It certainly seems like an odd time to release a game starring He-Man. More than a decade since his last revival, the audience for the campy fantasy cartoon has aged beyond the core audience for mobile games. Luckily, The Most Powerful Game in the Universe embraces its franchise with all the detached irony of a 30-something gamer. By mixing humor, nostalgia, and classic 2D action-platforming, Chillingo is hoping to court that elusive jaded core gamer.
TMPGU kicks off its nonsense story with a cut-scene wherein Skeletor has created a killer new app for his iPad, to successfully bait He-Man into a trap. Such is the nature of this self-referential, fourth-wall-breaking thread of a story, and the silliness continues throughout. He-Man reminds you at every turn that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, although it seldom manages to actually elicit a laugh in the process.
Chillingo tried to carry this lighthearted tone into the art itself, which is an exaggerated, comical version of the 1980s cartoon designs, but the result feels a bit cheap. Unlockable concept art and work-in-progress screens reveal that the game once had a darker tone, more akin to the comics that came packed with the toys, and these not only looked better, but might have served the comedy better by virtue of contrast.
The game itself is a classic action-platformer, vaguely in the same vein as the early Castlevania titles. Each stage is fairly short, and packed with a handful of secrets, some of which require upgrades to reach. After a few stages, you’ll fight a boss, and then move on to a new world. There are no buttons or on-screen d-pad, which makes for a clean interface, but also somewhat twitchy movement, as you have to slide your thumb rather than simply tapping. Luckily, the game seldom requires precise platforming, but the controls take their toll on the game’s feel. Attacking by tapping the right side of the screen feels much better, and over the course of the game, you’ll be able to purchase new moves to help spice up the action.
There are 31 stages in all, each of which offer a star rating, although these stars aren’t used to unlock stages, so this is wholly linear. You can play through the game in a couple of hours, but you’ll need to go back to find some of the unlockables, and earning 3-star ratings can actually be very challenging. Once you’re done with it all, you can play through with She-Ra. Her campaign is identical to He-Man’s, but forces you to start over, which can be a little discouraging, but she does at least have her own unique moves.
On paper, TMPGU gets a lot of things right. It never takes itself seriously, it understands that its audience has grown up, and it offers a real-deal action platformer that doesn’t feel too much like anything else on the Play Store. Alas, these elements do not conspire to make the game especially fun, and the license alone is not enough to buoy average action, dull level design, and simplistic art.
