Category: Mobile Game Releases

By Joe Robinson 06 Nov 2019

By Joe Robinson 05 Nov 2019

By Joe Robinson 04 Nov 2019

By Joe Robinson 02 Nov 2019

I’m not really a huge fan of Halloween, mainly because in the evenings I don’t like to be bothered. After a long day my priorities are to eat dinner and relax on the couch, and not be answering the door every few minutes to give out sweets. We put out some anyway just in case anyone did come knocking, but it was a quiet year on our street so most of the box is still there.

In terms of the site this week we finally caught up on a review I’ve been meaning to have done (Xenowerk) and had what will probably be the penultimate look at games are still due out this year. We also reviewed Bad North, which is excellent, if only really suitable for short bursts.

Meanwhile, in the world of mobile gaming…

New Mobile Games

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game (iOS)

There was a lot of buzz around GWENT when it first turned up. A hit mini-game within the very popular RPG The Witcher 3, it had all the hallmarks of an excellent stand-alone experience and, lo and behold, it appeared on PC and consoles in 2018. Not much has really been heard about it since then – it’s still going, and people still seem to enjoy it, and we’ve known a mobile version was on the horizon at some point.

After a recent beta period, that ‘some point’ is finally here, although only on iOS. GWENT is a very different game from the likes of Hearthstone and other challengers, although it’s still at its core a vaguely CCG looking card game. Michael is hard at work playing through the game for us now, and we’ll bring you our thoughts on it over the coming weeks. No word on an Android version yet I’m afraid, but we’ll keep you posted.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuW6EQmIfoM?controls=0]

The Quest – Basilisk’s Eye (iOS & Android)

The Quest is a bit of a PT staple so it’s good to see it’s still going. This is a new stand-alone expansion to the beautifully hand-drawn Adventure/RPG with new areas, new quests and new challenges. As with past expansions, you can purchase this as a stand-alone experience if you don’t own the base game, or enable the new content within your existing save.

If you’re doing it within the base game, go to Mithria harbor and talk to captain Hanty, then select “Basilisk’s Eye” as your travel destination. The devs recommend you be at least level 75 before taking on the new content.

Last but not least, A Case of Distrust caught our eye as something that might be worth looking at. It’s a narrative-based murder mystery experience, so not our usual fare, but it won a bunch of indie awards in 2017 and has developed a good reputation on PC and other platforms. It’s now finally on iOS.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPaSwKGiJcg]

App Updates, News & Pre-Orders

Tropico

Feral Interactive released a free update for their mobile adaptation of banana republic simulator Tropico this week. The ‘Absolute Power’ expansion has been made available at no extra cost, which consists of 10 new missions, each taking place on its own island. Don’t forget to check out our review.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmhwPB_ZqBk?controls=0]

Runescape Mobile

While ‘Oldschool Runescape’ is already available on mobile, that’s the old 2007 version of the game. If you wanted to play the currently running modern version. You’d have to play on a PC… until today! An Early Access build has released on Android, although despite being free-to-download, you can’t actually play it unless you’re a subscriber of the game on PC.

No word on an iOS version yet, or if the Early Access will open up to anyone else. I’ve dabbled in Runescape myself on PC, but because I’m a free-to-play user I’m not able to access the Android build.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThVgKqHZFe8?controls=0]

Mario Kart Tour Multiplayer

Mario Kart Tour has been out nearly a couple of months now, long enough to get a good measure of it. It’s a pretty good way of idling away some time if you’ve got nothing better to do, and the Mario Kart aesthetics make for some good nostalgia, but a true Mario Kart game it is not. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of true multiplayer.

We just heard today that a beta trial of a multiplayer mode will be rolling out in December. Unfortunately, it’s only going to roll out for the Gold Pass subscribers first. The Gold Pass costs $4.99 and unlocks the game’s 200cc mode and then various cosmetic goodies. That’s the same price as Apple Arcade, just so you know.

Minecraft

The iOS and Android versions of Minecraft were updated to Version 1.13 earlier this week, the first major patch since July. It’s another technical focuses one looking at fixing bugs and the like, but it also adds Foxes as a new animal, and the Character Creator, which allows you to further customise your avatar in lots of different ways (with even more ways available to purchase). There are few other little content drops as well.

