Late last month we told you about Ernest Szoka’s Only One, a king-of-the-hill style hack’n slash for iOS that had at the time just been submitted to Apple. Well, the Apple approval gears cranked away and Only One (Free) is now available in the App Store. Inspired by the Jet Li action flick The One, Only One sees your player materialize on the top of a circular tower with a glowing sword in hand. Bad guys similarly materialize in increasingly greater numbers, and it’s your job to hack’n slash them to death or simply hack them off the side of the arena, plunging them to a likely messy death.

This simple core idea is fleshed out with an interesting progression system. Orbs dropped by enemies can be collected and used to buy new abilities for your hero, and though the game doesn’t have an overly-complex skill tree, you still have a nice bit of freedom to choose the particular strengths and powers that your hero will learn. You can get a good idea of what Only One is all about in the following trailer.

I have to say I’m really enjoying Only One in my brief time with it so far. The action starts out slower-paced than I imagined, but as you get deeper in the game and the number of enemies starts to increase, it ends up being for the best and is plenty frantic. The upgrade system is awesome, and you can really feel your hero getting more powerful as you go. Also, the sounds and visuals really complement the action. My one minor complaint so far is that the virtual stick feels a bit too small, but hopefully that’s something that will be tweaked in an update.

Only One is free to download, with IAP coin packs and a coin doubler if you have the urge to speed up your progression. It all feels very unnecessary though, as the in-game currency is doled out quite generously. For free, there’s really no reason not to download and check out Only One, and more impressions can be found in our forums.