Category: Game Releases

By Joe Robinson 29 Jul 2019

I’ve been cooling it on the Auto Chess testing lately because one of my personal favourite board games is getting its digital release next week, and I’ve been taking the Android version out for a spin.

Raiders of the North Sea is essentially a worker placement game, but it has a cool twist on the usual gameplay and has some pretty amazing artwork. Also: Vikings. The app seems very slick so far, so I’m looking forward to getting our full review out. I’m not sure we’ll make it in time for launch, but it’ll definitely be ASAP.

Meanwhile, in the world of mobile gaming…

Out Now

Civilization 6: Rise & Fall Expansion (iOS Universal) (PC Review)

We’ve been wondering when Aspyr would be getting around to porting the Civ 6 expansions to mobile. Rise & Fall released to the PC audience last February, so it’s been well over a year and we’ve had a second PC expansion (Gathering Storm) in the time since then. Rise & Fall isn’t the most impactful expansion, but it definitely elevates the base game out of the mundane and so in many ways is a bit of an essential purchase if you’re a Civ 6 fan. Along with new leaders and civs, new mechanics emerge in the form of Emergencies, Golden/Dark Ages and Governors. You can head on over to our sister website for a full overview of the expansion.

It’s a shame it’s so expensive ($29.99!), although as part of the release all of the existing IAPs have been made cheaper. You can now pick up the base game for $10, for example. Gathering Storm is supposedly on track for release alter this year as well, and together they make the base Civ 6 experience a better challenger against Civ 5’s comfortable domination of the franchise.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOT9T15mkX0?controls=0]

Stick Fight The Game Mobile (iOS & Android)

I mention this one because I’ve played the PC version and it is quite fun, if you’re looking for a cheap and cheerful party game. You control stick men on 2D battlefields and you have to jump around, try to pick up weapons and be the last stick standing. The physics are hilarious and the action surprisingly tense. It’s only for three players and one disadvantage of the mobile version is that you can only play online (versus all crowding around a single PC, for example), which is a shame.

The mobile version has gone free-to-play with a single $1 IAP for something called ‘Diamond’, but I imagine this is more of a token gesture to monetise the mobile game, rather than true ‘freemium’ design although you never know with NetEase involved.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YOSVNGc9eY?controls=0]

Upcoming Games

Pokémon Masters (iOS & Android)

Pokémon GO’s time as the most popular Pokémon game on mobile might be coming to an end, as more games are about to land on our phones. Free-to-Play Pokémon Rumble Rush released this week, but you can also pre-register for Pokémon Masters, a 3v3 battler where three trainers each take a Pokémon each (known as a ‘sync pair’) into a head-to-head battle with another team. Pre-registration is available on both app stores, and there’s an overview video you can watch that goes over the basics:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gms2G2cs54w?controls=0]

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (August 1^st, 2019) (iOS & Android)

This digital party game has been on our radar for a while, but we weren’t sure when the mobile version was planning to release – turns out it’s next week! This is a co-operation game where one person has ‘the bomb’, while everyone else has the manual that can disarm the bomb. The carrier will need to be able to describe what they can see, while the rest of the team will need to be able to succinctly advise the carrier how to disarm the bomb based on what they’re told. What could go wrong?

What’s good about this one is that only one person needs to ‘own’ the app as only the carrier will need, while everyone else can consult the bomb manual directly from the official website. It’s coming to both app stores and will cost $9.99.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYGTTebmOO0?controls=0]

Updates

Not many updates making a splash this week – Star Traders: Frontiers has been updated again, naturally, and the various Auto Chess games have all had extra tweaks and updates, depending on your poison.

In other news, Night of the Full Moon was updated to Version 2.0 this week. This is a larger update than most, and ]comes with it the inclusion of a new DLC – The Red Hood. NotFM is a pretty solid CCG/RPG hybrid which, while it didn’t blow us away when we first looked at it in 2017, has continued to go from strength to strength in the years since. It’s got plenty of DLC now to pick up if you’re interested, and the price for entry is currently ‘free’ on both iOS and Android.

Sales

In addition to the Civ 6 and Night of the Full Moon promotions mentioned above, there are a couple of sales that might be of interest this week:

• Tides of Time (iOS | Android), which is a fun and quick 2 player card drafting game, is currently $0.99 – it’s first price-drop since launch.
• Tactical RPG Avadon 3: The Warborn is down to half price again this week, only the second time this year.

