With his tough sounding name, scruffy beard and clothes, and gun-toting ways, Lance is about as lethal as a marshmallowy little man with stubby legs can be. Which isn’t much. For reasons we do now know, Lethal Lance is tasked with shooting critters, collecting coins, and hopping over obstacles in this 2-D run-and-gun platformer for iOS devices (reviewed on iPad here).

By pressing virtual buttons on the bottom of the screen, Lethal Lance can run left or right, jump, and shoot. Most of the time the controls work better than most games of this ilk, but some of the more precise jumps can be tricky. He’ll also have to shoot or avoid all manner of fierce creatures, some of which can fire back!

You can earn three stars in each level. One for collecting all the coins, one for making it through without getting hit, and one for reaching the goal within a certain time. However, in order to get all three stars you have to do everything at the same time, which is near impossible in most levels. Lethal Lance isn’t great, but it isn’t bad either. If you enjoy run and gun 2-D platformers, you might want to try it.

Kid Factor:

Even though Lethal Lance shoots enemies with a gun, they just disappear in a puff of smoke when defeated, and Lance just lets out a muffled “oof” when he gets hit. Violence is very cartoony and old-school. Reading skill isn’t needed to play, but younger gamers may get frustrated with the high challenge level of later stages.

Tags: Game Reviews