Halloween App Sales

Fuuu- there are a lot of sales to process this week, so you may have to settle for a more general bulletin rather than our usual more specific alerts:

• Necrodancer: AMPLIFIED is down to $2.99 (not cheapest price), and the original game is also discounted.
• XCOM: Enemy Within is down it its cheapest price of $1.99 again on iOS and Android, as are a couple of other 2K games.
• King of Dragon Pass is half price, making it its cheapest price in recent memory. Six Ages is still full price.
• Handelabra’s One Deck Dungeon is down to $4.99 on iOS and Android. It was slightly cheaper in June.
• All of Acram Digital’s games are discounted on iOS and Android.
• Stardew Valley is down to $4.99. It was $3.99 in Dec ‘18 so it might go that cheap again this year, but it’s still a decent price.
• A lot of Ironhide’s (Kingdom Rush, Iron Marines) games are going cheap this week on iOS and Android.
• Asmodee Digital’s Mysterium, Potion Explosion and Zombicide: Tactics and Shotguns have all been discounted to a couple of dollars.
• All of the Holy Potatoes! Games are discounted on iOS.
• All of Clarus Victoria’s games (Egypt: Old Kingdom) are discounted on iOS and Android.
• And quite a few more! Including Balur’s Gate II and the like.

If this is what it’s like for Halloween, the Black Friday and Christmas sales are going to be off-the-chain.

Seen anything else you like? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

Swedish developers Pixelbite Games have a long and enviable history of producing high-quality premium games. Alongside a convoy of Reckless Racing games sit the impressive Space Marshals top-down tactical shooters and the original Xenowerk dual-stick blaster. Their latest release is an amalgamation of the latter two, with a pinch of XCOM thrown in for good measure.

In a plot that seems heavily inspired by John Carpenter’s The Thing, you take on the role of commander of an emergency response team that has been sent to the Arctic to investigate troubling reports from a secret lab that is owned by the Xenowerk Corporation. It soon becomes clear that mutated lifeforms are running amok, killing anyone unfortunate enough to cross their slimy path. In true disaster film-style, conflicting interests soon bubble to the surface.

The world may need saving, but Xenowerk is more intent on maximising profits and minimising bad publicity.

Commencement of the game will see Joyce Grendel, your chief of staff, introducing you to base camp. Your new home may only be a cluster of grey, non-descript temporary structures, but it is essential to familiarise yourself with their various functions. You could drop off at the recruitment vehicle to enlist some new fodd- er, ‘heroes’. Your recruits will usually be billeted at the nearby barracks, excluding those unfortunate enough to be injured, who can be sent to the field hospital to recover. Those lucky souls who earn enough experience to be promoted can pop along to the spa for some extra-curricular activities.

The armoury is the place to go to equip your team with the latest gadgets. At the command centre, you can check your messages, which will include news updates, requests for assistance and new missions. Initially, there will not be many updates, but as the game progresses various individuals and organisations will be clamouring for your attention. You may consider going against your employers’ back to make some quick cash on the black market, or even leak some valuable data to more socially aware organisations.

After accepting a mission, you will need to load your squad and equipment into the awaiting helicopter. There are three basic classes of recruit; rangers, marines and scientists. Each character will have decks of cards, representing their skills, traits and equipment. A ranger can use his recon skill to pinpoint enemies, whilst scientists can scan for the locations of mission objectives. Marines tend to take a more direct approach, using frag grenades to cut through the enemy ranks. Before take-off, you have one last opportunity to purchase some extra equipment such as explosives, ropes and machetes, which may be needed to reach some mission objectives.

Your helicopter will land in a previously secured safe zone, from where you will have to continue on foot. On your way to your target, random encounters pop up, these could involve being ambushed by mutants or suffering a drop in morale as one of your operatives tells a really bad joke. Luckily, some characters will have traits that can negate a detrimental event, for instance, a natural leader can rally the party even after a particularly awful pun. Encounters are not always bad, you may unearth some vital data, or come across a short cut. The map is divided into regions with different threat levels, and all of the available missions will be displayed, alongside any essential equipment.

Mission locations are varied, ranging from jungles and swamps to laboratories and factories. Upon reaching your destination the view switches to a forced overhead 3D perspective, with the surroundings gradually revealing as you explore. Controls are really simple; you can select and drag an individual character to a location, or tap the screen to rally your squad to a particular point. As soon as the enemy comes within range your operatives will immediately open fire. Ammunition is unlimited, so combat is largely a case of finding a position from which you can take down the enemy before your squad gets overwhelmed. If the action becomes too manic you can invoke a tactical pause that will freeze the action, giving you time to gather your wits.

