Category: Mobile Game Releases

Mario Kart Tour is the latest in a recent spate of ‘big’ mobile games that seek to capture every mobile gamer’s time (and money), following in the wake of Harry Potter: Wizard’s Unite and Pokemon Masters. It won’t be the last either, but for now it’s here and I imagine you’ll want to make the most of it. It’s a ‘lite’ racing game and has lots of players competing against each other to try and get the top-score on a track to earn points, Grand Stars and Coins. 

Mario Kart Tour is ‘Free-to-Start’, the full meaning of which is unclear but one thing we do know is that there is a subscription pass you can buy, if you want.

While trying to beat your friends to the finish line, you might find that the touchscreen controls are a little bit tricky to get the hang of. If this is you, you’re not alone. In fact, a lot of players are wondering about Mario Kart Tour controller support and custom controls, and where there’s a question, Pocket Tactics has the answer.

Does Mario Kart Tour Offer Controller Support?

There are tons of questions surrounding Mario Kart Tour right now, including questions about controller support. If you’ve played the game for any amount of time, you’re likely aware that the controls are a little bit touchy. While the touchscreen controls may not be too tricky to get the hang of if you’re used to mobile gaming, it can be a steep learning curve for newcomers and might make their playing experience less than stellar.

Since console gamers are used to a controller and not touch controls, it only seems natural that questions about Mario Kart Tour controller support questions are arising. Unfortunately, unlike a lot of mobile games these days, there is no controller support for Mario Kart Tour. While it could come to the game in a future update, there is currently no support for controller play.

What Mario Kart Tour Custom Controls Should I Use?

Since there isn’t any Mario Kart Tour controller support, the second best alternative is custom controls. When you first launch the game you’re given one of two options as to how you want to control your kart – one where you swipe to drift, and another where you swipe to turn. Both have merits but this is not the be-all and end all of Mario Kart Tour controls options. It may sound complicated, but it’s actually just a matter of going into the settings and adjusting a few options to fine-tune your experience. There aren’t many custom control setup options in Mario Kart Tour, which keeps choices to a minimum.

Below is the custom control setup that I prefer to use in Mario Kart Tour. Of course, you can tweak the controls however you want, but this is the setup that we prefer.

Manual Drift: On
Smart Steering: On
Auto-Item: Off
Gyro Handling: On

As you can see, there are only four types of controls that players can adjust in the game. If you’re unfamiliar with them, Manual Drift is essentially the touch screen control which allow players to drift on turns, and one of the options you’re presnted with at the start. Gyro Handling allows players to steer their kart by tilting their device.

Smart Steering offers players a little bit of aid while driving and will help keep them on course. Finally, turning Auto-Item off will prevent a new item from replacing your current item when you run into a mystery box. On the other hand, leaving it enabled will allow you to get a new item every time you run into a mystery box, even if you already have one. This one is a matter of taste.

Perhaps the hardest Mario Kart Tour control to get used to is Manual Drift. It can be super touchy at times and it’s easy to find yourself going the wrong way on the course in a matter of seconds. This is why I prefer to have Gyro Handling enabled along with Manual Drift. With this setup, I am able to do the majority of my steering by simply tilting my phone. If I need to drift on a turn or want a speed boost, I’ll have the option of using Manual Drift. With this setup, Gyro Handling is my main control method while Manual Drift provides support when necessary.

To find the Mario Kart Tour custom control setup that best suits you, you’ll likely want to go into the game and try a few different setups for yourself. After a couple of races, you should know which setup suits you best.

Mario Kart Tour is available to play for free (to an extent) on both iOS and Android.

Despite being a well loved gaming brand and creators of both hardware and videogames of undeniable quality, Nintendo’s history on mobile has been… spotty, at best. I guess there’s a silver lining in the sense that, up until a few years ago, it was virtually non-existent.

