A mobile game themed around Iron Maiden and mascot Eddie has been released and it isn’t half bad.
The game, Legacy of the Beast, is stacked with Iron Maiden easter eggs that managed to put a grin on my face. Phrases such as “Fearing the dark”, “running to the hills” appear over the loading bar. Even the levels are odes to Maiden’s catalogue of albums.
One of the levels, Kingdom of Sands, has an Egyptian theme similar to the album art of “Powerslave” (1984) and another, Battlefield, harks back to the tank emblazoned album art of 2006’s, “A Matter of Life and Death“.
Eddie, Eddie and Eddie
Players take control of Eddie as he fights to regain shards of his soul. To start, players will play the Warrior class but as the game progresses, players will unlock a mage, a tank, a gunner and an assassin. Each class has its own unique style of fighting and Ultimate Ability attacks, which deal stacks of damage.
Fighting involves a rather simple tap on an enemy or your own character at the right time to deal more damage. Players are able to craft teams from characters inspired by Maiden’s songs and can call on three different versions of Eddie so that if one dies, you have a back up.
The game is scored with original Iron Maiden tracks but they’re instrumental versions of the songs; personally, I feel it would have been better to have Bruce Dickinson wailing at us while I laid waste to Eddie’s foes.
Microtransactions? Run to the hills.
This being a mobile game we did expect there to be in-app purchases and lo and behold there are. The game has three types of resources: Gold, Sands of Time and Souls. Players can buy resources using the in-game currency, Ironite, which is earned by winning battles, or they can open their wallets.
That sounds simple enough to earn but sadly we foresee it becoming harder as you progress. The resource, Sands of Time, is used to enter battles. This resource only regenerates every five minutes and while this is going on players will be stuck waiting. For those that don’t want to wait you can refill your Sands of Time meter by buying a refill using Ironite.
You see, you only earn Ironite by winning battles and if you really need to level up to progress you either need to wait, or head to the store and hand over some money.
Is it worth it?
The game is free to download and it is quite fun. The visuals are good, the progression system is quite extensive and the combat is very satisfying. Seriously, watching Eddie pull out two heavy chains and whipping his enemies to death is macabrely enjoyable.
With that said, I’m not so sure people other than Iron Maiden fans would enjoy this. The jokes and easter eggs will fly over the heads of anybody not versed in the band’s discography and lore.
As I said, Legacy of the Beast is a fun game and while the download does tip the scales at 50MB on Android it is worth downloading. If anything it will be fun to see the look of shock on the faces of patrons at the bank while you fight to get Eddie’s soul back.
Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast is out now on iOS and Android.
