You can’t fight without fingers. Okay, I guess you can kick a guy, or ram your head into him like the Junkyard Dog or the Dynamite Kid. Generally, though, you need fingers to make a fist, and that’s like the basic building block of a fight right there. And although it’s possible to play a fighting game without digits, it’s definitely more complicated that way.
Combo Crew is a fighting game that tries to use as few fingers as possible. You can get with a single finger, although you’ll need two to get the most out of its mechanics. Combo Crew cycles through the whole retinue of touch-based inputs (tap to strike, hold to block, slide to charge, use a second finger to string together moves), nimbly configuring the Final Fight / Double Dragon style brawler into a perfectly acceptable mobile game. There are no awkward on-screen buttons or joysticks here—you just jab or trace over enemies until your character punches and kicks them until they disappear.
There’s a degree of complexity to the controls, especially when your unbroken chain of combo hits bleeds into the hundreds. That requires both a full understanding of various moves and the ability to string them together on the fly without taking any hits. Still, Combo Crew might be a little too simple. You won’t have to remember long combo chains or worry about the insanely precise timing required to pull off or cancel moves like in Street Fighter. As long as you master the basics of blocking and striking and know when to break an enemy’s block you should be able to squeeze through the game by just rubbing your fingers all over the screen.
A game doesn’t have to be hard to be fun, though, and Combo Crew is a fine way to waste some time. With its cartoon-ish art and an escalating series of goals that provide a strong impetus to play beyond the inherent pleasures of brutality, Combo Crew smartly combines the action of a brawler with the type of presentation and structure proven to work on mobile platforms. It’s Jetpack Joyride crossed with Yie Ar Kung Fu, and probably the only way you’ll ever beat up a room full of heavies with only two fingers.
Combo Crew
Developer: The Game Bakers
Price: $1.99
Platform: Android / iOS
Release Date: 05/23/13