Chillingo previewed a variety of new iOS titles last week at E3, but only a few of them looked promising. One of those games was Tiny Troopers, a mission based war game with awesome graphics and cute looking characters.

Tiny Troopers ($2.99) iOS Universal

“Size doesn’t matter for these miniature men of war. Take control of a platoon of crack soldiers and deploy in a variety or war zones as you battle through the epic campaign.”

Presentation

Tiny Troopers features some pretty good looking visuals, with the characters being more on the “cute” side. Don’t let the cute soldiers fool you though; they’re just as violent as real soldiers. The game doesn’t feature much of a story, instead focuses on completing a variety of missions as you progress through the campaign.

The game features 30 missions in total (3 difficulty settings each), spread across three chapters. The objectives range from simply killing enemies, surviving attacks, and even protecting the VIP. You run the missions with your squad of soldiers who gain experience and will eventually rank-up for bonuses. Be warned though, if your ranked-up units get KIA(Killed In Action) they’re gone for good.

Controls

Tiny Troopers features a short and helpful boot camp level to get you familiar with its controls. The controls seem simple enough at first, almost too simple. Movement is as easy as tapping on the ground, and your soldiers will move towards that location unless another action is placed. To shoot at an enemy you just tap on them and all your units will attack the selected target once. Note that you must continue tapping on the enemy to continue firing. Learn to move and shoot at the same time, this will become necessary as you progress through the game.

A few high power weapons are available on the right side of the screen. To use them simply drag and drop them on the screen. These high powered weapons (Grenades, RPG, and Missiles) are used to take down buildings or can be used to destroy a large number of units. Watch out though, these weapons are powerful and can wipe out your own squad if not careful . Overall, the controls work well, except soldiers often will stop randomly or get stuck which can be annoying.
Gameplay

The gameplay is really enjoyable up until you realize that once your experienced units die in a mission, they don’t come back. This becomes frustrating when you wipe on a mission and are forced to deal with un-ranked units. To counter this, you can purchase items and specialist units mid-mission to make things a little easier.

To purchase these items/units you spend Command Points which are earned by completing objectives, finding dog tags, killing enemies, etc. Medals are also earned in the game can also be spent on training for your units, which permanently increases their stats. The IAP store is available for those who want to spend real money on Command Points, Medals, double XP, and more.

Suggestions

I would love to be able to replay missions in the campaign mode to rank-up my weak soldiers. Currently, units only get experience in campaign mode. Mission mode can be used to replay completed missions, but not level up units.

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun with Tiny Troopers except for the fact that units often died because of poor movement by the solider AI. This became frustrating when my squad wiped on a campaign mission and were gone for good. You don’t need to purchase anything in the IAP store to be successful, but it helps. Overall, the fun and simple gameplay offered in Tiny Troops make this Chillingo title worth checking out. 8/10