Wind-up Knight is a 3D platform game with great graphics for a mobile application and which is packed with enough features and challenges to keep the player entertained for hours. Apart from jumping on different platforms, the character can also hit, crawl and block having a total of 4 actions available to him. It’s up to the player to know when and how to react to the environment.
Now, because the touchscreen is not exactly a gamepad, there are a few differences between Wind-up Knight and Mario regarding the controls. The speed, direction and movement cannot be controlled, the character keeps running to the right of the screen until it hits a wall (or something that does not kill him) and turns around. The trick is to correctly time the jumps and other actions based on the speed and direction.
Also because the touchscreen isn’t exactly the best option for an arcade game and because certain devices do not support multi touch correctly it is recommended to limit as much as possible triggering more than one action at the same time. Another problem encountered in the game is that the buttons are a little small and the fingers tend to drift away from the correct position.
Game structure
So we’ve established that Wind-up Knight is a platform game, but let’s take a look around the other aspects.
The levels are grouped into 4 books (each with 12 levels). You cannot play a level/book until you have completed all the previous ones. You get free notes for completing a level. The goal is to reach the end of the level, but you can also collect coins along the way (which lead to a higher score and more notes earned) and a special card. Once you have all the 12 cards inside a book you can play the special nightmare level. The cards are located in secret areas so pay attention to each crack or platform available.
Apart from coins and cards, you need to collect all the keys along the way otherwise you get a wind down message and you can replay the level. These are easy to get because they are always in your normal path.
Free or not?
Although you can download it for free on the Android market, the game has quite a few offers to buy in-game currency for real money and thus provide easier access to further items and areas to play in.
The game currency (called notes) allows you to purchase additional upgrades for your character (helms, shields, armor or swords) Apart from changing the looks, some of them offer bonuses such as the Stunt Helm which protects from fire jets and falling objects. It also allows gives you access to the second, third and fourth books. Each of these cost 1200 notes (or 1.99$ in real money) so you might have to save your money for them, instead of buying equipment.
To acquire notes, the developers also added the option to install or try/buy other services, thus earning them for free.
Overall, notes are scarce throughout the game so buying special equipment almost always means that you have to pay for it.
Conclusion
Wind-up Knight is a great game but make sure you have a decent device in your hand. The game is rendered in 3D and has quite a few special effects. Therefore it can be a pain to control the character when there is lag due to weak performance. We tested this on a Nexus One and we encourage you to NOT try it on anything less.
Summary
| QR code |
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| name | Wind-up Knight |
| publisher | Robot Invader |
| price | free |
| advertising-supported | no |
| version | 0.9 |
| size | 41.64 MB |
| developer contact | info (at) robotinvader (dot) com |
Other resources
If there is something we missed out or you wish to find other resources for this application, be sure to check the following links:
- Robot Invader blog
- review by Mobile Syrup
- review on Android Tapp
- review on Life of Android