Category: Game Releases

We’re on a power trip and no-one can stop us. First we told you what the best Board Games were, then we dared to dream of what the best turn-based strategy games might be. Now we’re here to conquer a new genre – card games (although not counting CCG/TCG types).

Below are a wide variety of excellent examples which aren’t simply trying to be another Hearthstone. Some have excellent single player campaigns with persistent upgrades and unlocks, or customizable decks. Others skew towards the heavily-instanced, unique-runs roguelike approach, and then there’s digital adaptations of many of the excellent deck-building or other types of card games that exist. Between these extremes, there’s something for everyone.

Exploding Kittens

Developer: Exploding Kittens
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $1.99

A game of hot potato with a nitroglycerine-infused feline escalates until every player save one has met their maker. Fiery kitty death and simple humor belie a take-that game which puts everyone immediately at each other’s throats. Hostility and sabotage are the name of the game, because each player has only one life to live, and one defuse card to keep that hairball from becoming a fireball.

The game is a childish, cartoonish pastiche of obvious joke made too hard too often, but despite the unapologetic unrefined everything, it remains one of the best guilty mindless pleasures around. If you ever need a reason to froth at the mouth and fling spittle at your fellow humans over fictionally threatening cats, look no further: Exploding Kittens is simply an excuse to have a good time, a cheeky pretext. Irksome, shameless and perfect it its base way.

Guild of Dungeoneering (Review)

Developer: Gambrinous
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $5.99

With Guild of Dungeoneering you come for the game, stay for the jokes. The sing-song plot is doled out over each of the game’s regions and challenges, and while the class system isn’t strictly balanced, the overall arc of the regions is. A single play session will eat up a bit of concentration and a bit more of time, sometimes even the better part of an hour in the later stages, but even the basic encounters feel fresh, engaging and vital to ultimate success. Diverting but finite in its appeal, the Guild of Dungeoneering is not a calling for all gamers but is a welcome and refreshing quest whose expansions add more flair and mechanics to extend the main storyline.

Card Thief (Review)

Developer: Arnold Rauers
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: 2.99, free

Card Thief: Get in, get rich, get out. The story of a heist plays out with endless variety, thanks to Card Thief’s intermingling systems of light and shadow, directionality and position. These systems are intuitively taught through appealing sound and visual design, and the game rewards deeper understanding of the basics and their complex interactions by giving the player more finicky toys to play with. In short, an unstinting challenge to sink your teeth into, with a razor-sharp core idea enlivened by a pastel of special effects and alternate thieves.

Card City Nights

Developer: Ludosity
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $0.99

The characters are idiosyncratic, the game-within-a-game conceit a little cheeky but still refreshing, the consistent tone humor-ish, deadpan. Beating certain keystone characters unlocks their signature, ultra-powerful cards whose effects even jive with that character’s personality. In other words, there is a correspondence between writing, characterization and deck archetypes between. Never quite a rollicking good time or agonizing head-scratcher, the deckbuilding and collecting (yes, there are boosters, no nothing is truly ultra-rare) of Card City Nights makes for an easily enjoyed and easily binged experience.

Lost Cities

Developer: TheCodingMonkeys
Platforms: iOS
Price: $3.99

Good ole’ Reiner Knizia can always be relied on for some arithmetic fun. His success and sheer number of gaming hits with staying power can partly be attributed to a creative knack, but it also comes down to a large and prolific output, along with thorough playtesting. Players finance archaeological expeditions, building stacks of colors with cards numbered two to ten. Each of the five colorful expedition must have cards played in ascending value, with skpping permitted. So playing a tenner to start would doom an expedition, because at the game’s end any expedition is worth the sum of its cards, minus twenty, multiplied by the presence of any extra finance cards ($$$). Simple, right? The other half of the game is the push-and-pull with players drawing and playing cards one at a time, sometimes opting to discard cards into a common area rather than play them. Boring to explain, easy to play. Tense and fulfilling to win.

