Category: Game Releases

Competitions, eh? Remember those? Man, if only we had some free codes to giveaway so we could do another o- OH WAIT. We’ve teamed up with Wave Light Games in order to bring you a free giveaway. We have ten iOS codes for their recently released tactical RPG Shieldwall Chronicles, and all you need to do is go to the widget below to register.

Competition closes at 10 AM GMT on Monday, March 11th and we’ll email the codes out to the winners from there.

In our review, Richard praised the game’s depth of choice amongst its character classes, as well as its adherence to old school strategy RPG design… even if things could get a bit grindy at times. Whether it’s better than PT favourite Demon’s Rise remains to be seen, but if you’re a fan of the developer’s work this is definitely worth checking out for more of the same.

The reason we launched our review and the giveaway today specifically is that Wave Light have just updated Shieldwall Chronicles to Version 1.03. The update includes a new playable character class, the Centaur (pictured above), a new cavalry-focused game mechanic, 20+ new magic items and several bug fixes and improvements. So, if you want to nab yourself a free copy, look at the widget below and may the odds ever be in your favour!

Shieldwall Chronicles Giveaway

Waking up as a powerful vampire is a well-worn video game territory. So are relentlessly replayable roguelikes. Somehow, Kyle Barrett, developer of Ever Knight, has found a way to make both of these staples feel fresh and inviting with Immortal Rogue.

As the titular character, you spend your waking moments reaping civilization of its blood, one century at a time. As you haunt populations for consecutive centuries, you can play a large role in how society develops. Choosing to hunt social elites or rabble rousers may determine if humans progress into the stars, or revert back to barbarism. I wish this narrative device felt more substantial.

Conceptually, being a hidden figure that has secretly been altering human history from the shadows for years is great. But it never feels like an interesting story is being told, outside of the small info dumps that set up each new engagement. The choices you make regarding who to hunt don’t change each encounter substantially. At most, instead of just killing everyone, you kill everyone and especially one person in particular. Occasionally, you’ll be able to turn that special somebody, and add them to your coven.

The consequences of the decision can be significant, though. Moving forward or backward in advancement could mean that your next set of enemies could go from mostly wielding swords or bats, to being Terminators with laser guns. Enemies hit harder and harder – and there are more and more of them – the longer you survive. The more advanced the society, the more frequently you’ll find that the monsters that spawn to greet you can absolutely decimate you from distance. Some legible way of knowing how your decision will affect the movement of civilization would have been welcome here.

This is especially something I wish I had when I died and had to spend the next hundred years resting. Time moves on without you, so dramatic progress could be made before you’re ready to hunt again. The beginning of your run could be right smack in the middle of a robot uprising, meaning guns galore. After hours of play, I’ve found my way around this little difficulty bubble. But in the beginning, I found it to be overwhelming.

The nuts and bolts of playing the Immortal Rogue are simple, familiar, and satisfying. Swipes, taps, and holds encompass all of the inputs you’ll need to make mincemeat out of the well-armed general public. Light and heavy attacks strike with a that feel good stickiness, with just enough space before and after attacks to feel like you can zip out of harm’s way.

There is also a pretty diverse set of weapons you can acquire that all feel unique. Even though you pick them up at random, they tend of be era appropriate. Sometimes you’ll pick up a cowboy six-shooter, other times a katana. They all seem to have a place in a strategy, or can be the kind of run-defining things worth building a strategy around.

The irony is that even though much of the game rewards aggression – all of your movement is in dashes, light attack chains get up close and lock enemies down, etc. – I had much more successful runs when I got a ranged weapon and just shot hordes of enemies from a distance. It’s not a complete imbalance, as the hordes can become untenable once you reach year 900. But some of the dirty tricks that Immortal Rogue plays on you, whether intentionally or not, might have you thinking conservatively.

The way enemies spawn often feels like there is no rhyme or reason to it. They sort of just show up from off screen, or from underground, or from thin air to come kill you. Sections of the map you’ve already covered might sometimes hide a random group of baddies that triggered at some point when you weren’t watching. The environments themselves can obscure enemies under them that you might not know are there unless you see a bullet careen towards you from behind a rock, or you just felt the need to dash behind a tall building. Not exactly game-breaking, but annoying.