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

Heraclitus of ages past surmised that, at heart, fire is the fundamental element of things. In other words, all things are beset by constant change. That philosophy has been boiled down to the saying ‘no man steps in the same river twice’. Sure enough and true to its name, no one plays the same game of Fluxx twice, for the party game is an ever-mutating affair. Its cavalcade of rules and action cards mean upsets are the norm. Fluxx been a standby filler game for ages now, and the app has always been a serviceable one. Thanks to a new 64-bit version, the game is back from the grave. It plays like a breeze but lacks the pep and polish most party games need to shine.

Fluxx has a metagame built right into its rules. Most of the cards in the deck tweak what’s possible and required on a ‘normal’ turn. ‘Draw X’ and ‘Play X’ are the usual culprits, with some rascally limits on hand size and Keepers popping up here and there. Most crucially, the Goal of the game itself is also a moving target: the winner is the player who, at the end of their turn, has Keepers in play matching those described on the goal card also in play. It’s a lock and key system which always gets jumbled up, since the same player who has the required Keepers rarely has the corresponding Goal. It’s a right mess trying to line up the victory conditions. The deck just reshuffles and play marches on interminably until someone wins. I’ve had games done on the first turn (my maiden voyage on the app was like this, somehow) and games which last an hour. The bedlam is entirely the point.

It’s manageable, just. And the app is well-organized, with big, bold icons and buttons for the UI. The game is mostly about timing and holding back strategic options for last-ditch switch plays. Fluxx has a story-like quality because even in lightning-fast rounds of the play, things feel stretched out and even long-winded. So if a million betrayals and thefts happen, the injury and insult is leavened by the game’s rapid-fire changes. Easy come, easy go makes for easy-going players.

Fluxx is in excellent company. There are a few playing-deck games about changing rules and guessing rules, like Mao and Eleusis. (Sidenote: The latter game was the seed inspiration for Zendo, another game published by Looney Labs) The conceit of changing rules feels nominally ‘clever’ without actually adding any difficulty. It’s not really that sophisticated, but it is good for a laugh, and I enjoy the volatility and uselessness of deep planning. Fluxx never puts on airs, it never promises a grand or thoughtful experience. Just some good old-fashioned sloppy fun. It’s a little old-school, though, and there are plenty of other short games which do pack in some mental crunch-time, even in just twenty minutes. As far as comparisons go, you might like Fluxx if Munchkin or Exploding Kittens are up your alley. It’s also useful as a kind of pressure-release valve for when the gamer brain wants to get its fix without too much strain involved.

Now, all of this might sound like one long back-handed compliment. Au contraire, my friend. Fluxx simply has settled into an unusual and somewhat dated niche, that of the insane, anything-goes filler. One of the most egregiously Type-A dudes I know loves Fluxx to pieces, though, so you never know who might become a fan. You play the game, or rather the game plays you, more than a bit. Technically part of the appeal of Fluxx is that it has a million different versions, with decent themes and comic-style art for all of them. The mix-and-match aspect isn’t present in the app, though, unfortunately. The regular deck of cards is plenty robust from a gameplay standpoint, strictly, but it’s missing the flair that Chthulu Star Trek Anatomy Mega-Fluxx has. This boast is only half in jest.

For all its zaniness, the game really is quite simple and shockingly devoid of decision-making. Depending on your breed of gamer, flat decisions might be an absolutely deal breaker. For the omnivore it’s no big. Far from a knock on Fluxx’s design, this straightforwardness makes it a great beer-and-pretzels game. Low mental overhead means extra presence of mind for banter and the hey-how-are-ya catchups which are part and parcel of why tabletop gaming is fulfilling. Systems and socialization in the same package. Fluxx fits in the flow of life, what with its playtime and light ruleset.

Well, on the socializing front Fluxx as an app oversells and under-delivers. Because there is only one physical index to track the game’s state, people’s attention wanders just a tad too much. If there’s much food, drink and merriment to be had, a lonesome iPad is bound to get lost in the shuffle. So while Fluxx is a great party game, the app itself won’t make a splash at those same parties. Whereas with a deck of cards spread out on the table, there are constant reminders of what’s going on. It seems a cruel paradox, but I find light-weight games have a harder time justifying their app versions, because the book-keeping and portability gains are offset by this reduced social presence on the table.

One could argue, fairly, that this reviewer has been rather hot-and-cold on the most pressing issue: is the Fluxx app any good? Well, the answer depends (fluctuates, even?) on what kind of void it is meant to fill. It’s certainly good for a bit of nostalgia, or shooting the breeze, and must be said that the game’s online play options are good. But as an app for premeditated play-sessions, the digital Fluxx has lost some of its spark.