About a hundred years ago, while I was still a Windows user and thought that a Mac was what you covered in a cheese and slurped down for lunch, I whiled away way too much time playing a DOS-based artillery duel game called Scorched Earth. Dot Matrix Interactive Designs have created their own version in the extremely polished, multiplayer KIL.A.TON — and it’s even more of a blast to play.
The $3 game looks deceptively easy: Pick a weapon, aim, fire, and hope that you hit something other than yourself; but mastering the game is an entirely different story.
It’s the bewildering array of ordinance available that gives KIL.A.TON its nuanced complexity. Purchasing and then choosing the right munition to fire is like trying to figure out the perfect toppings to go on your frozen yogurt; do you nail your opponent line-of-sight style with the minigun, or just obliterate everything with the ultra-expensive Omega Strike? Bright, beautiful graphics and a blood-pumping — if repetitive — soundtrack only serve to suck you in further.
Like the music, the game can be a little repetitive though, and can also get extremely frustrating — I was beaten so badly by my friend Jordan that I gave up after awhile (that’s ok, I’m slaughtering him at Words with Friends).
A lite version with limited weapons, environments, only one campaign and without the ranked online play is also offered.
Verdict: 3.5/5 – There have never been so many fun ways to make things go boom on the iPhone.
