Colors! 3D, Total War Battles: Shogun – Review shorts
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Total War Battles: Shogun – Review
Perhaps predictably this cut-down iOS version of Sega’s Total War franchise doesn’t quite manage to recreate the scale of its forebears. Thankfully however its developers have crafted it in such a way that large scale battles are never on the agenda anyway, Battles concerning itself more with minor skirmishes than the epic clashes of its illustrious predecessors. Taking charge of a ransacked tribe of ronin, your fledgling general sets out on a path of carefully considered revenge, gaining experience and more advanced units as he goes. Battles’ unique approach to troop movement – whereby units may never retreat, only move diagonally on straight ahead on tiled battlefields – ensures that encounters resolve quickly, while some visual flourishes make witnessing individual sword fights ever captivating. A lack of open-ended multiplayer bouts detracts slightly, but otherwise there are few other strategy games that come close on your handset.
Score: 4/5
Format: iPad, iPhone
Price: £4.99
Developer: The Creative Assembly
Publisher: Sega
Nintendo’s answer to Draw Something, a reason to once more switch on your portable console’s 3D function, and an excuse to start getting snap-happy with the 3DS oft-forgotten camera – Colors! 3D is all these things. Anyone with a passing knowledge of digital paint programs will be well used to working across layers, but Nintendo’s layers are a little different, occupying actual points in 3D space and so facilitating the creation of sketches with genuine depth. Whether starting from a blank canvas or making some augmentations to your existing photo album Colors! 3D has the tools to make some quite remarkable sketches. Beware however that a lack of drawing talent on paper won’t miraculously cure itself here (in fact quite the opposite given the size of the 3DS’ screen), while those with artistic talent might soon find themselves running out of the tools necessary to create their ideal masterwork in what is a compact package.
Score: 3/5
Format: 3DS
Price: £5.40
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
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