Their work at licensing the Pokemon franchise is arguably the thing they’ve had most success with, as I think we can all agree Pokemon GO is a very creative use of both the license and of integrating real-life with the game reality. But then you come to things like Super Mario Run and Dr. Mario – great licenses that should be on mobile, but Nintendo’s decisions in how they’ve monetised these games definitely took the wind out of many people’s sails.

Mario Kart Tour released today on iOS and Android, and while we’ve known it was going to be free-to-play for a while, I imagine a lot of people were hoping it wouldn’t be too heavy handed. With the game only just out the gate that will remain to be seen – new racers and accessories at least will be a gacha-pull system a lot like Pokemon Masters, but it depends how easy it is to get the free currency to afford them. It costs 5 Rubies per ‘pull’, and you get 20 once you complete your first Cup. Drops of 5 Rubies are also available as log-on bonuses. The only other way I’ve encountered so far of getting them so far is paying for them, which costs this much:

Something else Nintendo have announced today though is a subscription based ‘Gold Pass’. For $4.99/£4.99 a month you can get “Gold Gifts” by racing in tours. Here is the example image they’ve used:

You also get special in-game gold coloured badges to collect, but more significantly, you can unlock the 200cc races. The game features 50cc, 100cc and 150cc, all of which we’re assuming can be accessed for free by putting in enough play time. If you want to access the highest racing tier however, looks like you’ll have to pay – and pay monthly at that.

The gacha stuff is understandable – Nintendo have to monetise this game somehow, but this subscription thing is both unexpected and a little disappointing. One thing that’s not always been clear before now though is what Nintendo mean when they’ve described the game as ‘Free-to-Start’. It’s not something I’ve dwelt upon until now, but this new subscription offering probably highlights where they want to go – you can start playing for free, but eventually to keep progressing you’ll have to pay money; one way or another.

I’m playing around with Mario Kart Tour as we speak, and we’ll have some more in-depth content like what we’ve done with Pokemon Masters as soon as we’ve dug a little deeper. So far I’m level 2 and have already unlocked 100cc races, so it’ll be interesting to see how soon you hit that ceiling that only the subscription can open.

What are your impressions of Mario Kart Tour so far? Let us know in the comments.

It’s been no secret that Google has been working on their own subscription service, for all the attention Apple Arcade has been getting. I don’t think anyone was expecting it to launch quite so quickly after Apple’s own service but here we are – say hello to Google Play Pass.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNl21sqNCFs?controls=0]

It’s going to be landing in the US this week, and will have 350 games and apps available to use. The base price is $4.99 but for a limited time you can get a 10-day free trial plus your first 12 months for $1.99 a month, which is a pretty decent launch offer. You have until October 10th to take advantage of it.

We don’t have a complete list of games that’ll be available yet, although more will get added every month apparently. Not everything will be brand-new or ‘bespoke’ for GPP – a lot of games will have been out for a while. You may even own some already as the trailer shows games like Stardew Valley, Reigns: Games of Thrones and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

The main selling point of the Play Pass is that games featured via this platform won’t have any ads or IAPS. Existing games that have these and go on Play Pass will simply have them removed or disabled.

That’s all we know right now – we’ll let you know more (including any news regarding International roll-out) as soon as we can.

Apple Arcade has officially released, and for $4.99 you can get instant access to a wide range of premium games, many of which potentially wouldn’t have been released otherwise. Apple’s boasted that their launch line-up is 100-games strong. With this many titles on offer, it can be difficult to get a good read on what is actually available. We’ve got a more curated list of ‘top’ Arcade picks in the works, but as a test I thought I’d publish a simpler ‘master’ list of all of the games currently on the platform, as well as a quick note on genre.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0dWy1CVfw?controls=0]

Let me know if you find this useful or not, and if you have any suggestions on what might be more helpful. Most of the games we’ve sampled to far have their own dedicated App Store entry we can considering linking too at a later date, for example.

