Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

During our childhood we've always had a wind-up toy to keep our little lives happy, wherever it's a wind-up robot or a wind-up toy car. Wind-up Knight is a simple style platformer a little similar to games like Super Mario Bros, the princess gets kidnapped and it's up to the Wind-up Knight to go save her.

Gameplay: The first six levels are pretty much simple platforming levels which should be a piece of cake for any hard-core gamers out there, you use the touch screen to tap your wind-up knight to either jump, attack, use shield or roll. Apart from getting through each level there's coins and a card to pick up which can be tricky to collect everything in one level; because if you die you would have to start the whole level again.

If you've seen the Energizer Bunny, the wind-up knight keeps going, and going, and going. The only things he'll stop for are death and the end of a level. Otherwise he'll keep going one way until he hits a wall, and then he'll turn around and go the other way until his little clockwork bits wind down. So it would be best if you pick up the wind-up keys to keep your health up or attack or defend at the right time.

Yet Wind-Up Knight is more of a memory game trying to memorise what's ahead and know what's coming next, more points you get from each of the levels you'll unlock new levels and new equipment to customise your knight.

Graphics and Sound: The 3D visuals are beautiful, highly detailed levels and charming characters. Some of the vistas you dash through are so striking that they're almost a distraction making you lose focus and end up dying or going the wrong way. The game might run down a little slow at certain moments but are easily ignored but shouldn't bother you; the IPhone version is more of a port version from the Android phones but may look a little shinier on its graphics.

Lots of sound effects and the soundtrack is nicely done and composed by Josh Whelchel, most of its levels are all medieval fantasy making this game a little addictive.

Overall: Indeed, the difficulty ramps up very quickly, forcing you to display almost super-human responsiveness. However, rather than being frustrating, the compact level design encourages you to pick yourself up and try again if you fail. It can be an addicting game on your phone making you want to play more and more, but however if you want to unlock more levels you would have to pay for each world costs £1.24, although you're offered a one-time deal to grab them all for around £2.50. Or you can play through the levels again and try and collect more coins and cards to earn points which should unlock more levels.

But for Android users you can download certain apps from the store which can earn you money notes which you can use to purchase levels and items for your knight. I liked how the game was presented but after playing through the first world you're required to purchase them, it's free on android or £1.49 on iTunes.