If you’re one of those people asking why no one ever crossed the old cellphone game snake with an 8 bit RPG, what am I saying? People don’t ask those questions. It’s really only the kind of thing that comes up in a brainstorming session. However, in the case of Nimble Quest, it turns out to be a gem of an idea. First off, the bad. It’s a free to play game where everything can be unlocked if you’re willing to fork over enough real cash monies. A good chunk of the game can be enjoyed without spending a cent. In my book, that’s a pretty good balance. Your mileage may vary.
I could describe the game in more detail, but you probably already have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen. You start off with one hero selected from any that you’ve unlocked. They will be the head of the snake. If they die, it’s game over. Each hero is a different class with different health, armor, attack speed and attack strength stats. Each has a different attack style based on what you’d expect from standard RPG tropes. So you’d expect a mage to be a glass cannon. Melee fighters have to get in close.
As in snake, you move in the compass directions. You turn by swiping that direction. Running into walls or enemies kills your hero. If an enemy comes into your attack range, they’ll be attacked. If you kill the enemy, they’ll drop gems, power ups, tokens or heroes. Gems are the basic currency of the game. They can be used to level up your heroes or increase the effect of power ups. Power ups generally increase your survival by healing or buffing your team or cursing or damaging your enemies. Tokens can be used to buy in game, per game buffs or to continue your game. Heroes will add one random, unlocked hero to your team. More heroes on your team increases your firepower and helps spread out the damage. You can only have one of each hero active and your snake can only grow as long as the number of heroes you’ve unlocked.
Enemies are random from a selection for that zone. They either move alone or in groups of three. If you kill the head of a group of three, that team dies. You have to kill a set number of enemies to clear a zone. Once cleared, a bunch of gems appear. You have to grab as many as you can before the timer expires. Each time you clear a zone you haven’t beaten before, you unlock a new hero. Clear numbers and enemy toughness increase as you progress through the zones.
Like snake, the action can go from leisurely to pretty hectic rapidly. There’s enough depth here to keep things interesting and to keep you coming back. It’s not a game you’re going to disappear into for hours at a time, but it can make fifteen minutes fly by. It’s fun enough to make you feel like throwing some money the developers way. That’s what I’m looking for in free to play games. Definitely recommended.
