponent in some awesome, grotesque way, goring him, knocking him off a bridge or just plain old stabbing him through the head. I’ve been head-butted, kicked and smashed in this game, the battles are simply full of surprises. The whole point is to make it to the end of the game and battle the God-King, through a cut-scene filled with an exotic yet brutal language (Sub-titles provided) you’ll learn that your family has tried to end the God-King’s reign of terror for a while and your just one in a long line. The first time through, you’ll most likely be killed, handing off the role to your son, who is stronger thanks to all the armor, weapons,  gold and experience you left him (Generous, that God-king, though a tyrant he may be). Every blood-line is driven by avenging your father. This blood-line is apparently not known for their good grades in probability and statistics (Stay in school kids) yet still they attempt this challenge giving you plenty of reasons to continue playing through the game. Although you restart with your fathers stats and gear, more gear can be bought in the store with the gold you get by defeating enemies, finding chests, or looking around the landscape. You can level up by the experience gained from your items, at the end of a battle, the total experience pool is evenly split between your helmet, armor, shield, weapon and ring. Once you master an item, completed by filling the meter of experience, you sometimes gain a bonus but no experience will earned from that item any longer. Once you level up you can increase your stats, an important thing in Infinity Blade.

Graphics 10/10

The graphics in Infinity Blade are spectacular, the best to be seen in an iPhone game to date. The game runs on Unreal Engine and the graphics are as crisp and clear as they come. Every detail on the armor or even the ground is superbly thought out. The enemies are scary, the sun reflects realistically and even the walls are pleasant to study. If graphics are your selling point, this is the game for you. On my iPhone 4, this game handles beautifully. On anything less, it might get a bit rough. I had minimal slow downs, although some were to be had. Nothing that harmed game-play was seen in my time with the game. Everything ran smooth and beautiful, just as an Unreal Engine game should.

Sound 10/10

There are superb sounds for everything in this game. The grunts your foes make, the slashes and even the armor clinking as you walk are amazing. The language the characters speak is very convincing and extremely well done. Some of the best sound I’ve heard in an iPhone game, it truly throws you deeper in the realm that is, Infinity Blade.

Longevity 10/10

Infinity Blade virtually does not have to end and only gets harder and harder. You can keep replaying through the castle which is no chore at all to do. A list of promised update features (Including Multi-player via Apple Gamecenter) seems to only add to the longevity of an already full featured game. The multi-player, demoed during the Apple keynote, looked amazing and with a combat-system like this, I would get this game just for the multi-player.

Cost – 10/10

At $5.99 USD, Infinity Blade is worth every last cent based on what is included. Higher prices have been paid for less and this game can take on any other title in the app store. Although on the higher end of the price spectrum, this game is incredibly worth it.

Conclusion 50/50 – 10/10

With a perfect score, this game will certainly exceed your expectations. In all my hopes of this game being an open-world RPG, I hardly even noticed it wasn’t once I got into the game. For everything Infinity Blade is not, what it is will blow you away anyways. If you have any interest in awesome gaming in your pocket, Infinity Blade will meet the call with every swing of every massive sword, and every rumble of every humongous foe that falls at your feet. Beyond the words that can be used to describe this game, simply playing it, is the only way to truly understand the beauty of this game and the gargantuan sword fights that await. Chair Entertainment has an Epic title on their hands and I have a feeling every game released from this point on will be examined next to this title. The bar has been raised.

Infinity Blade on the App Store.

The iPhone is truly an amazing device. Capable of so many tasks, it is at the very least, a jack-of-all-trades style cell phone. Capable of searching the web, playing stunningly beautiful games and let’s not forget, phone calls, the iPhone has won itself quite the reputation around the block as the top contender of it’s kind. The one thing that can put your iPhone out of commission? The same things that make it amazing, well, maybe not directly, but they sure do suck up the battery life. While the latest iPhone, the iPhone 4, boasts of a bigger battery it is still just not enough to cover a full day of surfing, gaming, organizing, connecting, playing and just doing those things that only Apple can make seem completely necessary. While there are car-chargers and computers and all of the different alternatives to being plugged into a wall, how helpful are they really if your on-the-go all day? Or if your just too lazy to stop flinging colored birds at defenseless pigs to care your battery has dropped to critical. Problem solved. The exolife by EXOGEAR is the answer to your lithium-ion depletion problems.