So, without further ado, here is the complete list of games currently available on Apple Arcade:

• Agent Intercept (Action/Driving)
• The Artful Escape (Action/Platform)
• Assemble with Care (Puzzle)
• Atone: Heart of the ElderTree (RPG)
• Ballistic Baseball (Action/Sports)
• Battle Sky Brigade: Harpooner (Action)
• Beyond Blue (Action/Exploration)
• Beyond a Steel Sky (RPG)
• Big TimeSports (Action/Sports)
• Bleak Sword (Action)
• Box Project (Simulation)
• The Bradwell Conspiracy (Action/RPG)
• Card of Darkness (Puzzle)
• Cardpocalypse (Puzzle)
• Cat Quest 2 (RPG)
• ChuChuRocket (Action/Puzzle)
• Cricket through the Ages (Action/Sports)
• Dead End Job (Action)
• Dear Reader (Puzzle)
• Dodo Peak (Action)
• Don’t Bug Me (Tower Defense)
• Doomsday Vault (Exploration/Action)
• Down in Bermuda (Exploration/Action)
• Dread Nautical (Strategy)
• Earth Night (Action)
• The Enchanted World (Puzzle)
• Enter the Construct (Action/Shooter)
• Exit the Gungeon (Action/Platformer)
• Explottens (Action/Side-Scroller)
• Fantasian (RPG)
• A Fold Apart (Puzzle)
• Frogger In Toy Town (Action)
• The Get out Kids (Exploration/Puzzle)
• Grindstone (Puzzle)
• Hexaflip (Puzzle)
• Hitchhiker (Exploration/Narrative)
• Hot Lava (Action)
• InMost (Action/Platformer)
• Jenny LeClue (Puzzle/Narrative)
• King’s League 2 (Tactics/Action)
• Kings of the Castle (Puzzle)
• Lego Arthouse (Exploration/Narrative)
• Lego Brawls (Action/Brawler)
• Lifelike (Exploration)
• Lifeslide (Exploration/Narrative)
• Little Orpheus (Puzzle)
• Mini Motorways (Puzzle)
• Monomals (Puzzle/Action)
• Manifold (Garden Exploration)
• Mosaic (Exploration/Narrative)
• Murder Mystery (Machine Puzzle)
• Mutazione (Puzzle/Narrative)
• Neo Cab (Exploration/Narrative)
• No Way Home (Exploration)
• Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm (Action/RPG)
• Operator 41 (Tactics/Action)
• Outlanders (Simulation/Exploration)
• Over the Alps (Action/Exploration)
• Overland (Strategy/Exploration)
• Pac-Man Party Royale (Action)
• The Pathless (Action)
• Patterned (Puzzle)
• Possessions (Puzzle)
• Pinball Wizard (Action)
• Projection: First Light (Puzzle/Narrative)
• Proxi (Simulation/Exploration)
• Punch (Planet Action/Fighter)
• Rayman Mini (Action/Platformer)
• Red Reign (Action)
• Redout: Space Assault (Action/Racing)
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (Action)
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens (Action/Exploration)
• Shinsekai Deep Sea (Action/Side Scroller)
• Shock Rods (Action/Shooter)
• Skate City (Action)
• Sneaky Sasquatch (Action)
• Sonic Racing (Action/Racing)
• Spaceland (Tactics)
• Speed Demons (Action/Racing)
• Spek (Puzzle)
• Spelldrifter (Tactics)
• Spidersaurs (Action/Shooter)
• Spyder (Action/Exploration)
• Stellar Commanders (Strategy)
• Steven Universe: Unleash the Light (RPG)
• Stranded Sales (Exploration/Survival)
• Super Impossible Road (Action/Racing)
• TangleTower (RPG)
• Tint (Puzzle)
• Towaga: Among Shadows Action
• UFO on Tape: First Contact (Action)
• Various Daylife (RPG)
• Way of the Turtle (Action/Platformer)
• What the Golf? (Puzzle/Simulation)
• Where Cards Fall (Puzzle/Narrative)
• Winding Worlds (Puzzle/Exploration)
• Word Laces (Puzzle)

Games Listed but not available yet:

• Yaga (RPG)
• Decoherence (Action/Strategy)

It seems not every game on the list we found that are coming to Apple Arcade are available yet. Apologies for the confusion. We will try and get to the bottom of what is and isn’t available and update the list accordingly. 

