Iron Kill (iOS) Review

Iron Kill promises a robot fighting game, and it delivers that in the form of a really simplified old-school-esque system, with a big gallery of robots of different power-levels to deploy into combat. The simple concept which could be an asset sadly backfires. The combat is fought with the use of six buttons and no way to move. Two buttons are used for normal attack, two for special attacks, one for a big special attack which is charged mainly by taking damage, and, finally, one for blocking.

It sounds like it this is enough to create swingy combat, but it really isn't. The correct solution is to always attack until the enemy does so, at which point it is time to block to avoid taking damage, which turns this into a game of reflexes and increasing the stats by upgrading and buying new and powerful machines. While there is nothing wrong with that, it really feels like it just offers the bare basics of a fighting game.

The strength rests in the graphics and the beautiful robot designs to keep this fresh and going, and on this part Iron Kill makes a great job. Each robot design feels diverse and beautiful in its own way. The biggest weakness of the game is that it really encourages buying and using multiple robots, though, thanks to many design choices, like making some robots a requisite to play in certain tiers and challenges, and by making the economy dependent on having multiple robots to fight earlier challenges for more monetary income since each robot has independent energy meters.

While that actually allows the player to play more and more, the longer they go on, in difference to most other f2p games, it does sadly lead to that this game takes a greater and greater part of the day to maintain a good economy, which to some could be problematic. Most good f2p titles give the player more freedom longer down the road to keep them playing after the honey moon, while Iron Kill makes people more dependent on playing just advance at any pace at all, as the upgrades required later on cost a lot of gold.