Warlocked

"A good strategy game, with a few unmistakable flaws!"

I want to tell you that this game was a very good effort to put a RTS on a handheld system! I just wish they have some new ones... Now let's get on with the review. Hope this review will help!

Control 7/10
Pretty decent... you can have two teams using select+A or B, kinda like Starcraft. Move around with arrow keys. Select with A and B keys. The control is good for a handheld RTS, but probably won't appeal to everyone.
The only disappointment is how the units move. They don't handle pathing very well... In fact it's horrible!
Fair control...

Audio 9/10
Pretty catchy tunes when you start, but might get a bit boring after a while. There are about 10 tunes, and lots of sound effects. If you go to the menu of the game, you can choose an option that will allow you to play the tunes and the sound effects. Nice! I really like the sound effects, especially the voices. The voices are done well for a Gameboy game! I also like the arrows, and the swords clashing, and the others. Very good!

Graphics/Video 8/10
The graphics are very simple... example: Only 3 or 4 sprites for wizards while there are 20 or more wizards! They are just different in color... The buildings are nice, though, and in each terrain, there are different-looking buildings... eg. In the forest, the beasts sometimes have evil trees for Main Halls.(You'll see what I mean...)The trees and the characters aren't that detailed and the trees somewhat look like stick figures!
Anyway, the graphics are quite simple, but notice I am not bashing the graphics! It is because the graphics are very sharp and clean! That's the main reason why I put a 8 instead of an 7. I also like the 'cinamatics' or whatever you want to call them... the figures look nice in them.
Also, the wizard's pictures in their profile's are very detailed. The game moves pretty smooth, too. The only flaw in the smoothness is this: When you have like 10-20 units, and you're trying move them, it will lag like crazy! Also, when you have that many units, strangely the trees sometimes appear in front of my buildings! That's a big flaw, and I lowered it to an 8.
Overall, fair graphics/video.

Gameplay 9/10
Nice gameplay, and there are quite a few different kinds of mission, not just the same kill everybody thing. You can rescue wizards, and destroy a whole map with 3 guys;, and other stuff. The main thing is to get your worker units to mine gold and fuel and then build buildings. In turn, you build warriors and archers from those buildings. You build farms for supply(5 units per farm).
Then you attack, or do whatever you have to do. The only disappointment is there aren't many buildings or units. Still, the gameplay is very fun and quite challenging, too.

Modes 10/10
Normal: You are either are on the Human campaign or the Beast Campaign, and you have to go through all the missions.
Multiplayer: Fun! You get to chose from about 15 maps(Unlock some in singleplayer),and play against your partner... adds up to the replayability.
Army Battle(Multiplayer): Pretty decent.. you have your army stored up from what you had left in your singleplayer campaign, and you use it to make an army. Then you battle against your friends with a rock-paper-scissors type battle. Each unit has an element. Eg. Water defeats Fire.
It's kinda confusing.
Extras: I won't tell you what the extras are, but I'll tell you that you will get to play extra games, and unlock cheats.

Replayability 8/10
I myself played the singelplayer quite a few times to get best scores and best times on the missions. The multiplayer and the other modes also add up to the replayability, but without a friend, you'll get bored easily.
Good replayability.

Overall 9/10 (Not an average)
Even though, it's not an average (Would be 8.5), I give this a 9, because it gave me quite a lot of fun!
Very good job for a first try, BITS Studio! Have fun!

GOODIES
Sharp, clean graphics
Nice tunes and good sound effects
Cool gameplay
Nice array of modes
Different kinds of missions
Nice pictures for wizards in the profile

BADDIES
Not much detail for the units
Horrible pathing
Tunes might get boring
Terrible lag if you have lots of units
Not very good replayability if you don't have a friend to play with

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/01, Updated 10/30/01