Missions present an opportunity to earn cash, biological samples, research data and new prototype technology. All of which can be used to complete further missions and to update your base. Developing your base is, unfortunately, the most disappointing aspect of Xenowerks. Building development is rather straightforward and linear. Some buildings cannot be developed until others have reached a specified level, so you are never really able to branch out and experiment. The buildings themselves are visually unexciting and do not feel meaningful.

Thankfully, the rest of the graphics are much more atmospheric. They have a 1990’s sensibility, with an army of suitably H.R Giger-style slimy mutants stalking murky corridors, lit by the eerie glow of your team’s torches. You will encounter passageways decorated with trails of blood and dismembered bodies and rooms furnished with grotesquely organic mutant-spewing generators. Weapons are enjoyably powerful, with enemies exploding in a gooey mess of appendages. The music is also excellent, again paying homage to John Carpenter’s work. The tension is palpable and is further exacerbated by the fact that if you do not have the extra equipment required to give immediate medical care or evacuation, seriously injured squad members have to be left behind.

Overall, Xenowerks Tactics is excellent, if battery guzzling fun. A single very reasonable upfront payment gets you the whole game, with no constant internet connection required. Battles are hectic and satisfying, although the almost arcade-like action may put off those who appreciate a more considered approach. The bleakness is lifted by some nice humorous moments, like when your squad begin arguing over pizza toppings. It may at times feel like a shoot-em-up, but there is still plenty to consider. Your chief strategy will involve securing strategic safe zones before venturing deeper into the infected area. This involves carefully managing your squad and time.

Knowing how far to push your guys and when to swap them out for weaker but healthier alternatives is key. Equipment is strictly limited by carrying capacity, so planning is necessary and may mean that you will not always be returning to HQ with all of your squad members present. Your operatives have a diverse range of individual traits, which certainly gives them character and makes losing a favourite operative a sad affair. The base building feels undeveloped and tacked on, but when the rest of the game is so entertaining, it is an issue that can be forgiven.

It seems EA is going through a period of introspection at the moment. Not only are their games now returning to Steam (starting with the new Star Wars game), they’re also not even doing a Battlefield game next year. Lots of news regarding their recent earnings call have been surfacing around the web, and normally it wouldn’t apply to us as EA’s track record on mobile hasn’t been amazing…

… except they’ve now decided to bring Apex Legends to mobile.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJb_mkqynU?controls=0]

What is Apex Legends? It’s basically Fortnite, except it’s made by someone else (the dev team who made Titanfall, if that matters). It’s actually done really well for itself in terms of carving out its own slice of the  Battle Royale Pie that’s basically defined 2019, and it now seems to be one of EA’s most lucrative properties.

Andrew Wilson, EA’s CEO, confirmed during the earnings call that they’re going to focus more on live-service games, and that Apex Legends specifically is going to become a long-term franchise for them, and that includes taking the game to “mobile, new platforms and new geographies.”

Blake Jorgensen, the CFO and COO for EA, was a little more specific. They’re looking at doing this new roll-out in the 2021 ‘fiscal’ year, which actually starts on October 1st, 2020. That means we should hopefully see Apex Legends on Mobile towards the end of next year.

Whether that means just iOS, or iOS and Android is anybody’s guess, but Fortnite’s done very well for itself on mobile platforms so there’s no reason why Apex shouldn’t do the same.. As far as free-to-play games go, Battle Royales are actually incredibly tame – the action and core mechanics are all free, and it’s mainly just about buying avatar skins to express yourself.

I don’t expect we’ll hear more on this for a while, but if there is any new information we’ll keep you informed.

By Andrew Smith 29 Oct 2019

Bad North has a comically understated name and ‘tastefully’ understated gameplay to match. It manages to be as interesting as possible while remaining extremely simple, or rather, clear-cut. Moving ever eastward, the player sends groups of nordic soldiers to islands to escape an encroaching hoard. As they move along, rewards will bulk up the makeshift army with reinforcements, equipment and veterancy upgrades.