We’re going to keep this list update as we hear about new games coming (or even going?) from the platform but if you spot anything we’ve missed, let us know in the comments!

Nomad Games decreed that Thursday 29th August 2019 was to henceforth be known as Talisman Day. To celebrate they released a trio of new expansions for their Talisman series of games. The developers certainly squeeze the Talisman license until the pips squeak; even setting aside all of the extra downloadable content, there are still currently four versions of the game available. Talisman: Digital Edition is based on the original multiplayer classic board game. Whilst both Talisman: Prologue and Talisman: Origins take a more story-based approach and shift the focus to solo play. The prologue version has pretty much been superseded so my advice is to stick with the digital edition or origins. Finally, for those not keen on the fantasy setting, Talisman: Horus Heresy merges the Talisman gameplay with the Warhammer 40k universe.

The original board game was released way back in 1983 and at first glance, the design sensibilities appear helplessly outdated. Just one glance at Talisman’s roll-and-move mechanic and the Fighting Fantasy style combat is enough to send a shiver down the spine of many modern gamers. However, there is something still nostalgically endearing about the world of Talisman that draws in players both young and old.

The Clockwork Kingdom for Talisman: Digital Edition (iOS | Android)

Talisman embraces the mechanical age, with the introduction of clockwork towers, flying carriages and automata. This hi-tech setting is no longer a place for kings and queens, who have been usurped by inventors and merchant lords.

In this brave new world, a mobile shop traverses the outer kingdom, from which new material cards can be purchased. These are at the heart of the new expansion as they allow players to craft new weapons and gear. Material cards are also awarded when encountering some of the 41 new adventure cards. You may chance upon one of the many new enemies such as the impassable clockwork sentinel. Or, maybe you will meet the scrap salvager, who allows you to rummage through any discarded material cards and take one of your choice. If you are feeling a little mean then you may wish to trigger a clockwork mouse, who forces any fellow adventurers that it meets to ditch one random object. Whether all of the adventurers suffer from chronic musophobia or the mouse itself is an artful pickpocket isn’t made clear.

At the end of each turn, a character has the opportunity to spend three material cards to create a new object. The nature of the invention will depend upon the effects of the materials used. Some materials when combined with an additional material that they are in harmony with will create a separate more powerful effect. For instance, an item made of Ent wood adds one to a player’s craft, but combine the Ent wood with standard wood and the new item will enhance a players craft rating by three.

To exploit these new-found crafting opportunities there are three new adventurers at your beck and call. The artificer can deconstruct magical items and absorb their power to learn a new spell or improve their craft. The swindler has a bit of a silver tongue and knows how to strike a good deal. He can convince other characters to sell him any item for a single gold piece, talk himself out of tricky situations and make a quick buck from the unfortunate inhabitants of settlements and taverns. Finally, the engineer is brilliant at making the best of her resources. She can craft an invention using fewer materials and is great at spotting any weaknesses in mechanical enemies.

The expansion also includes two new scenarios, the first has you playing the part of a runic Luddite, battling against progress by defeating as many mechanical enemies as possible. The other scenario is a fight to the death in which characters use their inventions to challenge each other in a psychic battle to the death.

Overall, this is a really interesting expansion, it is great fun experimenting with combinations of different materials, with the additional compound and harmony effects adding an extra layer of depth. The crafting mechanic certainly adds some much-needed variety and the new cards introduce a host of new enemies, items and followers, each with their own unique special abilities.

