There have been many, many Lord of the Rings games over the years, but none quite like this. Lud O the Rings, from Gibraltarian developer Joe Pitto, takes one of the most complicated and sprawling fictional universes in history and squeezes it into a humble game of ludo.
Okay, so it’s not quite ludo. In Lud O the Rings you play as one of five different classes from Lord of the Rings: Elf, hobbit, dwarf, mage, or human.
Each of these classes has its own special ability. Elves are expert archers, hobbits are uncommonly adventurous, dwarves are ferocious in battle, mages can summon meteor strikes from the sky, and humans are incredibly loyal.
The aim is to get all the way around the board, as in the classic game of ludo, but here you have to contend with three other players who are attacking you with their special powers, and trying to resist and outmaneuver your attacks on them.
These players can be humans sitting in the room with you and playing via the time-honoured method of pass-and-play, or they can be AI-controlled robots, or any combination thereof.
Lud O the Rings also comes with a standard ludo game, but we suspect you’ll want to spend your time in the beautifully drawn Lord of the Rings mode, trying to get to grips with the simple yet deep gameplay.
There are three difficulty levels to choose from, achievements to collect, daily bonuses, and a global leaderboard, giving you the opportunity of bragging rights that extend all the way around the world and not just to the other people in the room.
Grab Lud O the Rings on the App Store right now for just 99p / 99c.