As expected, Gameloft has release a new real-time strategy game called StarFront: Collision for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s pretty much a blatant ripoff of StarCraft, with human, alien and robot races fighting to the death over resources. But since StarCraft isn’t available for iOS, StarFront is about as close as you’re going to get, and as far as ripoffs go, this is a pretty good one.
The developers put a fair amount of thought into how you would control dozens of units using finger-friendly controls on a 3.5 inch display. You can hit a button to select all of your units and tap on the screen to tell them where to go, or select units one-by-one with a single tap. You can also use a two-finger gesture to select a group.
The full game offers 20 different single-player missions and a Skirmish mode for additional battles. There’s also a multiplayer mode that allows you to play against other users.
You can download StarCraft: Collision for free and play through the first mission, but to unlock the full game you’ll need to pony up $6.99 through an in-app purchase. Multiplayer mode isn’t available in the free version.
The game weighs in at a hefty 679MB, partly because of the impressive graphics, but also because there are a fair number of cut scenes.
You can check out my hands-on video and some more screenshots after the break.
