That Rev Chap

Originally a Playstation release, RPG/brawler hybrid Corporate Fury was only released in the US and in very limited quantities. It’s since become something of a cult classic, with copies fetching silly prices on eBay, but you can now play it on the iPhone. Hooray! It’s the same game, but has had a graphical makeover (using the original assets), has been nicely adjusted to the touch screen and has a much, much friendlier save system. (In the original, you could only save back at your quarters. While you can still do that now, there’s also a “save anywhere” system, making it much better for handheld gaming.)

I need to talk to the chap in front of me to enter fights to earn money.

Actually, no, that’s all bollocks. Corporate Fury is an iPhone original that just happens to feel like an old Playstation cult hit. Not any game in particular, mind, it just has that air about it. There are no camera controls, it’s got a nostalgic dark, neon-lit ugliness about it and the angular characters feel like they’ve been smoothed and refined from blocky, poorly-textured originals.

If it had been released fifteen years ago it would still be sitting happily in those “Best Games You’ve Never Played” lists.

It is, however, the space year 2010, so how does it work now?

Really rather well, actually. It’s got an excellent premise – you’re part of a company where you have to get promotions by fighting your superiors for them. It’s Fight Club meets Wall Street, with a hint of Klingon politics. I like the world, even if I’m not a fan of the way it’s portrayed. The graphics are technically fine, with solid environments and some nice lighting, but I find the whole look aesthetically displeasing. It’s all very dark in a 90s style and to my mind it’s just plain ugly. Which is partly the point, obviously, but that doesn’t make it fun to look at.

The game consists of running from place to place on the open map, aided by a game-saving GPS system. You talk to people, buy upgrades with credits earned in fights and, well, fight lots and lots of people. When you get into a fight you and your opponent appear in an arena (an empty swimming pool or a rooftop, for example) and then you get to punch and kick them into submission.

I will probably win this fight in less than ten seconds.

Fights are a fast and furious frenzy of wonderful button-mashing action, but don’t, yet, involve any sort of tactics. I’ve not needed to experiment with items and upgrades so far. I’ve changed my clothes and used an expensive terraforming device that seemed to do fuck all, but that’s it. (I’m saving up for a weapon now.) I think greater complexity may come later. (I think I’m playing on Easy, too, which probably means I’m not having to learn the nuances of combat as quickly as I might otherwise have to.)

It’s all a bit of a grind, having to enter lots of standard matches to earn credits to buy upgrades to progress through the story, but it’s a good grind. Being able to save anywhere means I’ve found the best way to play is to start the game between other games, do a few fights, then leave it for a while. As such, it’s perfectly suited to the iPhone platform.

It’s good stuff, basically, and seems cheap at the current price of £1.19. (Remember, this isn’t a review, only my first impressions. Let’s see if I stick with this one past the novelty phase.)