iTuesday Review: Sucker Punch Mech Gunner for iPad

A week prior to the release of Warner Brother’s new action-fantasy film, Sucker Punch, Warner Bros Entertainment released a first person shooter game for iPad called Sucker Punch Mech Gunner, available in the App Store. The App’s description refers to it as being “inspired” by the movie, but hey, we know what it really is. It’s a promotional material for the film, and a pretty good one at that.

The premise is pretty simple. You walk around inside a sweet “mech gunner” suit killing zombie Nazi’s, trying to complete different objectives. The objectives are pretty straight-forward and could really just be “reach the end of each level”.  Based on the movie trailer, the game may or may not take place inside a dream world, but it really doesn’t matter… just shoot the bad guys.

The controls are easy to get the hang of. If at any point you put a finger on the left side of the screen it becomes a joystick. Moving your finger around any portion of the right side of the screen controls the direction your character is looking. It was nice to be able to touch any part of the screen for these functions instead of a specific on screen joystick. There are also buttons on the screen for your machine gun, rocket launcher, and jet pack. Every now and then your machine gun runs out of ammo and you need to reload. The game makes good use out the iPad’s accelerometer with a “shake to reload” function.

The strongest feature of Sucker Punch Mech Gunner is that it’s free! On top of that, unlike many free IOS games, it’s ad-free (unless you consider the game to just be an ad for the movie that is). It also has some of the best graphics you can find in a free game.

The game is lots of fun, but isn’t very difficult. Truth be told, I’m an old school gamer. I’ve clocked many hours playing Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64, but had difficulties getting into more modern first person shooters like Halo. With that being said, even I didn’t think Sucker Punch Mech Gunner presented much of a challenge. I only died twice during the entire game and the first time was when I was still experimenting with the controls at the beginning of the game.

Even when I stood in plain sight with 6 Nazis shooting at me I didnt have trouble taking them out.

The game is also pretty short. There are only three levels and the last one is just a boss (a fairly easy one at that). Even though it’s a short game there is something rewarding about reaching the end. Many free games for IOS devices operate on a Donkey Kong like model where the game is never really over and each round is essentially the same, Mech Gunner breaks free from that model.

On a final note, I was a bit disappointed about the amount of good-looking girls on the title screen Vs. the amount in the actual game (spoiler alert: none).

Final Rating: 7.5/10

CBR Break Down:
Console Played On: iPad (first generation)
Approximate Time to Completion: 1-2 hours
Price Bought at: Free
Current Price: Free
Recommend Purchase Price: You really can’t beat free.