iPhone/iPad game of the day: Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus

Game: Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus
Price: iPhone $6.99 / £3.99 iPad $9.99 / £5.99
Size: 440-450 MB
Buy it now for iPhone:US/UKor iPad:US/UK

Falling out of a low-flying helicopter that was just hit with a missile isn’t the best way to start off a tactical mission behind enemy lines. Getting captured by terrorists shortly afterward isn’t such a hot way to get started either. Fortunately, revenge is a sweet, sweet incentive in Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus – that and popping the heads off evildoers in slow motion. This first-person shooter riffs off of full-sized megafranchise Modern Warfare in a good way, and offers up some serious eye candy (and headshot porn) for the iPhone and iPad that you won’t want to miss.

Escaping your captors’ shoddy jungle compound has you learning the ropes and cracking a few skulls before setting off on an around-the-world trek to punch terror in the nuts repeatedly with the brass knuckled fist of American justice. You can almost smells the testosterone, sweat, and gunpowder oozing out of your iPhone/iPad with each kill. It’s marvelous.

A tight and surprisingly functional control scheme helps Black Pegasus’ action roll along smoothly across the varied missions and environments packed into the beefy campaign. In addition to lots of straightforward guns and explosives to pick up and blast away with, you’ll find other mission sections that have you sniping, hopping into a gun turret to mow down baddies, and tapping out a number of quick time events to dish out the pain at close range.

The main campaign is pretty intense and worth plowing through, but another big draw is Black Pegasus’ online multiplayer. Hopping into matches against other players is fast and frantic, and there are a few different modes to tackle. Even better: you earn experience points for kills and assists that eventually unlock new weapons as you level-up, making the fluid running-and-gunning all the more satisfying.

Nov 30, 2010