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Helm Knight a Retro Run, Jump & Slash Platformer

Posted Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 8:42 am by Jonathan Lonczak 0 Comments

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Helm Knight is a 2D side scrolling action/adventure platformer, named after the helmet-headed protagonist. Help Helm Knight defeat the evil tribe from taking control of the magic crystals and bringing chaos to the lands. Guide Helm Knight through 15 challenging levels by helping him run, jump, hack, slash and cast magic to avoid the various dangers that await him and secure the crystals to save the lands. Fight different types of enemies which include goo-monsters, snakes, carnivorous plants, blobs, ice monsters and the evil tribal warriors. Collect potions to replenish health and magic points.Collect gold coins to unlock spells like fire, poison and snow and make Helm Knight strong enough for the final showdown against the evil lord of the tribals. An option for tilt controls has also been included in case you experience trouble with multi-touch on your phone.

Price: Free

Tested on: HTC Droid Incredible 2, Sony Xperia Play
Content Rating: Everyone

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Amusing retro style platformer for your Android device!
• Extremely responsive control schemes for both touch and tilt!
• Cute gaming environment and soundtrack!
• Checkpoints in game!
• Unlockable spells and hero powerups!
• Challenging at times when you assume the game is too simplistic!

Cons

• Gameplay becomes repetitive fairly quickly.
• There is no story line.
• Animations for enemies could be improved upon.

Features:

Helm Knight is an amusing side scrolling platformer newly available on the Android platform. You play the role of a lonely knight who must battle through blobs, plants, and snakes in order to reach his goal. Helm Knight features 15 playable levels, touchscreen or tilt controls, unlockable spells and upgrades, and cute cartoon graphics that many users will enjoy.

There is no real story to Helm Knight. We know that our brave knight is going somewhere and that he needs to battle a lot of evil creatures to get where he needs to go. We also know that he needs to collect coins to purchase items on his way there. However, this game has no explanation about what is going on with the characters, there is no back story. Instead we are expected to jump in to the game and begin playing and that is exactly what I did.

The gameplay is very similar to many of the typical platformers that were extremely popular during the early 90′s. Fans of early PC gaming and of the first consoles like NES will feel a little bit of nostalgia while playing. The game has the main character “Helm Knight” jumping from one area to another fighting evil monsters and collecting coins in order to purchase new spells and hero upgrades. Most of the encounters in the game are very easy to navigate through, but the developer does a good job making the game a little more challenging by throwing in regular pit falls to the unwary traveler. An example of this can be found in most levels with the use of a coin trail. There will be a specific path through a level which will offer the least resistance and the most reward by being higher up and littered with coins. You are able to jump from platform safely collecting coins and so logically, when you see a coin hanging beneath you at the end of your path, you jump down on top of it to collect it and return to earth. Unfortunately, you find out just as you leap that the coin was hanging over the middle of a deep abyss and you fall to your death. With little tricks like these to keep you on your toes presents more of a challenge than it first appears.

Helm Knight starts off the game with only two basic moves: jump and attack with the sword. As you progress through the game and collect coins to purchase power-ups you are able to add on new attacks.  Fireball, Snow Spell, and Poison Spell are all unlocked using coins at the shop and allow you three other options with which to attack the enemy monsters. You can also purchase an increase to your health bar and an increase to your mana bar from the shop as well. You start out with 5 health bubbles and 5 mana bubbles and a health bubble is depleted whenever you are hit by an enemy while mana is only used when casting spells. Both types of energy are recharged through collecting refills off of the corpses of the dead enemies.

Finally, it also offers you two separate control schemes: tilt and touch. Surprisingly both the tilt and touch control systems were extremely easy to use and responsive. I was very pleased with the amount of control I had over the character and his abilities and never felt like I was issuing unheard commands to an independent entity on the screen.

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Fun Factor:

Helm Knight is enjoyable to play, but lacked the addictive properties that are needed in a good platformer. I enjoyed guiding the character throughout the levels in the game and was extremely pleased with the responsiveness of the game controls, but I did not feel that the game was overly challenging. Even though the developer did take extra time to try to throw the gamer off of the wrong path, the more I played the game the more I figured out the developers pattern and was able to predict his little tricks.

This game could also use a story-line and objectives for the hero. Without having the story the game has a lot less credibility and it takes significantly away from the enjoyability of it. Even if the story line is bad it is better than having none at all. In fact, some of the worst stories produce the most enjoyment; for example the original “Duke Nukem 3D” or Halloween Harry.

Addictive:

I did not find Helmet Knight to be very addicting. The levels were all very similar and the game began to be less and less of a challenge the more I played through it. This game could really use some more attention to environments and creating environmental challenges which make the game tougher and therefore more addicting. I would also like to see OpenFeint support incorporated into the game, because their leaderboards and achievements tend to increase the addictiveness levels of any game they are incorporated in to.

Graphics:

The graphics in Helm Knight are good, but not great. I enjoy the retro style of gameplay and do not mind playing games which are not modern looking and in HD at all, but I felt that the game could use more time spend on the game’s environments and on its monsters. Many of the monsters in the game were humorous to look at because of the lower quality animations which made their movement seem a bit choppy. Although I enjoyed the graphics in this game as a whole, I would like to see many of the game’s enemy models revisited and touched up in order to provide a better gaming experience.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

Helm Knight makes use of both the device’s accelerometer and sound. I found the accelerometer controls to be extremely responsive and easily one of the best games for tilt controls that I have tested. I also enjoyed the soundtrack used within the game. It created a peaceful gaming environment and did a good job of complimenting both the gameplay and the game’s environments.

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