I have had bugs that got me stuck on pieces of a map, unable to dodge away from what would shortly become an aggressive and devastating onslaught of enemy fire. They don’t happen often, but when they do happen to sabotage a run, you can’t help but feel frustrated. Ditto to the inconsistent responsiveness of the controls. Touch controls are hard to make work perfectly, and the design is intuitive, but the end result isn’t always. Slides and holds get confused all the time for me. You learn to work around it, but it can be a lot of work.

But man, Immortal Rogue is hard to put down. It has that perfect blend of small investment interactions and frantic, engrossing action that always convinces you to go one more time after a death. Mixing the perks you pick at the end of each level with all the gear and enhancements you can buy or inherit through your coven helps you produced strategies and builds that you can see working usually immediately. When I focus on one or two build ideas, it’s almost always rewarding to see them come to fruition.

So, despite its setbacks, Immortal Rogue seems to accomplish everything good about the popular roguelike genre on one of the platforms where they are a dime a dozen. It even makes the concept of playing as a powerful vampire something that at least feels new and different on its surface, even if it fails to do much with it. A gratifying, one-handed action game on mobile as sound as this one should absolutely not be overlooked by anyone seeking the next great single-player experience.

A new summer of sport may be on the horizon, but for many of us the season never ended thanks to your favourite handheld devices. There seems to be no better time in 2019 to check out the best sports manager games that mobile gaming has to offer.

Not a sports fan? Perhaps you’ll enjoy this list of great puzzle games instead!

Better still, armchair sports fans can chill out and enjoy this cerebral selection of sporting simulations without breaking into a sweat. Whether you’r on iOS or Android, a Soccer sycophantic or a Motorsport maniac, we’ve got you covered.

Pro Strategy Football 2019

Developer: Pro Strategy Games
Platforms: iOS Universal
Price: £4.99

Considering its popularity, football of the American variety feels very under-represented in games. There are a few arcade-y options and of course EA is present with the usual free-to-play butchering of a great game in the absurdly titled Madden NFL Overdrive Football, but quality management games are few and far between.

The one serious choice is the Pro Strategy Football series, which once again delivered a very solid offering in its 2018 edition and has now evolved into the 2019 version. It’s a fun and playable coaching game but also accurate and realistic depending how deep you want to dive in. One of the best things about PSF is how flexible it is, so you can have a quick single match or a multi-season career and then on the field you play in beginner mode just choosing the type of play or expert mode in which you can micromanage every player’s role.

It’s a great game for novices who want to learn more about the complexities of gridiron and hardcore players who want to control every aspect of their team.

Football Manager Touch 2019 (Review)

Developer: SEGA
Platforms: iPad, Android
Price: $19.99

There’s no arguing that Football Manager is the king of football management simulations, and FM Touch extends the series’ dominion in to the mobile sphere. The Touch games offer a more accessible take on the PC version, with an interface specially designed for tablet devices. If you’re looking for a cheaper and more accessible FM experience, then you should check out Football Manager 2019 Mobile.

FM19 Touch is just as good as the 2018 (which occupied this spot until now), but it’s worth noting that the changes between the versions are slim. There’s no doubt that this game deserves to claim a top spot in our list, but if you already have previous year’s versions, bear in mind you may baulk a bit at having to re-purchase the game again.

Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 (Review)

Developer: Playsport Games
Platforms: iOS Universal, Android
Price: $3.99

This series scores an easy pole position in the motorsport management genre, and the latest instalment is the best looking and most feature-rich yet. For a sport game on mobile devices, this is achingly beautiful, especially the dioramic race tracks which are just so pretty. But the game has lots of substance as well as style with plenty to keep you busy as the principal of a motorsport team, including recruiting drivers, developing the best cars and investing in your facilities. Once the action switches to the track during qualifying and races you’ll still have plenty of decisions to make on race strategy, car set-up and tyres.

For the third game in the series Playsport Games has added six new championships across GT and endurance races, making it deeper than ever before. As our four-star review suggested, MM3 does a great job of getting players emotionally invested in their teams, with a fine line between winning and losing “A game made up of so many small decisions and menus allows for a surprising amount of excitement. Watching those small dots speed around the screen may not give the surge of pleasure a standard racing game would, but watching your team secure a win, leading to a championship is genuinely wonderful.”