A slim fitting dock with a polished hard-plastic backing, the exolife is truly a nice looking product. It features a docking platform in which, your iPhone 4 fits nicely. Once it is in place, your iPhone is snapped into place with a plastic band that fits around the edges of your phone as well as the bottom part of the exolife, meshing the two together. Once in place, you’ll notice your phone has put on a few pounds. Your iPhone will feel a bit beefier and not in a bad way. The case makes your phone a bit thicker and a tad longer, but not as much as some cases out there, and this one has an excellent battery in it. The exolife also has a batter indicator light on the back that features four sections that will give you a rough indication on the battery power left (by 25 percent marks). The plastic band around your phone is transparent but lightly tinted so your beautiful steel banded iPhone can still show through. The bottom of the exolife itself is painted the color of the steel band on the iPhone and comes to mesh with it making it appear that your iPhone is simply longer, not extended by a case. The back of the phone is hard plastic and slightly rounds out the edges of the phone. It is very slim and looks very nice, making it about half an iPhone 4 thicker. The iPhone camera and flash is left open for picture taking. The only downfall to the construction of the exolife is the Hard-Plastic itself. It is glossy and polished, meaning if your drop it or slide it too hard, it will leave scratches on the surface. These scratches are not obvious but just apparent enough to make you regret dropping it. The iPhone also fits nicely inside and does not rattle around. The band is a bit loose on the sides but this is only noticed when squeezing the sides and does not put your phone in any risk. The exolife boasts of ExoClear technology which eliminates interference for phone calls as well as the legendary “death-grip”.

The battery itself works very well. EXOGEAR boasts that it will virtually double the life of your device, as do all other makers of battery boosting products. EXOGEAR has separated themselves from the pack however, with one distinct feature; ExoSave. ExoSave automatically turns the case off when it is not needed, therefore it does not keep charging your device even when it is full, although you can manually turn it on if you wish. This feature saves valuable battery life by only charging your phone when it is needed. Manually turning off the exolife can mess up the cycle though, and it will not automatically turn on resulting in your needing to manually turn on the case which is easily accomplished thanks to the power button on the bottom. This button also doubles as the method used to check the battery left in the case. This process is covered in the manual but can be confusing at best. holding for seconds while off does such, while pressing while on does such. At first this can be confusing but enough use takes care of that. The button is also placed in a section of the case that can easily be hit with the pinky finger while hitting the lock button on top of the phone. This isn’t a huge deal, as accidental pressings only result in in the battery indicator lighting up while exolife is on and powering up if pressed while it is off. After a full day of use, I still had half the battery of the case left and just under full charge on my iPhone. If you need a big boost to your iPhone, this case will provide it.

Conclusion 5/5

The exolife passes all tests for boosting battery life. As a case, it will protect the cosmetics of the phone, but due to the hard-plastic structure, a drop will sound like a gun-shot and nearly have the same effect on you. Your phone will not be fully protected from blunt force trauma as a result but it will soften the blow greatly. The price tag on the EXOGEAR website is $89.99 USD. This is a steep price, but easily remedied by shopping around.  All-in-All, the exolife does exactly what is says it will do, and it exceeded my expectations. Well done, EXOGEAR.

The widely popular and ever-growing sport of MMA will probably need no introduction to most, neither will the name UFC.  The Ultimate Fighting Championship has grown immensely popular over past few years and has branched into many different areas of media and even now, gaming. The console releases of UFC 2009: Undisputed received many positive reviews and was an enjoyable and strategic experience. Now, UFC has come to iOS and arrives with head kick to EA’s release of MMA.

