Given their importance both in RPG history and in the memories of many players, it's not surprising that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have been adapted into many different kinds of video games over the years. Some of them simply did the obvious, turning the books into text adventures. More often than not, however, the developers would get creative, turning out everything from first-person action/adventure games to Tomb Raider knock-offs. As a fan of the books, I ended up trying out most of these games as they released, and I can say that the main thing they had in common was that they weren't very good at all. Then smartphones and tablets came along, and all of a sudden, Fighting Fantasy games found their feet. Fighting Fantasy Legends [$4.99] continues that bout of good fortune, offering an awesome new take on the classic gamebooks.
Even on mobile, we've seen a few different approaches to adapting these books. In the beginning, we received more or less straight adaptations of the gamebooks from Big Blue Bubble and then Tin Man Games. Then inkle broke everything open with their stunning take on the Sorcery! [$4.99] mini-series, transforming the gamebooks into a cross between a board game and a full-on RPG. Perhaps inspired by that effort, Tin Man recently released their own unique spin on the original Fighting Fantasy book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain [$4.99]. It maintained the decision-making of the books, changed the combat into a mi...