During the apex of my fascination with ninjas as a child, my dad went out of the way to sit me down to watch Enter the Dragon. My dad hyped up Bruce Lee to me as the best karate guy ever. Yes, even better than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now that’s serious.
Years later, I still idolize the only person to ever beat Chuck Norris. Seeing his name on this game for iPhone and iPad did pique my interest, but Bruce Lee games historically suck. Really bad. Even at $5, I was reluctant to give it a go. However, it went on sale last week on the iPad for $0.99, which is low enough for me to try almost anything.
Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior HD is a 3D fighting game, a la Tekken. Action is handled with an on-screen directional pad and two action buttons; one for punch and one for kick. It has all of the features you would expect from a fighting game, and a little more. I’m glad that they put some sort of story to the action to add context to why you’re beating these generic karate guys up in the first place.
On the iPad, the game looks almost as good as a Playstation 2 game. It’s definitely one of those showcase games to whip out to your friends who want to see what the iPad can do.
Where this game falls apart for me are the gameplay systems. This game feels streamlined to the point of being overly basic and shallow. Each character has very few regular moves, special moves and combos, which just leads to lots of mashing the punch and kick buttons. On top of that, the few options you had didn’t feel very fun to execute.
Maybe this game isn’t for me. As someone who adores Street Fighter, this may be a bit too light for my tastes. However, Street Fighter IV is also available on the iTunes store, and even as a casual experience, is way more satisfying than this ever could be.
At the $1 I paid for it, I had more mindless fun punching and kicking dudes than I did spending $1 at most arcade machines. If you’re a 3D fighting game fan or just want something light, this may be for you. However, anyone looking for anything resembling Tekken levels of depth will be horribly disappointed.
In Third Person 