As games that blend genres and take advantage of platform strengths go, it rarely gets better than this.
Battleheart
For: iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad (universal app)
From: Mika Mobile
Rating: 9+ (infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence)
Price: $US3
On paper, Battleheart reads like a role-playing game: you assemble a party of characters with different strengths, upgrade those strengths by accruing experience and gold in battle, and use that gold to buy, sell and upgrade weapons, armour and other items with special attributes.
But where most RPGs lean heavily on story, Battleheart all but skips it.
Instead, the battles - which the game distributes across selectable levels almost like an arcade game - are the end as well as the means.
That's fine, too, because where most RPGs use a battle system that's turn-based and menu-driven, Battleheart opts instead for a frantic, hands-on system that plays like a real-time strategy game on caffeine.
Players control up to four characters at once, and commanding them is as simple as drawing a path for them, pointing them at specific enemies to attack, and occasionally tapping an icon to activate a spell.
The simple controls - which nicely complement the game's clean, ultracartoony look - prove a perfect fit once Battleheart's introductory levels quickly give way to some seriously chaotic skirmishes.
Things get crowded to a fault sometimes, especially on the smaller iPhone screen, but it's an acceptable side-effect of Battleheart's refusal to compromise its thirst for chaos.
