继iPhone上最热门的两个游戏《涂鸦跳跃》和《愤怒的小鸟》与电影合作，发行了特殊版本的游戏来进行交互式营销之后，华纳兄弟准备成为第三个做出此尝试的电影公司，他们聘请了Mondo Robot公司来打造一款叫做《Sucker Punch Mech Gunner》的第一人称射击游戏，为一部拥有众多美少女阵容的火爆动作电影《专扁衰仔》进行宣传。据了解，这款游戏将为电影量身打造，并且不会加入广告和游戏内的收费项目。

这款游戏最近有非常不错的势头，在最近iOS免费应用排行中排到了第38位。选用纯粹的第一人称射击游戏类型来制作这个，与其他促销游戏比起来是一个更好的尝试。这个游戏只有短短3个关卡，对于一款免费游戏来说并不奇怪，即便如此，《Sucker Punch Mech Gunner》在基础游戏设计上没有太多缺点，反而是操作手感显得过于粗糙。

电影《专扁衰仔》的主要内容是，被关在精神病院的主角Baby Doll在自己幻想出的世界和真实世界之间穿梭的故事。在幻想的世界里，她和美少女同伴们要设法逃出困住她们的牢笼，而当我们说到“幻想”这个词的时候，机械战士、魔龙和武士这类的东西就出现了，在电影里主角还要面对其他几十种凶恶的怪物。

Sucker Punch Mech Gunner

对于电影的游戏版，整个游戏阴郁的色调和移动机甲等笨拙的设定让人不能不去在意，当你缓慢移动的时候，敌人会向你开枪。但因为游戏故事发生在第一次世界大战期间，那些士兵的子弹不会对你的机甲造成太多伤害，他们开枪的频率也很慢，有一些甚至不会移动位置。看到这里，游戏的操控性如何大家也能猜到一些了。

当玩家要使用主武器机关枪（这个机关枪永远都有弹药，只需摇晃iPad就可以换上新弹夹）的时候，可以按位于方向键正上方的射击按钮。也就是说玩家不得不停下来，痛苦地用缓慢移动的准星瞄准目标，然后射击；而更让人郁闷的是，机关枪在开火的时候会自动切换到瞄准视野，让本来就已经很“卡”的游戏过程更加让人纠结。游戏里面唯一一个合理的武器，也就是能让玩家在移动时射击的是副武器榴弹发射器，这把武器的射击按钮在瞄准键的上方，允许玩家可以在移动的时候同步射击，但不幸的是这把武器的冷却时间很长。

其实作为第一人称射击，很少有游戏步调如此缓慢的，这样的节奏不适合这个类型的游戏。并且与其他玩家在固定位置射击的游戏或者关卡（比如以狙击手为题材的游戏或关卡）不同，一个设定在混乱的世界大战舞台上的游戏，不应该是这种感觉。另外值得一提的是，这款游戏的难度非常低，玩家在游戏里会自动回血，而且除了BOSS以外其他的敌人基本不会对你造成什么威胁。甚至连BOSS也是不会移动的，除了血量和伤害比小兵高一些，他们也没有太大的难度。

更糟糕的是游戏没有给玩家营造任何真实的紧张感，除了一些背景的杂音外，不会听到子弹打在机甲上的声音，也不会听到它们呼啸而过的声音，敌人的枪声有气无力，画面中所有的事物都没有活力，这一款游戏其实比较像一个射击相册。

不过在游戏的第二关玩家得到喷气背包以后，游戏的表现稍微有所起色，因为你可以进行短距离的飞行而且游戏有了比较多的机动性，但是战斗的流程依然是：停下来，瞄准，然后射击。

不论如何，游戏成功的吸引了人们对电影《专扁衰仔》的关注，不仅是因为这款游戏在苹果免费应用排行里有不错的排名，玩家还可以通过苹果游戏中心和其他玩家竞技，比较各自达到的最高分和成就，你获得的分数也可以被贴到Facebook上。

除此之外，这款游戏的图形效果还算中规中矩，它不是最好的游戏，但作为完全免费的应用来说，这款游戏的表现也不算差。游戏会给你一些真实战争的感觉，比如支离破碎的地域，以及一场在复古的双层翼飞行编队中和齐柏林飞艇战斗的场景（这些飞机真的会移动）。

最后，对于一款免费游戏来说《Sucker Punch Mech Gunner》是比其他用来吸引人们对即将上映电影兴趣的游戏更为优秀的，特别是它还是3D的，大部分为电影宣传打造的游戏都是2D的，像《愤怒的小鸟Rio》。对这款游戏来说最大的问题是难度过低，操作笨拙以及游戏步调太缓慢，但就这周将要上映的电影来说，这款游戏在宣传上已经是很成功的了。

Warner Bros. Sucker Punch on iPad Doesn’t Quite Throw A Mean One

Two of the iPhone’s biggest hits, Doodle Jump and Angry Birds, have jumped into doing tie-in apps with feature-length films.