Developer: Jerome Bodin
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $3.99, $4.49

Frost stands out from the other members of this list on two fronts. Firstly, for its palette, which is as frigid as monochrome as you’d expect. Secondly, because its gameplay is survival-based, not just thematically but actually. Gathering supplies, fending off nasties and keeping the elements at bay take every possible trick the cards will give you. Better performance will net you better tools, but unlike other games, Frost’s best rewards are a sense of security and temporary respite. In other words, the game won’t see you chasing exhilarating high score or excitement, but rather staving off the undesirable. Loss aversion, the fear of breaking a fragile equilibrium, the game daring you to take only appropriate risks when the phrase is a hollow oxymoron. The game rewards you with the chance to keep playing, keep exploring its stark dangers and bag of tricks.

Star Realms (Review)

Developer: White Wizard Games
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: Free, with content parcelled out as IAP ($4.99 for the full set)

Star Realms marries the level of expansion and customization of a TCG with the bite-sized crunchy decision-making of a deckbuilder. Its combat elements and faction-specific combos make for a serious nostalgia trip for those looking to revisit memory lane without first collecting, collating and crafting a custom deck just for the occasion. Star Realms’ many expansions, rapid-fire gameplay and clear iconography make it a compelling addition to the game enthusiast’s roster and an easy must-have.

Meteorfall: Journey (Review)

Developer: Slothwerks
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $2.99

In the happier sessions, Meteorfall ends with a successful final showdown against the aptly-named Uberlich. Working backwards from that ultimate battle to the four starting characters is much more challenging than the squidy art and breezy interface might suggest. Its fight-or-flight decisions and journeying remind me of FTL transported to a fantasy setting, with cards. Okay, so the likeness is weak, but the juxtaposition of richness and minimalism are what really matters here. Seriously, Meteorfall is a wolf in cartoon clothing.

Race for the Galaxy (Review)

Publisher: Temple Gates Games, LLC
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $6.99

Perhaps the quintessential engine-building card game, Race for the Galaxy is one of the more aged members within this best-of list, debuting originally in 2007. Its longitudinal sense of strategy and complex combos quickly made it a favorite amongst players. Along with this hefty strategic challenge,  the unique simultaneous action selection mechanic enlivened the game with some bluffing. Barring the official release of Dominion for mobile, Race for the Galaxy represents a classic, yet innovative take on a victory-point race. The app runs like a dream and offers stiff competition and solid multiplayer.

Reigns: Her Majesty (Review)

Developer: Devolver Digital
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $2.99

Alright, it’s true: the cards in Reigns: Her Majesty only combine to create game paths and branching outcomes later on, but this sequel to the swipe-to-rule-them-all motherload of simple-yet-satisfying game, Reigns, deserves to be on this list because it has mastered what every good card game needs: flashpoint moments. The bite-sized binary decisions, served one-by-one in Reigns, amass weight, consequence and difficulty, not merely because of narrative investment but also because of a chain of causality. Much ado about something anyone who’s tried the game already knows, or more importantly, has already felt.

Hall of Fame

We’re keeping the list pretty tight at the moment, but there’s way more than ten excellent card games to celebrate, with more on the way all the time. Every now and then we’ll rotate games out for other games, but we don’t want those past greats to be forgotten. Below is a list of previous members of this list, lest we forget:

• Calculords
• Pathfinder Adventures
• Solitairica
• Flipflop Solitaire

What would your list of the best (non-CCG) card games look like? Let us know in the comments!

By Joe Robinson 16 Jul 2018

Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. We’ve got a few new releases to go over and a whole lot of sales. Let’s get to it!

Out Now

Battleheart 2 (iOS Universal) – Full Review Coming Soon!

