I’m a little conflicted on this week’s pick. Pretty much everyone knows the legend of Dungeon Raid, the match-3 RPG hybrid that took the world by storm way back in 2011. Everyone at the time was obsessed with it, but for whatever reason the developer of the game didn’t seem to care too much for it. Eventually it fully broke due to compatibility issues and was removed from the App Store, and since then numerous developers have tried their hand at making Dungeon Raid-likes to fill the void. Some have been very good, even great, like Dungeon Falan, Troll Patrol, Darkin, and more, but as good as these homages have been there’s still never been anything to really give players the fizz the way that the original Dungeon Raid had.
Well, Dungeon Tracer is here to try its hand at wooing Dungeon Raid fans, and I have to say it is doing a very good job of it. All the elements you want are here. Drag-to-match (i.e. trace) mechanics that let you set up absolutely massive matches, plenty of challenging enemies to battle, special abilities to unlock and upgrade during your run, and more. This is for all intents and purposes Dungeon Raid with a new coat of paint and some extra new features, like new unlockable classes, added in. It even sounds like Dungeon Raid, and games even go on WAY too long for a mobile game but for whatever reason that doesn’t matter because you have an inexplicable need to just keep going and going and going. It’s that Dungeon Raid fizz, baby!
So why am I conflicted about Dungeon Tracer? Well, it’s perhaps a little TOO similar to Dungeon Raid, and it even appears that up to a few weeks ago it was going by the title Dungeon Raid: Resurrection which… yeah, that’s not cool. I’m glad they DID change the title before release, but still. Then there’s the fact that Dungeon Tracer is a bit… janky, for lack of a better term. It’s not full screen so there’s black bars at the top and bottom, the game’s name on the homescreen of your device is not in English for some reason, and there is no Universal iPad support. It just seems a little disappointing to have these rough edges when so much of the rest of the game is so well done.
I guess the point is that there’s a fine line between “homage" by someone who is a massive fan of the original, and “clone" of something popular that’s not really adding anything that novel or unique to the formula, and Dungeon Tracer comes right up to that line, but in my opinion does not cross it. The unlockable Classes are very cool, even if they don’t seem to drastically change how the game is played, and also Dungeon Raid is no longer available or playable, so I’m thankful that someone has stepped in to provide that type of experience once again. At the end of the day I definitely feel like this falls in the “homage" category and not the “clone" one, but I’d still love to see the fit and finish of Dungeon Tracer improved through updates. All that said… did you love Dungeon Raid? Then yeah, drop your three bucks and go to town on Dungeon Tracer.
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