Mobile Fighting Game HeroVersus Now In Open Beta

Fighting is a pretty important genre in gaming, and it has an interesting backstory on mobile. Ever since the dawn of mobile gaming on smartphones, many developers had successfully ported classic fighting games to the touchscreen with a control system that revolved around virtual buttons. It actually worked pretty well for the most part, and major franchises such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and King of Fighters have all had solid titles on mobile.

Still, the idea of fighting games is precise controls, so not everybody enjoyed playing through on-screen buttons. Thus, some game makers came up with a new control scheme called “swipe fighter." Injustice and Marvel Contest of Champions are prominent examples of games that utilize this method. Basically, in these types of games, movement and actions are boiled down to tapping and swiping. This makes them work wonderfully on the touchscreen, however, the experience is also trimmed down.  Swipe fighters have their own charms, and titles such as Skullgirls have demonstrated that they can contain a lot of strategies, but they still cannot recreate the experience of a full-blown fighting game.

Now, the upcoming game HeroVersus: The Legend of Ki Masters is trying to combine the two ideas, and the result is a fighting game in which movements are completely free, yet actions are still touchscreen-friendly swipe based. From what we have seen so far, HeroVersus truly has the best of both worlds. The gameplay is competitive and strategic, and the controls feel smooth on mobile devices. Check out the game’s trailer below:

In HeroVersus: The Legend of Ki Masters, there is a virtual joystick on the left side of the screen that you can use to freely move back and forth or jumping towards/away from your opponent. Additionally, holding the joystick backward allows you to block incoming attacks, just like in Street Fighter. On the other side of the screen, though, you can tap anywhere to perform basic combos, or use various combinations of swipe and hold to carry out more complicated attacks. It functions pretty similar to games like Contest of Champions, but the experience feels much less restricted.

Then, the virtual buttons are still available at the bottom of the screen and they are used to unleash special attacks, all of which have cooldowns. The best part about HeroVersus is, everything can interact with one another in the same manner as traditional fighting games. If you experiment enough, you can discover all kinds of awesome combos for all of the characters in the game. The level of depth here is unseen in any normal swipe fighter. Not only that, but the game also has an online multiplayer feature, which means it can potentially grow a large competitive community rivaling that of big fighting titles on PC and console.

HeroVersus: The Legend of Ki Masters has been under open beta for a couple of months, and it seems to be progressing pretty well. New content such as additional characters and modes, as well as balance adjustments and bug fixes, are constantly released. If you are interested in trying out this beta, you can join the game’s official Discord server to download it for both Android and iOS. Keep in mind that the game is still in its early development stage so some features might be lackluster.

The interface is unpolished, and sounds are lacking. Yet even with all the rough edges in its current stage, HeroVersus is still incredibly fun and carries lots of potentials. Once it is officially finished, it will undoubtedly be a game to keep an eye out for if you are a fan of fighting games. As mentioned, the game is still in early development, so no release date has been announced yet. Stay tuned for more updates!