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Posted Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 7:28 am by Antonio Wells Comments
Urban Rivals is a strategy turn-based virtual street brawling game where you collect and strengthen your skills using player cards. There are an unfathomable number of levels, battles and missions you can compete in, plus the network is massive with millions of players online across Android, iOS and the Web.
Price: Free, In-game Purchases
Tested on: LG Nitro HD, Amaze 4G
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros
Totally addictive strategy game across mobile and web!Almost unlimited number of levels, missions and foes to battle!Grand online user base so it is always someone to fight!Mini game and other incentives to gain bonus currency to buy more characters!High replay and longevity value which can offer minutes to hours of fun!Cons
Audio keeps playing after you stop the game, forcing a restart just to stop it.Although there is a lot of graphic detail, it’s spoiled by improper sizing and screen pixelation. Text is tiny and sometimes difficult to read.One of the negative side effects of playing people in real time is waiting on them.Watch on Mobile
Urban Rivals spawned to mobile from the hugely popular web version of the game so you can take the brawl from computer to tablet to smartphone. It takes collectible character cards of various skills, strengths and weaknesses and puts you in a 4-on4 battle against other players in real-time around the world. You first start out in a simulated tutorial of battles to get you acquainted to the game and learn how to fight. It’s all strategy in how you match foes against each other based on their values.
Fortunately and unfortunately some battles are won due to your opponent not responding in the time frame. Also a negative side effect of playing people in the real world is waiting on them.
The mobile app features about half of the full online features so we do encourage you to flip back and forth with each. For example, when you go online you can shop for characters, join or create guilds, use the message boards, and see global leaders.
At random you and your opponent are given four of your characters from your legion collection. You alternate turns, so you are given two minutes to pick a rival and their bonus power such as “Pillz” or “Fury“. You start with twelve Pillz and given each one round as a performance booster for your character. Fury unleashes pure rage with your fighter and will cost you three Pillz. Use these enhancements wisely as you may not have enough in the later rounds to win the battle.
Pay careful attention to your fighter’s skill set denoted as Power, Damage, Ability Unlock level, and Cancel Leader. Note: Pillz are multiplied by the fighter’s power to produce the total Pillz number. Damages are taken from your foe’s health represented by the heart icon. To win the battle you must either end four rounds with the most health or completely annihilate your opponent of all theirs.
After each battle you are given experience known as “XP” that you can use to bump up a weaker character’s experience level, vital in the early rounds. Get enough experience and you can propel them to the max level. You will also want to go into your ‘Collections’ and manage your available player cards.
Other areas to help you advance in the game’s ecosystem are Clintz, Credits and Theme Decks. “Clintz” are the in-game currency you earn by either fighting, gambling with tickets and win, or trading with other players. This currency is used to buy characters from the market. “Credits” can be earned or brought with real cash and used to buy “Theme Decks“, which are a pack of characters you can buy at once to drastically expand and diversify your character collection.
My Personal Strategy Hints
This is my personal strategy that seems to win about 70% of my battles. It still requires you to size up your opponent to see if the overall battle will be competitive. I always choose to fight which will make the other player go first. I also always sacrifice the first round to get the player to bite and use a high amount of Pillz, whereas, I would not add any sticking to the mandatory one. It’s vital that I win the second round, so I choose a character with either the highest power, preferably high power and damage to place 6-7 Pillz. I don’t even bother with Fury as it’s too taxing with not enough benefit. By round three I can judge whether to go all in with Pillz and win the match or if it will go to the forth and I win because I have the most health.
Watch on Mobile
Urban Rival is keen on replay value. It’s a game you can pick up and play one or two games or get stuck in for hours. There is no rush either as there are tons of players online to battle. Outsmarting your foes becomes very rewarding.
This game is a testament to its addiction factor. Especially after you learn how to play Urban Rivals, it often becomes as competitive as Chess. Thinking one or two moves ahead of your opponent and building your arsenal of brawlers.
The graphics animations are good, however, spoiled by the low resolution on most devices. Especially those with large screens (see our screenshots and video to see what I refer to.) Text is often difficult to read and icons hard to distinguish.
There is vibration when you lose a battle and you feel the damage points taken away. The background music is cool, however, such a functional disappointment as it continues to play after you’ve closed the game… which means the app is still running potentially draining precious battery. You can either head to the game options and toggle music off or restart your device to completely kill it. I hope this bug is addressed soon in an update!
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