Battleheart was one of the first real-time strategy gems in the App Store, and remains a fun game, if a bit dated. It’s seven years later and Mika Mobile just released a sequel on iOS and…well, not much has changed. Battleheart 2 definitely took the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach and features the same real-time, squad-based combat of the original. While it is true Battleheart wasn’t broken, it definitely needed some freshening up. Unfortunately, there’s no advancement of game mechanics or a new, compelling story within which the action takes place. In fact, there’s not much of a story to speak of, and combat consists of cycling through a few repetitive fights until you’re ready to take on a boss. Once you beat him it’s off to a new area on the world map to rinse and repeat.

Combat that felt fresh seven years ago will leave many feeling a bit bored these days. Characters and enemies still sedately trot from place to place in Battleheart 2, which makes micro-managing four characters easier, but is far from the pace of today’s RTS titles. The graphics, sounds, and effects are also about the same as they were seven years ago in the original game, and while reusing some assets is certainly to be expected Battleheart 2 lacks the polish and pizazz of many of its contemporaries.

The biggest change in the sequel is supposed to be the inclusion of a cooperative multiplayer mode. Mika Mobile cites the ability to split your party among up to four players, each controlling their own hero. This sounds really cool and lots of ways to make use of this spring to mind, but I can’t figure out how it works. You pick a region and are asked to select a room name and once you’ve done that, nothing really happens. Maybe if two or more players enter the same room name something happens but I wasn’t able to test it and I shouldn’t have to guess as to how it works.

The bottom line is that Battleheart 2 is a new game with more of the same. This will appeal to many fans of the original, and there’s certainly something to be said for nostalgia, but for the rest of us there are better options out there.

Fighting Fantasy Legends Portal (iOS Universal and Android) – Full Review Coming Soon!

Fighting Fantasy Legends’ Portal brings three more books from the legendary writing duo Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone to mobile life. It covers the Deathtrap Dungeon trilogy—Deathtrap Dungeon, Trial of Champions, and Armies of Death—three adventures full of choices, tests of luck and skill, cards to collect, and of course combat. The gameplay is similar to the previous Fighting Fantasy Legends adventures by Nomad Games. You move through the adventure making decisions about which way to go and what to do at certain points.

There are a number of event locations throughout where you stop and draw a card from a deck full of monsters to fight, treasures to claim, traps to bypass, and other events. Fighting monsters and surviving traps and other trials are all dice dependent. You have a bunch of six-sided skill dice and luck dice. You start out with one success on each die and are able to improve them over time. When you’re faced with a challenge you have to get a certain number of successes out of your dice which varies based on difficulty. It’s a fun system but obviously prone to chance, both positive and negative, so keep that in mind if you’re not a fan of big luck swings. Fighting Fantasy Legends’ Portal is a lot of fun and Nomad Games has once again done a great job evoking the feel of the old-school books. If you’re a fan of those books, the first game, or the RPG/Adventure genre definitely check it out.

Nightmarium (iPad and Android) – Full Review Coming Soon!

Nightmarium is a tabletop game about bringing nightmares to life in the form of creepily combined monsters. You assemble head, torso, and legs from four different fearful genres and unleash them upon your foes. The first player to Frankenstein up five creatures of doom wins. The game is fast and simple to understand with some relatively simple tactics. It’s good for those easy-breezy gaming needs but won’t satisfy a hard-core strategizing itch. It also only offers pass-and-play multiplayer, no online action, so it’s more of a tabletop-game replacement at this point.

Trism II (iOS Universal)

The App Store turned 10 years-old this week and Trism launched on its very first day. It became a star on the fledgling store with its bright colors, easy touch controls, and intuitive gameplay. It’s sequel, Trism II, launched this week into a vastly different App Store, one overflowing with puzzlers and games in general. It’s much tougher to stand out so Trism II introduces weird RPG/adventure-like wrapper with walking and talking triangle people, the trisms. You pick a hero and adventure through a world rescuing trisms and defeating bad guys through beating levels of the puzzle. The puzzle gameplay is a bit different as well, rather than sliding rows of the triangles you tap to add new ones to blank spaces and attempt to match up three adjacent same-colored triangles in order to remove them. I found the early game pretty easy and the adventure story a bit distracting, but then I prefer my puzzlers to be largely unhybridized. If you’re into puzzle/adventure mash ups Trism II may be right for you.