Gameplay 7/10

Gameplay in UFC 2010: Undisputed is not complex, nor is it very deep. What it lacks in depth however, it makes up for in the fact that it is fun to play. The majority of the time you’ll move your fighter backward or forward by gesture on a thumb-pad in the bottom left corner of the screen. This can be touchy and sometimes even un-responsive and sluggish considering how quickly the athletes move in a real cage-fight. Once you get close enough to your opponent, you can hit the button above the thumb-pad of the screen to get in “The clinch” and hold your opponent and throw some rib shots by swiping up or down on the striking icon on the side of the screen. Once you see fit, you can swipe down on the thumb-pad and go for the take-down. Once the attempt is taken you must tap the screen furiously to decide if the attempt is successful. If it is, you will body-slam your opponent to the mat. Once there, you have the option to give your opponent some head shots or get a better position. This is accomplished by waiting until the position icon, where your thumb-pad used to be, turns green and then you start rubbing it in a circular motion until the bar fills and you improve to whatever position you chose based on the direction you draw the circle. You can then go for the submission by tapping the button and tracing the shapes that appear with your finger. If your attempt succeeds, you win. If you fail, you will revert back to guard. You must also keep an eye on your stamina bar and if it fills up you can deliver a big hit with the chance of laying out your opponent. The stand-up fighting is also good, although not very fast nor complex. You generally stand toe-to-toe with your opponent and throw punches and kicks hoping one lands big and lays out the other guy. You can guard if you feel over-whelmed and wait for your opportunity. Overall, the gameplay mechanics are smooth but it does not fully capture the fast-paced action of the UFC. There is an exhibition mode, where you can pick your fighters and go at it, or tournament where you choose a fighter from any weight class and climb the ladder to the champion of that class.

Graphics 7/10

There is not a whole lot to mention as far as graphics go in UFC 2010: Undisputed. The menu system mirrors the backdrop for the actual pay-per-view UFC matches and is very well structured and clean. The fighter models are the most complex graphics in the game and are an improvement over EA’s MMA. The model faces show expression and the physics seem to flow together seamlessly. The crowd offers nothing but blobs of color and the octagon in which you fight is well textured during the fight but the cut-scene before the fight which shows the octagon and crowd could use some work.

Sound 6/10

The sound of UFC 2010: Undisputed is a bit repetitive. The opening music that plays while in the menus gets you ready to throw down but after that no music is heard. The same sound plays every time you or your opponent hit the mat as well as whenever a punch is landed. The crowd is predictable as well. Even the announcers seem to repeat the same thing for every action taken. Even though repetition is prevalent with the sound, you won’t notice it much while your engaged in hand-to-hand combat or attempting an arm-bar.

Longevity 6/10

Though the game features a tournament mode, it won’t take you all that long to reach the top in every weight class. Once you do, you can go back to attain one of the many achievements or improve your over-all ranking in the global leader-boards. This won’t hold your attention all that long as there is no training or creating your own fighter to move your way up the ladder throughout an illustrious career mode. You can weigh-in on your predictions for the next UFC and your choices will be analyzed once the results are in and you will be given a win\loss percentage. There is no multiplayer present either. Hopefully in the future more features will be added to hold your attention. For the most part you will find yourself hitting Exhibition to go blow-for-blow with one of the many well known fighters on the rosters to choose from.

Cost 7/10

Weighing-in at a current $4.99, this title, for the features included, has a bit of a heavy-hitting price tag. If you enjoy UFC however, this title is probably one that will find a place on your device. For the casual fighting fan, waiting for a sale or price-drop may be the best option.

Conclusion 33/50 – 7/10

For any UFC fan, this game will scratch the itch for beating down your least favorite fighters but for the casual fight-fan who wants a feature rich, attention grabbing experience, this title may disappoint a little. Although a full experience is to be had, what the game lacks seems to take away from the features that are present. Perhaps future updates will add more content, but for the time being, a solid UFC title just doesn’t quite make weight for the class it is in.

UFC 2010: Undisputed on the App Store.