HYBRID 2: Saga of Nostalgia Review

Written by Troy Benedict Tuesday, 05 October 2010 19:32

Outside of its "home" button, the iPhone has no physical buttons on the screen - it's simply a smooth piece of glass with sensors beneath to track the touch interface. When Steve Jobs announced Apple's intention to steal the market share from handheld devices like Nintendo's DSi and Sony's PSP, many people scoffed that a tactile-less device could only handle casual style games. Those naysayers better start paying attention, thanks to button-mashing brawlers like HYBRID 2: Saga of Nostalgia.

You heard that right: button-mashing. On an iPhone. And it actually works quite well.

hybrid_gameplay (153K) HYBRID 2 is an action brawler with a taste of RPG elements mixed in. The look and feel is that of a 16-bit era Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis style game both with its visuals and the musical accompaniment and sound effects.

The game is controlled with a virtual direction-pad and virtual buttons, and plays like a classic brawler with the level, skill, and inventory management found in traditional role-playing games.

The placement of the controls on the iPhone screen never got in the way of the on-screen action, and the controls themselves were quite responsive. Playing though HYBRID 2's tutorial is a must, especially for newcomers to gaming on the iPhone. For those who want a little more control over their, well, controls, there is an option to alter the placement and the size of both the virtual d-pad and the virtual buttons -- a real handy feature!

The game is $4.99 on the iTunes app store. This may seem a bit overpriced when an abundance of iPhone apps max out at the $2.99 sweet spot, but with HYBRID 2 you get more depth and content than a majority of the lower-priced applications, and it certainly delivers more content for $4.99 than any downloadable game on the DSi or PSP.

If you're looking for an iPhone game that squashes that stereotype that iPhone games are only casual experiences with a simple one-button interface, HYBRID 2 is that game. It's quite impressive how much control and content could be squeezed into a touch-screen action game.

HYBRID 2 is available on iTunes App Store for iPhone, iTouch, and the iPad. It was played for this review on the new 32GB 4th Generation iTouch using iOS 4.1. HYBRID 2 was provided free-of-charge to GoozerNation.com for review by the game's publisher/developer GAMEVIL.