If there's one constant about a lot of iPhone gameplay, it's taking an established genre or game type, and streamlining it as much as possible, to create ultimate accessibility, as well as perhaps a gateway into the genre at hand. Due to the obsession over the last few years of adding RPG leveling mechanics to everything, your average iOS gamer should be quite familiar with the adrenaline rush that accompanies leveling up a character and becoming more powerful. Slayin' tries to take that feeling and turn it into an endless arcade game, while adding the RPG trope of upgrading your equipment, and turning combat into the simplest thing on the planet. Whether or not it succeeds might be a very subjective view.

You start by picking a character, but unless you're willing to hit the in-app purchases immediately, you're stuck with the knight until you can buy others. From there you're stuck on a screen's worth of terrain, able to move back and forth and jump with the buttons on the pad below the action. Enemies of varying varieties appear as the game goes on, each with its own unique attack pattern, but the strategy to vanquish is the same for all. With your trusty weapon always out in front of you, all you have to do is run into your foes. They will dissolve or explode, more often than not leaving coins and trinkets which boost your score (and attacking in succession will keep your combo multiplier going which will accomplish the same task).

As you play, a shopkeeper will appear offering you weapons, armor, and food to replenish your health. Purchases use the coins you have been collecting, and keeping up to date with the latest adventuring gear is a must for moving forward. Bosses will also appear, usually with a simple attack pattern, but they do help break up the chaos that eventually litters the screen right before these encounters. Once you die, your hero is given a gravestone with his milestones on it, and you are awarded fame points, which is the in-game currency. Aside from beautifying your tombstone for others to see, the only other real upgrade worth mentioning is buying the other heroes, but the whole store front is pretty unobtrusive, so at least there's that.

But perhaps you can see how this game of walking back and forth and sticking your sword into things might not stay entertaining for more than a few play throughs. There is a risk in streamlining mechanics that you might take things too far. Don't get me wrong though, it's kind of amusing when you first start playing, but at least for us, that wore off fast. If you think this game might have staying power for you, or if it just looks like fun, we'd say give it a whirl. The presentation is great, and the times when the screen is littered with foes of different types can be quite engaging.