This is a short campaign with roguelike elements and it strikes a nice balance between duration and progression. The real-time-with-pause control scheme is brisk yet effortless, and the replayability is fair. While not entirely novel, the game is extremely refined and well-balanced. It’s a real keeper with staying power.

Buyer buyer: this review’s stout recommendation only goes into effect once they squash some truly vile bugs in the current version.

As a style philosophy, minimalism means maximum engagement; nothing comes between the individual and the pure experience. Bad North is minimal because it presents itself as directly to the player as possible, with little extra narration or theme, simple readable graphics and design. More than anything, the combat is easy to navigate and understand. Waves of invaders land on the shores and move to raze the buildings and their inhabitants.

Your forces play defense, scuttling from space to space to slay the invaders before this happens. Each island is procedurally generated, with a unique mixture of terrain, enemy composition and potential rewards. Your rag-tag band of soldiers will be built up provisionally; roguelikes are about assembly and flexibility as much as hardcore strategy.

To spice things up, there are archers, pikemen and swordsmen as unit classes, and a smattering of active abilities. Each has its place, both in the heat of battle and also as part of a larger campaign strategy. Archers excel at range, pikemen from a stationary position, and swordsmen as jack-of-all-trades. The enemies come in analogous forms, as well as some beefy mini-boss types and meatshields. What you see is what you get: no real numbers or stats obscure combat, so watching the action become the primary source of intel and feedback. It’s liberating.

The game also scales incredibly smoothly. It has three difficulty settings initially, along with an unlockable Very Hard setting for the masochists. Additionally, the challenge of the islands ramps up at such a goldilocks pace, throwing out perks and curveballs with equal measure. A given island will only take a few minutes to clear, but these pebbles build up to a mountain of a campaign. It makes me nostalgic for the bygone era of well-made Flash games you could play on the web.

Bad North has that same sense of flow as FTL or Binding of Isaac, with the nagging urge to just push things a little further. Stretching forces thin when island-hopping gets more loot, because commanders must recharge after a fight. Once a fifth commander joins, or one gets a jug letting it fight every turn without pause, the player can try to snap up smaller islands on off-turns by deliberately using a smaller fighting force. The encroaching fleet only advances when the player pauses to let their troops, recharge, see, so you can effectively move twice with a little luck. Suffice to say there are edge cases where the player can take on extra risks for a little boost.

90% of this game’s fun factor come from the attention paid to its balance and pacing. The gameplay is good but, let’s be honest, hardly groundbreaking. All these disparate elements combine to offer a game that is decently challenging but feels breezy. Casual, even. The hard modes just means turning up the heat; changing the difficulty through degree and not by introducing new mechanics. It makes the acceptable margins of performance narrower, demanding the same skill set turned up to eleven. ‘Harder’ just means utilizing better technique, not really finding creative solutions.

The game is direct to a fault. The movement and terrain are easy to assess at a glance, and if anything they are too forgiving. Still, theirs is a subtle influence. The travel time and pathing sometimes create chokepoints which archers can exploit. If the troops are too close to a landing party they get stunned by the boat’s impact. The Archer’s range is contingent on elevation, so a high perch means unilateral firing power. Larger houses heal troops to full health faster. These small flourishes of mechanics are all the game has to offer. All this is just to say that micromanaging the units second-by-second is pretty much mandatory beyond a certain point.

Now for the caveat emptor. This is a very buggy release, at least by my reckoning. There are fairly common reports of unfixable crashes and fail states which ruin runs part of the way through. It appears to be something where the system gets stuck on a particular island generation and just cannot load it. Oh, and I witnessed some broken textures. Because the most common bug often makes the game unplayable past a certain point, everyone needs to wait until they patch this sucker out. I finished a campaign in around three hours but also had to abandon some.

Bad North is a gorgeous and chill game. Strangely enough for a game about the bleak, inhospitable north, it would make a perfect game paired with a leisurely vacation somewhere indolent and sunny. The matches are short and the campaign is only medium-length. It taxes the fingers more than the gray matter, honestly. It wears its influences smartly, and polishes more than it innovates, but is still an engaging and thoughtful experience. Unfortunately the buggy release state and slight repetitiveness of additional runs mean that Bad North has gone south. Visit it again before the Solstice and I do believe it will be excellent once more.

