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By ReviewTeam @ Tuesday, October 14, 2008 :: 725 Views ::
0 Comments ::  :: Fighting
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 There seems to be a rush of mobile 3D fighting games hitting the market lately. Must be the state of the world. Fishlabs has released Gladiator, Sega has the retro Virtua Fighter and Techno Bubble, a Spanish company, has released perhaps the least publicized of these in KODE - Knights of the Dark Edge.
KODE has by far the most stunning graphics, animation and sound of these three battlers. Mixing buxom babes, knights with big swords and some serious bloodletting, KODE makes for a pretty primal experience on your mobile phone.
The high polygon character graphics and VR backgrounds are light years ahead of Virtua Fighter’s paper cut outs. Still, the dark lords, knights and valkyries animate smoothly in battle even with most of the backgrounds in motion. On top of that, nice particle effects accompany each swipe of your sword in a glorious display of flying blood , sparks and the flames coming from the Dark Knights hand.
  
I hope you have stereo speakers on your phone because the musical score for KODE is off the charts. It could just as well have been the score for Lord of the Rings rather than a mobile game but it fits perfectly and adds a lot of drama to the battles. The great music is punctuated with shrieks, grunts, footsteps, the clash of swords and the thump of bodies hitting the ground to make for a virtual aural orgy.
  
You can play either in portrait or landscape mode although landscape is a bit awkward with both hands on the same side of your handheld as it is a two-handed game. You use the d-pad/joystick to move forward > or back < and up or down to circle around your opponent. If you stand still you’ll be chopped up. You slash with 6(fast) or 9(more damage) and then use a combination of the movement keys and attack keys to perform kicks or jumps. This is all made clear in a nice tutorial. I liked the controls but felt there could have been more attacks available. For one, the 5 or center d-pad is inactive. The tutorial hints at further attacks but I couldn’t find them although at times I would make a killing plunge at my fallen foe and couldn’t figure out how I did it.
  
There are also two camera views, a straight on side view (battle view) and a nice third person view which is in back and a little to the right of your warrior. Both of them give you a good view of the carnage.
There are a total of nine distinct and well-designed characters to unlock each with different skills as you battle through a best of three struggle in an “unknown dimension”. You start with a choice of 5 fighters and must battle through the others to unlock a new fighter. They get progressively harder and use different tactics. Some come right at you while others try to outflank you and when they do you need to move with them or get slashed. If you get knocked down the ruthless ones will run up and stab you unless you roll around with the d-pad to escape. There is a back story to the mayhem but I couldn’t fathom it. It’s all about the fighting.
  
Depth my be the only shortcoming in the quick loading KODE although there is an extensive multiplayer component. You can battle friends via Bluetooth or collect cards by fighting through a survival mode which you can use in an online card game although I could never connect to a server to check this out. No matter, I enjoy KODE for the finest sword fighting action on my mobile.
While fighting games may not be everyone’s cup of tea, myself included, KODE is pretty compelling. To view this much technical excellence on a mobile device is remarkable and deserves 5 stars.
To get a demo of KODE go to thebubblegames.com. If you purchase the full game you will need to install additional data that is in a sis file on their website.
Reviewed by goyami - Nokia N73
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