Cricket Captain 2018

Developer: Childish Things Ltd
Platforms:  iOS Universal, Android
Price: £8.99

This series has been around on mobile devices for several years, but without much fanfare, despite being well received by players. Perhaps cricket is more of a niche interest than other sports, particularly among European or American gamers, but this is a must-buy if you are fan of hearing leather on willow.

Cricket management is a very narrow genre, but this game is unrivalled in it with its deep, accurate and comprehensive simulation. Very much the Football Manager of cricket games with its attention to detail, this is packed with features, stats and tactical options that should keep virtual cricket captains happy for many hours.

Football Chairman Pro

Developer: Underground Creative
Platforms: iOS Universal, Android
Price: £2.99

Not so much Championship Manager as Chairmanship Manager. This simple but satisfying simulation puts you at the head of the table in the boardroom rather than being in the manager’s office or dugout. Instead of being the football manager going to the chairman asking for extra funds or more time to build you squad, you are the chairman who makes the decision on the hiring and firing of your club’s manager. If you get that decision right, along with sponsorship deals, stadium development, transfers, contracts and more, you’ll be able to turn your little non-league football team into a major force.

It’s a more basic, quick-playing game than, say, Football Manager but its fast pace allows you to whizz through seasons in minutes and hours rather than days and months, making it great for short sessions on the commute. Despite the simplicity and less detail, it’s still got plenty of choices for you to make as the big boss, and enough addictive power to keep you coming back.

Baseball Highlights 2045

Developer: Peter Kossits
Platforms: iOS Universal, Android
Price: $3.99

As its name suggests this clever card came condenses baseball matches into short bite-sized 10-minute matches. If you are looking for realism then I suggest you move on as this futuristic take on America’s favourite sport has a player roster that includes robotic and cybernetic players. An entire game consists of each player only playing a total six cards, but it still manages to pack in a lot of tough decisions and tension. On your way to the World Series you get to draft new players into your hand, which gives the whole experience a pleasing bubble-gum card collecting nostalgia.

Punch Club

Developer: tinyBuild
Platforms: iOS Universal, Android
Price: $4.99

This may not be a sports sim in the strictest sense of the word, but if you are interested in a boxing-themed game with lashings of 1980’s nostalgia then Punch Club rings all the right bells. You embark on a Rocky-style quest of vengeance by setting up fights, whilst juggling your work and social life.  It is a game that takes more than its graphical sensibilities from the 1980’s, being tougher than Apollo Creed. This means that you will be doing more grinding than a dirty dancing barista. However, it is still a fine game that is well worth checking out.

New Star Cricket

Developer: New Star Games
Platforms: iOS Universal, Android
Price: Free, Offers In-App Purchases

A cricketing themed follow up to New Star Football that is perfect for those who prefer the thwack of willow on leather. You begin your career with a lowly club in your favourite cricketing nation.  Each season you will compete in both 20 and 50 over competitions. Perform well and famous clubs will be queuing up for your signature, you may even get an international call-up. The game does not stray too far from the winning formula of its forbearer. A series of mini-games enable you to improve your skills and have an impact on matches at key points. Gameplay is as equally satisfying in bite-sized spells as it is in marathon sessions, which makes for an ideal mobile game that will have you padding up and heading out to the middle time and time again. 

1st & Goal

Developer: R&R Games
Platforms: iOS Universal
Price: $4.99

Based on a popular board game, 1st & Goal uses a combination of dice and cards to simulate the rough and tumble of American football. Opponents play cards to determine their offensive and defensive strategies and then dice are rolled to determine the outcome. The dice used will depend on the strategies selected.  For instance, if the offensive team chooses a rushing play and their opponents choose a passing defence, then the offensive team will have a big advantage. You can play a one-off exhibition match, compete in the play-offs or embark on a full season. Whatever you decide you will get a game that sticks closely to its board game roots, with straightforward rules, together with tense bluff and double bluff gameplay.

Hall of Fame

What would your list of the best sports strategy/management games on mobile look like? Let us know in the comments!