The Secret of Mana was one of the 90s SNES classics that got away from me. I always wanted to play it, but never managed to get it for one reason or another. However, now it’s been rereleased as an Apple app on the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad so I’ve finally got to live the childhood dream.
The graphics are lush, in a 90s classic RPG styley, and look slightly supped up from the first incarnation of the game. You take on the main character of the game, but because you can change their name it ends up being you as the little hero. You must take your hero, find the mana sword and bring peace back to the land.
The multi-player option hasn’t been transferred, but that’s no big loss as the concept wouldn’t really work as well on a mobile device. However, the game has a pretty good action based fight system that has a good element of tactical fighting to get past enemy sprites without getting yourself wiped out. This comes into its own when you face off against the bosses of the game where you’ll need to study their fighting patterns pretty closely to work out how best to beat them.
There isn’t really a great deal to say about the game that’s bad in any way, but the fact that it’s priced at over a fiver is a bit much to ask considering the likes of Angry Birds was just 69p and was a new build with ongoing updates. £5+ is just a lot to ask for a re-port of a game that was created in 1993, no matter how good it is.
The Secret of Mana Apple app is pretty cool and has a lot of nostalgia about it. It’s fun to play and has engaging gameplay, although once in a while the touch screen controls let you down. If you missed it first time around then you’ll probably love this at any price, but for newer gamers, this might be a bit too pricey to justify.
The Secret of Mana iPhone game review: 3.5/5
