What do you get when an indy developer makes a game with randomly generated levels inspired by both MegaMan and Metroid? You get Megatroid, that’s what. Swedish  developer Triolith Entertainment is about to release Megatroid world wide on iOS very soon. How soon you ask? Well, it is out in a few  select countries already and they say it is coming world wide to the app store by Aug 1. I have had the opportunity to play the game for a few days and I have some early impressions on this “freemium” title.

Megatroid looks great. The visuals have a very nice modern polygon 3D look to them while still maintaining the look and “feel” of an old school 2D action side scrolling title. The main character looks good , the enemies are decent and the backgrounds are very nice. The games music and sound effects ,while not amazing in my opinion, are more than good enough to keep with the modern/retro theme the developers have going on here. Thus, from a technical stand point, the game is well made and runs well on my iPhone 4S.

 The game play in Megatroid is pretty standard 2D platform/action stuff, so if your like me you will really like it. If you are not into the old school 2D game play that is emulated here, there is nothing new to change your opinion so you wont fall in love with the title. Controls are decent, but like most iPhone games, they are not perfect. Like some iOS titles if you push the pause button and then return to the action, your game will be unresponsive for about one or 2 seconds. That is a very long time if your in a jam, fighting off enemies, or needing to preform a double jump to safety. Overall the controls are decent enough to play the game but could be improved with an update. An interesting thing about this game is after you complete the first level, it can generate random levels for you, based on words you type into the menu screen. I am sure you can come up with some of the words I used, but aside from them I am fond of the Wonderpod  & PatMan levels, personally. Apparently there is some way to sharing these word generated levels with friends who also have the game, once the game is out for world wide release. An interesting idea and technically it would mean almost endless levels to play. However, I find the levels to not be dramatically different from onean other. Maybe it is just me, or maybe I need to use different words. The default weapons and abilities you have are decent but not very powerful. Of course, this is done to get you to buy weapons via micro transactions which is fine. If you plan on playing this game for weeks on end you will probably have to cough up a few bucks for it.

Overall I have been enjoying my time with Megatroid and I recommend it to anyone who liked the old 2D action/platform games that this title is obviously inspired from. Megatroid may not completely recapture the fun and excitement to the same extent as games like Metroid and MegaMan did in the past, but it is still pretty fun and worth the download. It looks good, plays well and has that cool level generator to keep things interesting. Check it out when it is available in your country.