Steven Universe: Attack the Light
Up until recently, licensed games were given a bad rep, and it was hard to argue in favor of them. Most were bad tie-ins to big movies and would offer $5 off the ticket price of the film. For TV shows, this was even more damning, because it meant that it was an easy cash-in with repetitive gameplay and a flimsy reason to visit famous characters and locations from the show. These days, the bad licensed games get sent to a handheld platform like the 3DS with little fanfare, while the great or at least decent ones get a console release.
Don’t be fooled by it being an iOS game based on a show from Cartoon Network. Steven Universe: Attack the Light is an awesome game. This isn’t one of those shows where it just didn’t make much sense to have a game exist. The show itself has so many video game references, even in its basic premise of three aliens called the Crystal Gems (and Steven, a human-Gem hybrid) protecting Earth and traveling to different lands to fight monsters. With references of old school titles like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger to more recent affairs like Animal Crossing and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, it was only an eventuality there’d be a video game. Fortunately, developer Grumpyface Studios delivered, and the resulting game is fantastic.
If you’ve played the Mario RPGs, you’ll be right at home here with Attack the Light. Like those games, you travel to different lands on a 2D plane, but thankfully without any platforming. The turn based combat is pretty Mario & Luigi-esque, with blocks, special attacks, and items for you to distribute to each of the characters as buffs. Steven serves as support while the Crystal Gems do the actual battle, and they all handle quite nicely in combat. The touch screen controls work perfectly and rarely, if ever, get in the way of selecting an attack or an enemy. Despite being $3, it doesn’t mean the developers have skimped on the content, with five dungeons and five levels a piece, plus two secret areas and a boss. Attack the Light isn’t the most extensive RPG in the market in terms of weapons or items, but when it’s priced at $3 and based on one of the best cartoons on right now, you can’t go wrong with it.
