When I think of classic mobile games, Swordigo is one of the few that come to mind. Developed by Touch Foo and compatible with iOS and Android phones, Swordigo is a single-player platform adventure and role-playing game. Touch Foo had won our hearts with Soosiz, which they had dropped a few years prior.

Swordigo falls specifically into the Metroidvania genre and reminds me of games like Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link or Metroid. Since its release in 2012, it brings fond memories of fascinating gameplay on the phone I had at the time. It is an improvement on the regular 2D approach to making Metroidvania.

Simple But Interesting Plot

Like your classic games of old, Swordigo begins with a story. Your game character is unknown, but that doesn’t take away from his air of mystery. He goes in search of his master, whom he finds dead. On his master’s body is a note that speaks of evil monsters called the Corruptors. He embarks on a quest for a mega blade, the only weapon powerful enough to kill a Corruptor. The journey leads him through dungeons, shops, and a battle with himself. 

Immersive And Enjoyable Gameplay

Swordigo is one of the side-scrolling action-adventure games where you run, jump, sword fight, and cast magic spells to combat enemies. You gain experience and level up by killing enemies. In leveling up, you can upgrade your power attributes. The attributes include health, attack power, or magic. Every time you level up, you get to upgrade only one of these.

You can also get other exotic abilities that make you even more powerful, such as bombs that blow up walls and magic bolts that activate special attacks on the enemies, among others. You get a map that you can pull up at any time and helps you keep track of your location and the places you have visited. Even more interesting than that, you get to find portals that allow you to backtrack into areas previously explored.

Swordigo has all the great elements of a hack and slash game, such as complex boss battles, sword combat, spell-slinging, character upgrades, and a lot of space to explore. The main game only takes a few hours, but you can go on a journey to hunt down every treasure chest available to you, which I did. I can tell you for free, it is awesome.

Customizable Game Controls

Swordigo comes with upgraded mechanics slightly better than many hack and slash games, which I appreciate. The game controls are responsive and work very well. You get the left and right buttons to move your character, sword attack, magic attack, and jump buttons. With these simple controls, you can maneuver difficult jumps and obstacles and evade attacks from enemies.

The feature that lets you customize the positions of the controls is simply genius. It allows you to create an interface that suits your preferred playing style. That sense of control eases you into the game and frankly increases productivity. It works even better on big screens because of the large surface area. 

Mid Graphic, But That Doesn’t Affect The Interesting Gameplay

The graphics in this game are fair enough for a mobile game. The use of 2.5D graphics is decent, but the character models could have been better. It also uses a fairly repetitive environment, sometimes making the game look monotonous. However, this does not affect the quality of the gameplay.

Although I’m not a fan of the positioning of the on-screen arrow, they are functional and serve their purpose quite well. There is also a limitation to sword fights. The attacks have a pattern, and the enemies are good at exploiting those weaknesses. Swordigo does not have any intense cutscenes or grand voice acting. It sticks to short, readable text as you get through the story, which worked perfectly for me. It also does not feature a great soundtrack.

Cool And Upgradable Weapons

What Swordigo lacks in graphics and plot, it makes up for in a seamless user experience and cool, upgradable weapons. The game starts quite easily, with little to do; thus, a sword and the jump buttons with limited combinations come into play. Don’t be deceived by this; with time, the game expands, and so does your toolbox. You begin to pile up abilities and activate the four spell feature, which helps you defeat enemies or interact with your environment in unimaginable ways. 

You can shoot switches with magic bolts and blow-up hidden walls with bombs. These activities come in handy when you engage in boss fights. Every new area is filled with surprising challenges, and you would never know what special abilities you need. I just like to hold certain skills because I don’t know what kind of boss I would need to battle at the end of a stage. Let me say here that these bosses can be somewhat hard to kill.

Despite the temptation from similar games, Touch Foo resisted the urge to destroy the game with in-app purchases using real-life money. I cannot count how many cool games have been destroyed by the greed of their developers. The game comes with ads that can be annoying sometimes, but they only pop up when your character dies, or you are switching modes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Swordigo is a very good game and can even classify as great in the hack and slash world of games. It doesn’t boast the greatest storyline but beats most Metroidvania of its time. It feels more like a charming homage to its predecessors.

If you look past the few bugs you experience and somewhat annoying ads, you will see how highly entertaining the Swordigo is. Touch Foo has cracked the code of playing in familiar territory and balancing it with quality and skill. I highly recommend this for people who love old-fashioned adventure and classic entertaining games.