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Slayin' is a hack-and-slash trip down memory lane
Do you remember the old 8-bit hack-and-slash games? You know, the ones where your little knight or wizard was composed of a total of about a dozen pixels, and they walked in one direction and essentially demolished everything in sight? Slayin' is all of those games, condensed and crammed into a single, frantic all-out brawl. You never actually go anywhere, but rather navigate a screen-sized chunk of land while enemies pour in from all angles. They crawl up from below, drop in from above and pop up in every corner of the screen. Your job is to dispatch them -- surprise! -- and thanks to several content-filled updates, there are now a total of six playable character classes, each with their own specialty and weakness. The knight attacks with his sword, but is vulnerable from behind; the wizard can become temporarily invincible, but lacks a jump; and so on. The enemies start out mild, but ramp up to be quite formidable. There are also some seriously epic boss fights tossed in to punctuate the action. These battles are nothing to sneeze at, and you might even be reminded of the mind-numbingly difficult battles from the 8-bit generation. As you progress through the waves of bad guys, your character will gain experience, levels and coins. Your cash can be used at merchants to purchase newer, more powerful weapons and to replenish your health. There's also a type of in-game currency called Fame Points, which are used to unlock things like interface tweaks and additional characters. Slayin' oozes nostalgic charm and it's a bargain at US$0.99. You simply won't find a better way to relive the joys -- and frustrations -- from the yesteryear of gaming than this.
Slayin soundtrack now available
I remain a big fan of Slayin, a little game that got released on the App Store a while ago, that compresses a full fantasy-style RPG into a fascinating little endless game. I think the game's mechanics (where you simply move back and forth across the screen, holding your weapon out in front of you, as you kill monsters and collect money and XP) are my favorite part about it, but the soundtrack's good as well. And now, composer Matt Creamer has released the Slayin soundtrack for download over on Bandcamp, where it's now available for you to listen to and download directly. The in-game theme is a particularly excellent piece of 8-bit music, but almost everything there is good, and there are even some unreleased tracks for real Slayin fans to check out. The price is name-your-own, so technically you could grab it for free, but the composer definitely deserves a few bucks at least for his work. And if you haven't heard any of these sounds in the game yet, you definitely should. Slayin is one of my favorites on the App Store so far this year, and it's available for US$0.99 right now.
Daily iPhone App: Slayin is an adorable microRPG
Since the App Store opened its virtual doors, we've seen a lot of "micro" versions of larger genres, including platformers and RPGs. The iPhone lends itself to smaller, quicker experiences, and so a lot of developers have boiled down some very large game styles into much smaller forms. Slayin is essentially a very boiled-down fantasy role-playing game, and it's probably one of the most charming games of this type I've ever seen. The idea is ingenious. You play as a hero who constantly moving back and forth across the screen, facing endless waves of enemies and bosses. There's just one rule: Anything that touches your outstretched sword gets hurt, and anything that touches you hurts you. There are buttons to switch your direction and jump, and that's it. It's up to you to avoid enemies when you can. It's incredibly fun to just cut a swath through the first few waves of blobs, murdering them for gold and XP as you go, but later enemies and bosses get tougher, requiring precise timing and dextrous moves. Fortunately, this is also a full-fledged RPG, in that you level up as you earn XP, and there are occasional pop-up shops that let you buy items and recharge your health. The graphics on this one are simple, but so darn cute, and there's a surprising amount of depth in which weapon you choose to hold out in front of you. There are also missions to beat each playthrough and extra classes to unlock, so there's quite a bit to do here despite the game's simple premise. Slayin is an absolute charm -- I opened it up not knowing what to expect, and it won me over almost immediately. It's available on the App Store this week for just US$0.99.
