Sword and Sworcery
As I've mentioned before, it's a rarity when -like a needle in a haystack- you find a mobile phone game that is more than your usual puzzle game clone or some Candy Crush equivalent that begs for micropayments at every turn. Superbrother's Sword and Sworcery is a fine example of a break from the norm in mobile gaming. One of the most brilliant pieces of gaming as art, it not only combines a point-and-click adventure game with some fantastic pixel artwork, but also an incredible album.
Sword and Sworcery is more than your usual adventure game. S&S was built around an album created by Jim Guthrie with this purpose in mind and the entire game really plays out that way. Every element is musical, puzzles come together to build songs, animals and beasts have specific notes. I can guarantee you I purchased this soundtrack on vinyl.
Of course, S&S gets by on more than just it's score. It also contains some of the finest pixel art of it's time. Of course, more and more games took this direction for visuals afterwards but Sword and Sworcery still remains unique in it's design. Using unnecessarily simple colour palettes and low resolution artwork, Capybara games and Superbrothers created a visual style that is reminiscent of older 8 and 16-bit titles, but with a more modern art direction and a much more powerful engine that allows for a more current look.
Sword and Sworcery proved that there is a place for high-quality, unique titles on the mobile phone platform. And though, I still don't sit down and play many of these games unless I'm stuck on a train, titles like this I try to make time for.
Sword and Sworcery is more than your usual adventure game. S&S was built around an album created by Jim Guthrie with this purpose in mind and the entire game really plays out that way. Every element is musical, puzzles come together to build songs, animals and beasts have specific notes. I can guarantee you I purchased this soundtrack on vinyl.
Of course, S&S gets by on more than just it's score. It also contains some of the finest pixel art of it's time. Of course, more and more games took this direction for visuals afterwards but Sword and Sworcery still remains unique in it's design. Using unnecessarily simple colour palettes and low resolution artwork, Capybara games and Superbrothers created a visual style that is reminiscent of older 8 and 16-bit titles, but with a more modern art direction and a much more powerful engine that allows for a more current look.
Sword and Sworcery proved that there is a place for high-quality, unique titles on the mobile phone platform. And though, I still don't sit down and play many of these games unless I'm stuck on a train, titles like this I try to make time for.
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