GAMEPLAY AND CONTROLS

The basis of Kingdom Royale is to build resources by creating buildings and units, and then upgrade these buildings and units to make your kingdom stronger. After creating enough units with gathered resources, you can then attack outlying kingdoms for more resources. Some of these lands are even held by real players.

When you attack a land, you enter a battle phase where you choose which class of unit you want to battle with; you have a choice of magic, melee or ranged. Each class has strengths and weaknesses versus other classes, so choose wisely.

Before you enter battle you can choose to have friends help you by using the Gamevil Online system. This can make the fight much easier. When you encounter a land controlled by a player, also known as a rival, you can invade the land and deploy units and build to protect it from other players.

Kingdom Royale is controlled by simply tapping the screen. Even in battle, you only need to tap the unit you want to attack with, and then tap the opponent you want to attack.

Everything takes time in the game, the higher the level your buildings and units become, the longer it takes for production of these to complete. If any of your units die in battle, it also takes three hours before they are resurrected. This is where “freemium” comes in. You can purchase “crowns” to instantly resurrect units, instantly build buildings and units and purchase special combat items.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

The audio in Kingdom Royale is very good quality. The music changes depending on whether you are in battle or if you are in your kingdom. The graphics of the game are consistent with Japanese RPGs (think Final Fantasy style mages and knights), but the graphics look particularly stunning in high resolution on the iPhone.

PROS

• Stunning anime-style graphics
• Freemium game that you do not feel required to pay

CONS

• Consistent “Unstable Connection” message upon opening the game even though I am in an established connection
• Long wait times the higher level your units and buildings get, but that is the price to pay for a micro-transaction based, free game.

Overall, the gameplay of Kingdom Royale is great, and never once have I felt pressured to buy any “crowns.” The “crowns” obviously help speed up the game, but if you are willing to wait and keep checking on your kingdom throughout the day you can easily play the game fully without using any real money.

Download Kingdom Royale and try it for yourself here.

The post Game Review: Kingdom Royale for iPhone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This massive number comes by way of an eMarketer report, citing mostly the growth that we have seen on platforms like Facebook and Zynga. No longer do you have to release a conventional disc-based game on an Xbox or even a casual game on iOS to rake in the dough. Social gaming can represent some huge money.

Why? Because there are more people playing these kinds of games and they represent a huge potential for revenue. In 2011, it’s expected that 62 million Americans will log into a social network and play at least one game monthly. That’s 27% of the online audience.

But where is this money coming from? Part of it has to do with advertising and lead generation, but an even bigger chunk is coming via virtual goods. It’s expected that Americans will spend $653 million on virtual goods in social games in 2011. That’s a sizable increase from the $510 million spent in 2010, which is still nothing to sneeze at.

You might only get a virtual cow on your virtual farm, but the developers are raking in some real money on that transaction.

The post Expect social gaming to break a billion dollars this year appeared first on Mobile Magazine.