Stay Dead

Developer: BRUCEFILM

Price: $2.99

Version: 1.0.1

App Reviewed On: New iPad

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This game takes the concept of video gaming a little too literally. Gone are computer generated graphics and in their place is high quality Full Motion Video. It's not a new concept and past attempts to use FMV have been pretty sub par. But this game does use the video footage rather well from a technical perspective. But then, do you really play beat 'em ups for their technical merits?

After a slightly too long video training session, I was finally allowed to take control of my character, who looks a little too much like an accountant for my liking, when I really wanted to be playing a killer karate master. However, my unlikely hero did get to square up to four bad dudes, one at a time. Defeat the first guy to move onto the next, and defeat all four in a row to be allowed to challenge the end boss. Each opponent has their own style of fighting, allowing my character to variously throw punches, kicks, headlocks and even poke with sticks! Three control options exist, but two options using on screen buttons, take up at least half the screen, reducing the size of the video and the action, and both seemed very clumsy, taking away from any connection to the video. But change to the on screen touch option and the game quickly becomes playable and very challenging.

With the touch controls I found myself partly playing an old style beat 'em up and a rhythm music game where I had to touch a box on the screen at the correct time in order to place the killer blow. Too slow and a video played out showing me missing, and getting my ass kicked in return, but get the timing just right and my character would slap and occasionally even punch, or in the case of when I got to fight the nasty looking Nazi guy, poke him with a stick. However, I did get to poke this guy ten times in a row and eventually made him fall over with a little groan!

But this game is trying to be different and what they do, they do quite well. The video clips flow smoothly from one scene to the next, with moves based on your choices nicely implemented, and despite watching video, I still felt in control of my character, or at least, responsible for his moves.

I found myself strangely liking this game. It has a certain charm about it that is rare in a lot of games, and although the entire game consists of only five opponents, I kept coming back for just one more go, which is all that can be asked of any game, I think.