Final Fantasy Tactics: The War Of The Lions, iPhone & iPod
The Final Fantasy series is the apotheosis of Japanese role-playing games, with androgynous spiky-haired teenagers going on to upgrade their skills enough to save the world. Final Fantasy Tactics, however, is a spinoff that's much more concerned with combat. There's a full plot, but the focus is fighting, which takes place on a cute, 3D plane that you can scroll or spin for a good view of proceedings. Characters take turns to move and act, removing dexterity from the equation and relying on your strategic mastery to win. That involves nurturing and placing your team, as well as equipping them, gaining new skills and making sure you have the right combination for each encounter. As ever, the path of gradual improvement creates a powerful hook, with the incremental development of your party as absorbing as the fights. Almost identical to the PSP version – although lacking multiplayer – The War Of The Lions is deceptively vast and complex.
Square Enix, £10.99
Games news
Although you can play multiplayer games online with dozens or even hundreds of fellow combatants, there's something better about simulating beating up people in the same room rather than at a remove. Capcom realises this and is arranging a series of Fight Nights where you can join likeminded people for punch ups on the as yet unreleased Street Fighter X Tekken among others. The first event is in London tonight at the KO Gym, The Arches, E1 with others to be confirmed ...
The New York Times reports that North Korea's eccentric dictator, Kim Jong-Il, has been raising cash using gold farms, where groups are hired to gain equipment and money in online games, which are then sold to players for real cash. It may sound like an amusing cottage industry but police in South Korea estimate he's made $6m out of it over the last two years.