The Legend of Pandora’s Box for Talisman: Origins (Review) (iOS | Android)

A new book containing five chapters, which should take between five to ten hours to complete. This expansion is based on the board game’s Nether Realms expansion, which is notorious for its tough monsters. It really puts the focus on combat with the likes of the Atlas Ogre and the Nether Blight (instant death, anyone?) queuing up to tear you a new one.

Adventurers have the opportunity to replace a card drawn from the adventurer’s deck with one from the hard-as-nails nether deck. You will probably want to start slowly, drawing from the adventure deck until feeling strong enough to tackle the new monsters. This ability to swap between the adventure and the nether decks adds an interesting extra layer of tension to the gameplay. The new encounters may be tricky and sometimes frustrating, but if you are up for the challenge then Pandora’s Box is worth opening.

An Assassin’s Tale for Talisman: Origins

As a murderer for hire, you are always keen to make a killing. So, when the assassins guild puts out a juicy contract on a humble monk you head off to make some easy money. An Assassin’s Tale is a three-chapter character-based story that is free to download and play.

The story starts pretty low-key as you navigate the board, hoping that your dice rolls will eventually allow you to corner the monk. Happily, things do get more interesting and the assassin’s special ability is appropriately sneaky. When he initiates an attack the unfortunate victim may not roll dice to add to their strength.

Not the most innovative of add-ons, but it is free and when the story gets going it is entertaining enough.

We’ve been expecting Call of Duty’s latest (and biggest) mobile adaptation since March, and now it seems the wait is finally over. Those of you looking to scratch that run-and-gun itch on your phones and tablets can do so when the game launches world-wide on October 1st, 2019.

I’ll be honest, there hasn’t quite been the ‘revolution’ of mainstream games coming to mobile that I thought there’d be back when Fortnite and Ark were leading the charge, but Activision bringing Call of Duty in a more comparable form to the primary console versions is still not to be ignored. Perhaps today’s Apple Arcade launch will also incentivize more companies to give it a go… although the way things are now I’m surprised COD didn’t decide to just go to the Switch instead.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnhok5r3mwM?controls=0]

Call of Duty Mobile is promising a “feature rich” experience that draws from both the Modern Warfare and Black Ops games, a kind of ‘greatest hits’ experience. This is shown through the wide range of game modes (Frontline, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Gun Game, and Search & Destroy), Maps (Nuketown, Hijacked, Crash) and even unlockable Operators (Modern Warfare’s John “Soap” MacTavish vs. Alex Mason from Black Ops) available.

The game will also feature a new 100-player Battle Royale mode, which can be played solo, in pairs or in a four-man team. It features a separate roster of six classes you can choose from, and will include vehicles and weapons. It can be played first or third person, like all good Battle Royale games.

That’s about all we know so far, other than that the ‘Global’ launch doesn’t include mainland China (they’ll have their own version it seems), Vietnam or mainland Belgium. Pocket Gamer’s Cameron Bald proposed an interesting theory that this means we should probably expect Loot Boxes in the game. Belgium has recently investigated such transactions and outright banned them, which means anyone living in that country has been spare- I mean, is out of luck.

Anyone in Australia, Canada and Peru who’ve been a part of the soft-launch will also be pleased to note that you get to keep your progress.

Pre-registration has been open since March, but if you’re just getting around to it now you can go here, or pre-register directly on iOS or Android.

There have been a handful of big mobile games that have released in 2019, but perhaps one of the biggest games is yet to come. With Mario Kart Tour set to release next week, there is a lot of buzz about everyone’s favorite plumber. The Mario Kart series is one of the most beloved Nintendo franchises, and after almost 30 years, it’s finally making its way to mobile devices. Here is everything you need to know about Mario Kart Tour, including its release date, cost, characters, and a whole lot more.

When does Mario Kart Tour release?