Editor’s Note: In Michael’s notes, he mentioned that this game would score a 3/5 with bugs, 4/5 without bugs. Since all indications point to Raw Fury hard at work on fixing these issues and it not being totally wide spread (I didn’t encounter them on Android, for example), I’ve gone with the higher score on the assumption that these issues won’t be for much longer.

The sheer volume of games available via Apple Arcade has meant that we’ve had to try and take a different approach to coverage. Richard’s ‘Arcade Roulette’ was an idea we came up with that would allow us to look at a range of games all at once, but in less detail than what would be typical.

After-all, if you’ve already committed to paying the subscription, you’ve got 80+ games at your finger-tips you can try out for free. If you’ve not, our bet is that you don’t necessarily need full-reviews of every game in order to sway you one way or the other.

Apple’s very committed to getting themselves to 100 games as part of their initial line-up, and at the pace they’re going it’s not going to take them long to get there. At least four new games have been added to the service over the past few days, and we actually managed to try out a few of them before they were due to go live.

Consider this a ‘bonus’ episode of the review roulette – please note that I wasn’t able to give them a full work-out like Richard would typically do. I was only at the event for about an hour, but here are some initial impressions anyway to help you decide whether these one are worth your time. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll keep these in the potential pool for a full Roulette entry, so they may turn up again with a more comprehensive overview (and a score).

Monimals

Monimals at first glance seems like a bit of a run-of-the-mill game, but it’s got some interesting additional applications it hope will earn it a bit more longevity on devices.

It’s a puzzle/platformer where you must navigate a sound jack underwater through levels to try and find ‘Monimals’, creatures that embody a single musical note. There’s the usual array of hazards and light level manipulation, with a ‘boss’ fight in the end that can help you win the monimal.

Each Monimal represents a single note or sound across lead guitar, bass and drum, and as you collect them you can then jump into the game’s ‘other’ mode and use the collected monimals to create your own music. It’s a simple drag and drop interface that lets you place a sound and define its length, as well as other typical tools you’d need for something like this. You’re not likely to create masterpieces, but you can create some pretty decent tunes. You can also have those songs play in the background as you go back into the ‘game’ part and find more monimals.

The developer’s have said that players will own the IP rights to everything they create within the app, but that it’s against the terms of service for someone to recreate a piece of music that already exists. They don’t sound too keen on trying to police that though, and they’re also working on ways for players to be able to share their music amongst themselves online.

Lifelike

This one stretches the definition of the term ‘game’, but it was still a really neat little app that I can actually see being great for young children. You are in charge of a little dot – the Diver – and you’re able to use simple swipe controls to guide it around a sparse open space inhabited by brightly coloured creatures that look a bit like swarms of fish.

The whole game is partly inspired by the lead designer’s experience with diving, but it also uses meditative techniques to give a very calming and relaxed experiences as you wander around. You can ‘discover’ a species by hovering over a specific point, and then that swarm will start interacting with you. Sometimes you can lead them, sometimes they lead you. There are lots of different levels, species and music to experience.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB651Y4gG5c?controls=0]

This one’s the least ‘game-y’ of the three, but I really appreciate how colourful the swarms are, and the way they move and flow about the map is quite mesmerising.

Hogwash

This one was definitely the most ‘fun’ of the three. I don’t want to say ‘enjoyable’ because given the breadth of apps available, something like ‘enjoyment’ is actually pretty relative to both a person’s tastes and the intent of the app to begin with (e.g. Lifelike).

This was definitely one you can imagine sitting down with some friends to have a couple of rounds. It’s got that ‘party game’ feel, even if it doesn’t quite support the numbers for it, being limited to only four players. One person plays as a farmhand, the three as pigs. The pigs need to run around the game map, getting themselves dirty, and then trying to make the Farmer’s prized possessions so dirty they can’t be cleaned.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgy1qyUcDYg?controls=0]

The farmer, armed with only a simple (tho, unlimited) water hose, must chase after the pigs – they can wash clean anything that hasn’t been ‘maxed out’ in terms of dirt, and they can also try and catch the pigs and hogtie them (only another pig can free them). If the farmer catches all three he wins, otherwise it becomes a kind of ‘top score’ determined by how dirty/clean everything is, and then either the Farmer or the Pigs win.

It’s good clean (dirty?) fun, and has both a single-player mode against an AI (which is no slouch) and online multiplayer.

Make sure you check out our master game list to keep on top of new & upcoming releases!