What do you get when you take the basic idea of Street Fighter and add in animals?  You get Animelee, a new unique fighting game for Android.  Why is this game unique?  It uses animals instead of people in the battles.  I know, you are probably thinking animals have been used many times before.  Actually, no they have not.  Sure, some versions of Mortal Kombat have “animialities” where fighters transform into an animal to finish their opponent, those were not the normal fighters.  Same for Brutal: Paws of Fury on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo back in the 90’s where the characters were more people than animal.  Thinking Bloody Roar now?  Again, much like Mortal Kombat, the use of creatures in Bloody Roar was more “after thought” than main character.  Animelee sits alone in this genre, for better or for worse.

Personally I don’t see a lot of replay value in Animelee after the novelty wears off.  The original Mortal Kombat fell to this same fate that is why the developers kept adding to the formula in subsequent releases.

First up, the animal models are really well done in Animelee.  This is probably thanks to the fact that a powerful engine is powering the game, Unreal Engine.  The animations are done decently- there is only so much you can do with a chicken model for instance.  That is where the problems lay for me.

While it is fun and wild in a “playing the Daytona car in Fighting Vipers” kind of way, it is mostly a novelty to play with a dolphin versus a chicken.  There is not a lot going on that can hold your interest for very long.  Animelee is a great “whip it out and show your friends the power of your new phone” style game that will hold their attention for more than a few seconds.  Don’t expect a super deep combo ridden serious fighter though.  I guess I am just not the audience for this game, maybe I miss the point completely.

If you want something unique and that you are able to just mash buttons away and have cool stuff happen then here you go.  It doesn’t get much cooler than fighting a dolphin with a giraffe in the woods.

Animelee by Sungrad
Genre: Fighting
Platform: Android (GPD XD used for review)
In App Purchases: No
Rated: T for Teen on Google Play
Available now on .