ICON: Arena developer wants to bring 'high intensity eSports-like action' to mobile platforms

Developer Smilu's CEO Scott Lee believes that his studio's game, a Pong-style ball-catching game called ICON: Arena, will satisfy the need for an action-oriented competitive title in the mobile games market, according to a recent interview with Lee on Joystiq.

"What we wanted to do is bring really high intensity eSports-like action to mobile," Lee said, stating that modifying games like Street Fighter x Tekken to support touchscreen controls is an unsatisfactory route. "I'm a firm believer that that [genre in mobile] doesn't exist right now."

In ICON: Arena, players catch balls and attempt to shoot them into their opponent's goal. The game has been designed on Smilu's own cross-play platform, which allows players on Windows and iOS devices to play together.

Players can also choose who to play as in a system similar to League of Legends; IKON offers multiple characters with varying special abilities and skills to choose from. All characters will be available to players for free.

Lee also noted that the Smilu's cross-platform environment will be available to certain developers for free at a later date.

Check out the video posted above for a look at IKON: Arena in action.