After initial plans were announced for an early 2019 Mario Kart Tour release date, Nintendo decided to push back its kart racer until late 2019. Thankfully, the long wait is almost over, as the game will be racing to iOS and Android devices on September 25th, 2019.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V6XecP27wE?controls=0]

If you’re especially excited about the game, you can head to your App Store of choice and pre-order (iOS | Google Play). Despite using the word pre-order, this is nothing more than a pre-download of sorts. All that this really means is that once the Mario Kart Tour release date rolls around, the game will be automatically downloaded to your device. This should allow most players to avoid having to wait on the Mario Kart Tour download, as it will download itself as soon as it is released.

How much does Mario Kart Tour cost?

The mobile racing game will be free to download and free to play…up until a certain level. Similar to Super Mario Run, the Mario Kart Tour cost will be free initially, but then will force players to pay in order to continue once they’ve reached a certain point.

Nintendo hasn’t disclosed the exact business model of Mario Kart Tour quite yet, but the listing on the App Store does reveal that there will be in-app purchases. There are a variety of business models that Nintendo could use. For example, with Super Mario Run, once players reached the paywall they had to pay $10 to get access to the rest of the game.

However, with other Nintendo mobile games, the model required players to pay for each piece of content that they wanted. With this model, players would have to pay a specified amount to purchase a new track, kart, or character. This would be a bit pricier if you wanted to unlock everything but could benefit those who only want to play a few specific things. However, these are all just speculations for now, and once Mario Kart Tour releases we will know more.

What are the Mario Kart Tour courses?

There will be tons of Mario Kart Tour courses available when the game launches later this month. Nintendo has promised fans a variety of old and new courses that can be raced through with friends. Currently, there are sixteen courses that have been seen in other games and a handful of new courses to come.

Below is a list of all of the courses that have been announced for Mario Kart Tour so far:

• Choco Island 2 (SNES)
• Mario Circuit 1 (SNES)
• Rainbow Road (SNES)
• Kalimari Desert (N64)
• Koopa Troopa Beach (N64)
• Bowser Castle 1 (GBA)
• Dino Dino Jungle (GCN)
• Yoshi Circuit (GCN)
• DK Pass (DS)
• Luigi’s Mansion (DS)
• Waluigi PInball (DS)
• Cheep Cheep Lagoon (3DS)
• Daisy Hill (3DS)
• Mario Circuit (3DS)
• Rock Rock Mountain (3DS)
• Shy Guy Bazaar (3DS)
• Toad Circuit (3DS)

As we stated above, there are also a handful of new courses that are set to come once the game is out. Nintendo is promising that some of these new courses will be based on real world locations, like New York, Paris, and Tokyo, while others will be based on made up locations. You can see a few of these courses in the first, second, and third Mario Kart Tour trailers.

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

What characters are coming to Mario Kart Tour?

Nintendo has revealed that Mario and tons of his friends are going to be playable as Mario Kart Tour characters. Virtually every character that has appeared in previous Mario Kart games will be appearing as playable characters in Mario Kart Tour.

Of course, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser will be in the game, and they will also be bringing along a big group of their friends. Below is a list of all of the 35 playable Mario Kart Tour characters.

• Baby Daisy
• Baby Luigi
• Baby Mario
• Baby Peach
• Baby Rosalina
• Bowser
• Bowser Jr.
• Daisy
• Diddy Kong
• Donkey Kong
• Dry Bones
• Dry Bowser
• Gold Mario
• Iggy Koopa
• King Boo
• Koopa Troopa
• Lakitu
• Larry Koopa
• Lemmy Koopa
• Ludwig von Koopa
• Luigi
• Mario
• Metal Mario
• Morton Koopa, Jr.
• Peach
• Peachette
• Rosalina
• Roy Koopa
• Shy Guy
• Toad
• Toadette
• Waluigi
• Wario
• Wendy O. Koopa

As you can see, there will be no shortage of characters to play as when Mario Kart Tour releases. However, most of these characters will likely be locked behind a paywall, so we will have to wait and see just how much they will cost.

Mario Kart Tour will be released on iOS and Android devices on September 25, 2019. Let us know whether you’re looking forward to this or not!