Graal Zone started life as a mini PC MMO and has now moved to the iPhone. It’s a weird action arcade battle game which puts you in control of nondescript little warrior who must, of course, destroy the legions of bad guys trying to kill him. The game is published by Eurocenter and comes in both free and $5.99 versions. According to the developer the paid version starts your character with better weapons and gives you access to additional maps and vehicles. Graal Zone makes some pretty big claims touting itself as the “first massively multi-player arcade battle game for the iPhone”.

I loaded up the free version of Graal and entered into the training mission. Moving your little warrior guy around involves tilting the screen in the direction you want to move. There is an on-screen button displaying your current weapon which can be tapped to attack. I moved around the training mission and killed a bunch of enemies. Surprisingly, when you kill an enemy with your knife they explode into a ball of flames. I eventually reached the top of the map and wondered off into the great black abyss. At some point, I either walked into another area or one was loaded for me. A message appeared on my screen informing me I had been given grenades it was immediately followed by a failed mission screen. Next up I tried the multiplayer plus zone and the player vs player zone. My experiences were identical with both, walk around a drop ship and watch other players try to figure out how this game made it onto the iTunes App store.

Graal Zone is a mess. The controls are clunky, the combat is overly simplistic, the levels are generic and poorly layed out. The graphics are adequate, if not a little dated and the sound is good, if not a little cheesy. The menu system is fine but uses a font which is difficult to read. The controls require you to tilt the game to such extremes that it’s hard to see the screen. The MMO side of things does not fare much better. While I believe I was playing with other people, everyone looked the same and it was really difficult to figure out where and what we were supposed to be doing.

Graal Zone is an ambitious game which is not quite ready for play. Almost every part of the game could stand improving if not rethinking completely. If you want to check it out give the free version a try.

By: Aaron Robbins