The opening titles for VOTE!!! declare it as a “ChAIR Short,” likening it to a short film and denoting it a small, one-off project. It’s important to keep that in mind when playing it. VOTE!!! is not a full game by developer ChAIR, the makers of the award-winning and millions-selling Infinity Blade series, so don’t expect as much.
It is a nice little novelty game that won’t cost you anything, which also plays in its favor. This is because VOTE!!! is not as impressive as Infinity Blade, from which it borrows almost all of its elements. If it were a title you had to pay for, it’d be judged pretty harshly. It’s not, though, and that means we can give it something of a pass for being fun, briefly, but not very deep.
VOTE!!! takes the Infinity Blade formula and throws President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney in the roles of the two dueling sword fighters in that game. Players take on the role of one of the candidates from the November election, outfit him with gear, and head to battle in a “debate,” which is actually a sword duel. The whole affair has a lighthearted snark, although there’s definitely nothing even approaching real satire here. Each candidate is a caricature, they fight with microphones and hotdogs, and they concede defeat with sound-alike lines such as, “Well, he has a point there.”
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The primary goal in each match is to rack-up points until the clock runs out. It seems to be pretty hard to actually lose a fight, as VOTE!!! appears to run at a slower, more deliberate pace than some of Infinity Blade’s battles. Throughout each fight, you’ll gain multipliers that continue to stack as long as you don’t get hit. The idea is to use swipes to parry blows in the same direction from which they come (just like Infinity Blade), and every dodge, parry and landed blow results in points.
What might keep you playing VOTE!!! are a few challenges tossed into each battle, like avoiding taking a hit the whole time, and the goofy items you can unlock to boost your character slightly. You can put new clothes on your candidate and give them new weapons (like a rubber chicken), and you can also use perks to aid you in the fight. All of this stuff is bought with coins, which are earned in battle or snagged with in-app purchases.
The novelty of VOTE!!! wears off pretty quickly, though, especially if you’re an Infinity Blade fan and are used to tougher challenges. The game can be a fun distraction, if briefly, and it contains links that can take players to websites that will allow them to register to vote in November. That, at least, is a great feature for the game to have. If you like a little political novelty and you’d be interested in what could be considered an Infinity Blade training course, VOTE!!! might be worth a look. Just keep in mind that it is, in fact, a short.
