Combo Crew

I normally try to avoid budget titles from the app store. From time to time there will be a diamond in the rough, but I mostly avoid anything under three dollars. I like games with a decent amount of production value. I also find that cheaper games often try to make up the difference with lots of in-app-purchases, which pisses me off to no end.

I was wary of Combo Crew for these reasons. I'd seen it around for a few days and though it looked interesting, I was extremely worried it was just a Trojan Horse for in-app-purchases. Eventually a review by toucharcade.com convinced me that I should check it out. Against my better judgement, I decided to plunk down two dollars and see what the fuss was about.

As it turns out I was very wrong about Combo Crew. In fact, I have yet to find ANY in-app-purchases in the game. This tickles me silly, because on the surface of it, the game is begging for them. The entire premise revolves around a fairly simplistic combat system, that would quickly get boring if not for the massive number of unlockable moves. The game even has a standard and premium currency system, but again there is no option to use real money to buy more of it.

This fact alone is enough to convince me to sing Combo Crew's praises, but the game its self isn't half bad. It is still a budget title, offering comparatively little to do other than beat up an endless string of bad guys, broken up into waves. However what it does do, it does well.

The first thing people will notice about Combo Crew are its simplistic yet totally functional controls. Virtual D-pads on touch devices almost never work in a satisfying way. I feel like they always detract from the experience, rendering a great game merely good and an okay game nearly unplayable. Combo Crew smartly avoids them, using a series of swipes and two finger swipes to choose attacks and combos. It works really well and is a good example of the type of innovation I like seeing in touch devices, marrying old school gameplay with a creative and new way of doing things. The only time it falls down are during the "super moves" which task the player with swiping as quickly as possible for a short period of time. Thankfully these super moves do not constitute the vast majority of the gameplay.

The graphics are also nice, though to be brutally honest i'm not a fan of the art style. Still, there is a clear artistic direction present, the color palette is nice and varied and the animations are top notch.

The sounds are even better and really add to the game. Sound effects match the cartoony graphics perfectly, with perfect punching and kicking sounds that feel forceful yet not over the top. A good punch sound can go a long way when it comes to player satisfaction. The music is also good, catchy and upbeat, with an increasing tempo as things get more hectic.

Combo Crew's weaknesses stem from a lack of verity. Level backgrounds are static, breaking the illusion that I'm playing an old school brawler like Final Fight. Only four combos can be selected at any one time as well, making for gameplay that isn't particularly varied at any given moment. Often times i'll end up repeatedly spamming one or two slightly overpowered combos. 

However for two dollars, these transgressions can be forgiven. Combo Crew solidly exceeded my expectations and has earned a place on my iPad. It's a silly mindless beat em up that never tries to be anything else. Despite this it still manages to innovate while pulling the whole thing off with style. Not bad for a budget game.

Combo Crew for iPad and for iPhone