Here’s a third film studio looking to do the same: Warner Bros. hired Boulder, Colorado’s Mondo Robot to build Sucker Punch Mech Gunner to promote its estrogen-heavy action film. There are no ads or in-app payments here though. Mech Gunner is strictly to build up buzz for the upcoming movie, Sucker Punch.

The game seems to do a good job at that, as our most recent look at the top free iOS titles put the game at #38. A simplistic first-person shooter, it is a better attempt than most as a promotional game. With three levels, the game is a short. But without monetization, that isn’t surprising. Even so, the shortcoming of Sucker Punch Mech Gunner isn’t so much in the basic design, but more in the fact that the game handles clumsily at best.

The long and short of the movie Sucker Punch is that the main character called “Baby Doll,” retreats to a fantastical world within her own mind as a coping mechanism when she is institutionalized against her will. From here, she and her female compatriots must figure out how to escape their prison. Now, when we say “fantastical,” we mean that mech robots, dragons, samurai, and about half a dozen more outrageous concepts have all been mixed together.

In the case of Mech Gunner, players take control of a semi-customizable mech suit (its color scheme can be altered) as they pilot it through an alternate history version of World War I filled with bi-planes, zeppelins, and reanimated soldiers. The app uses a dual-touch control set up, where touching the screen on the left activates movement and the right controls aiming.

Immediately, the clunky nature of the game is noticeable as the suit moves at a slow pace that is only made more apparent by the sluggish pacing of the game as a whole. As you move, slowly, soldiers will fire upon you, but since it’s WWI, they don’t exactly do a lot of damage to a mech, nor do they fire very quickly. They don’t even ever move. From here, controls get in the way too.

To fire the primary machine gun, which never runs out of ammunition and must merely be reloaded with a shake of the iPad, users must press the fire button located directly above the movement controls. This means that players must completely stop, aim painfully slowly, and then shoot. To slow things down further, the machine gun zooms in when fired, adding another handful of seconds to the already slow pacing. The only weapon that works as it should, meaning it can be shot on the move, is the secondary grenade launcher, where the trigger is above the aim controls; meaning users can shoot and move simultaneously. Unfortunately, it has a slow reload time.

The fact of the matter is, first-person “shooters” are rarely this slow, as such a pacing just doesn’t fit well with them. And unlike games or missions where the player is still and shooting (e.g. sniper-based games or missions) a game set in the chaos of a world war, doesn’t exactly have the same feel. To further add to this, the game is extraordinarily easy, as health regenerates passively and the only dangerous enemies are bosses. Not that they are hard either, as they also do not move, and only provide a threat because they have more health and do more damage.

What makes everything feel even slower is that there is no real tension. Other than some background noise, players never really hear bullets hitting them or whizzing by them, enemy guns are soft, and nothing really feels alive. It’s just a shooting gallery.

Once users gain access to a jet pack in the second level, the game picks up a bit with some minor platforming and increased mobility, but it is still more of the same: Stop, point, and shoot.

Nevertheless, the game does do a good job at getting the people interested in the movie. Not only is the app fairly high on the Apple free app charts, but users can compete for high scores and achievements in each level via Game Center. Moreover, high scores can be posted to Facebook.

Aside from this, the visuals are pretty decent. It’s not the best. But for a completely free app, it’s not that bad either. The game actually does have the feel of a war-torn region, and a battle with a zeppelin amidst squadrons of bi-planes (that actually do move).

In the end, for a free game, Sucker Punch Mech Gunner is a better attempt than most to spark interest in an upcoming film; especially when one considers that it’s 3D. Most, like Angry Birds Rio, are 2D. The game suffers from a lack of challenge, clunky controls, and a painfully sluggish pace. Nevertheless, it seems successful at generating interest in the film coming out later this week. (Source: Inside Mobile Apps)