While there have been many attempts at reproducing the MMORPG experience on Apple's incredibly popular iPhone and iTouch devices, the limitations in technology and connection speed have kept these applications from hitting the big time. Spacetime Studios hopes to change all that, as they just revealed a new MMO for the app store: Pocket Legends.
Boasting 3D graphics, three classes and accessibility across iPhone, iTouch and iPad devices, Pocket Legends might be considered an "MMO-lite," but it still contains all the necessary ingredients. Players can choose from one of three anthropomorphic animal classes -- a cat sorceress, a bird archer, and a bear tank -- and head off for a career full of dungeon running, chest looting, and stat leveling. Grouping is also possible (and encouraged!), with thousands of players connecting over a server. Spacetime promises that players can not only play Pocket Legends on almost all of Apple's portable devices (except the first edition of the iPhone), but the game can be accessed via WiFi, 3G and even EDGE networks.
"We've utilized years of technology and expertise to pretty rapidly put on this platform something that I don't think anyone has ever seen before, and we're tremendously excited by the prospects," executive producer Gary Gattis told Gamasutra.
As you may recall, Spacetime Studios originally worked on the promising Blackstar, a strong MMORPG contender that was axed by NCSoft prior to release. Their switch to Pocket Legends enabled them to finally launch a MMO (a F2P vampire MMO called Empire of Night is also on deck for the company.) Spacetime is offering Pocket Legends for free, hoping that gamers will like it so much that they'll either pay for small expansion packs or items in the cash shop.
The iPad version is currently available, with the iPhone/iTouch edition making its way through the approval process. You can check out the trailer at Touch Arcade, or learn more about the game from Spacetime's website.
Reader Comments (10)
Posted: Apr 4th 2010 8:28PM Pingles said
Ugh, an MMO for the iPad may spell doom for me. Someone make them stop!
I am NEVER going to get anything done...
I am NEVER going to get anything done...
Posted: Apr 4th 2010 9:14PM johnnliu said
a dungeon crawler with 3 classes, you join or create a instance from the lobby... what's the max number of players in an instance?
last time I checked, Diablo was just a networked game... nobody called it "MMO-lite". where's the 'massive' in all this?
looks like it'll create a niche in the iPad market, which I'm all excited for, but it's not an MMO.
last time I checked, Diablo was just a networked game... nobody called it "MMO-lite". where's the 'massive' in all this?
looks like it'll create a niche in the iPad market, which I'm all excited for, but it's not an MMO.
Posted: Apr 4th 2010 9:19PM Mr Angry said
Just got to level 10 with this, it's a bit simple, but just goes to show you can have MMO games on the device, the synchronization was very good, the control system was OK, but needs work, the virtual joystick was almost unusable for my big thumbs so I hope they can do something with this.
I tried the archer class and had some simple abilities which made sense. The enchantress can heal which helped our little group. People were really friendly too, spent about 30 mins just chatting.
I found the loot distribution a bit up shit creek, we all kept getting items which were not designed for our classes, with no apparent way of trading. The heritage of the design team does shine through, it's very polished, just very simple at this stage.
The levels were what you would expect from a pocket device, lots of zombies to kill, you destroy treasure chests for loot, and it's usually in the form of currency.
You get new skills as you level, however, you have to put points towards them or you won't open the lowest tier, which is something I didn't see for the first few minutes.
I think this will be quite big, definitely worth checking out, it is free for quite a few levels after all.
I tried the archer class and had some simple abilities which made sense. The enchantress can heal which helped our little group. People were really friendly too, spent about 30 mins just chatting.
I found the loot distribution a bit up shit creek, we all kept getting items which were not designed for our classes, with no apparent way of trading. The heritage of the design team does shine through, it's very polished, just very simple at this stage.
The levels were what you would expect from a pocket device, lots of zombies to kill, you destroy treasure chests for loot, and it's usually in the form of currency.
You get new skills as you level, however, you have to put points towards them or you won't open the lowest tier, which is something I didn't see for the first few minutes.
I think this will be quite big, definitely worth checking out, it is free for quite a few levels after all.
Posted: Apr 4th 2010 10:29PM (Unverified) said
Looks interesting. Might open up some new possibilities and create a demand for this type of game on the iPhone.
Posted: Apr 5th 2010 4:23AM Greeen said
maybe I am blind, but according to iTunes store this is for iPad only?
Posted: Apr 5th 2010 5:43AM whateveryousay said
A quote from the article above.
"The iPad version is currently available, with the iPhone/iTouch edition making its way through the approval process."
So yea, you are blind.
Reply
"The iPad version is currently available, with the iPhone/iTouch edition making its way through the approval process."
So yea, you are blind.
Posted: Apr 5th 2010 5:06PM Devilstower said
I've played the first few levels and it's a pleasant surprise. They did a good job thinking through the controls for a touch screen. The game is at a level where it's easy for a non-mmo veteran to pick up, but it has enough of the basics to make it fun even for someone with a lot of time in the trenches.
And yes, my life in the real world may now be over.
And yes, my life in the real world may now be over.







