If the “game” Mathew Broderick played with the War Operation Plan Response computer in the 1983 movie WarGames were half as engaging and addictive as WarGames: WOPR for Android and iOS, we’d all be dead right now.
“Shall we play a game?” The line that nearly launched a thousand nuclear missiles in the classic film still sends chills up the spine of computer geeks everywhere, and in WarGames: WOPR, an officially licensed app developed by Be-Rad Entertainment, you’re the one delivering it.
This deep puzzler presents WarGames from the computer’s point-of-view. You’ll do battle against Broderick and his unlikely girlfriend through more than 40 levels of matching madness, slowly unlocking the launch codes required to kick off World War III with a bang. Along the way you’ll be treated to picture and text cut scenes featuring characters from the film. I never realised how badly I wanted Dabney Coleman on my iPhone.
The game plays much like the role-playing puzzler Dungeon Raid, with players connecting groups of adjacent icons to damage their opponent, heal themselves and earn cash and resources needed to unleash special powers. Enemy missiles appear on the playfield that much be dispatched in a certain number of turns or they’ll explode, damaging WOPR’s health, as much as a computer has health. Lose and the world is saved. Win and everybody dies. Yay?
Completing levels earns the player RAM (cute), which can be used to purchase tactics and mods that add special bonuses or weapons to the game. This is a game about a computer modding itself to defeat Matthew Broderick, after all.
WarGames: WOPR is a fine tribute to a film that made an entire generation want to purchase a coupler modem. If the world ended tomorrow, I’d feel better having played it.
War Games: WOPR ($0.99) [iTunes]
War Games: WOPR ($0.99) [Google Play]
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