Sales

Warbands Bushido (iOS Universal and Android): Free (Review)

Warbands: Bushido is a digital collectable card and miniatures game with a look, feel, and play style that evokes tabletop miniature war gaming. It’s also free right now on iOS, though it does have in-app-purchases.

Medieval Merchants (iOS Universal): $.99

Hanseatic League trading sim Medieval Merchants has been around since 2013 and is hitting a mere $.99 for the first time ever. It’s only been on sale one other time, so act now if you’re interested!

Dust and Salt (iOS Universal and Android): $.99

Text-based adventure, turn-based combat…Dust and Salt just came out last May, looks quite intriguing, and is on sale for the first time for a mere $1. That’s probably worth checking out, right?

Knights of Pen & Paper (iOS Universal and Android): $.99

Old-school meta-RPG Knights of Pen & Paper is down to its lowest price in four years, just a buck.

Asmodee Digital Sale

A large selection of Asmodee Digital games are on sale this week. We’ve only linked to the iOS store below, but the discounts are also on Android as well.

MLB Manager 2018 (iOS Universal and Android): $1.99

Act as GM and coach and lead your favorite baseball team to success in MLB Manager 2018, on sale for the first time for $2.

The Quest Games

Classic role-playing game The Quest and the Islands of Ice and Fire expansion are both on sale. Check out our five-star review of The Quest and then get going with some old-school adventuring.

Planescape: Torment (iOS Universal and Android): $3.99 (Review)

Classic post-apocalyptic RPG Planescape Torment is normally $10 but on sale for 60% off.

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

Fortnite’s Season 5 has officially arrived and it’s ready to cause a ton of sleepless nights. Along with the various map changes, new cosmetics, and mechanics, Fortnite’s fifth season comes with a host of weapon balances. While many of the alterations won’t drastically impact the game as a whole, it will give mobile players a more enjoyable experience. Epic Games has also added in a mobile-specific feature for those looking for a more convenient way to shoot as enemies.

Want some tips on how to play Fortnite on mobile?  Or how about a guide to building?

The biggest balance came in the form of a damage tweaking to the Silenced SMGs. Both of these weapons never saw a ton of play on consoles, despite their potent ability to quickly kill someone. Given precision aiming on a phone is quite tricky, the SMGs are one of the best weapons you can carry into battle. Here’s a quick look at the patch notes for these guns:

• Tac and Silenced SMG environmental damage now correctly matches player damage.
• Changed the damage drop-off profile for the Suppressed SMG to be the same as other SMGs.
• Fall off starts at 24 meters from 28 meters.
• Damage reduced to 80% at 35 meters from 85% at 47.5 meters.
• Damage reduced to 65% at 50+ meters from 75% at 70+ meters.

This is going to make the Silenced SMG a bit weaker in most medium range engagements. Ideally, this should be swapped too when someone rushes you or if your shotgun needs to be reloaded. The 80% damage reduction at 35 meters isn’t a steep decline, but it’s enough to make the weapon less viable on mobile. If you do have a choice between a Silenced SMG and Tactical SMG, make sure to pick the latter. It’s much better for quickly taking out opponents with burst damage and can drop at a higher rarity.

Epic games have also added a unique vehicle to the game that will certainly help with traversal. Called the All-Terrain Kart, this golf cart is capable of holding four people and can quickly zip across the map.

• All Terrain Kart (ATK)
• The new All Terrain Kart (ATK) has room for your entire squad.
• Get a speed boost after drifting.
• The roof acts as a bounce pad.
• Work together as rear passengers to leap over obstacles with the All-Terrain Kart (ATK). Lean back and release at the same time for a higher jump.

While it’s easy to view this item as a novelty, the ATK has a lot of potential – especially for mobile players. One of the biggest issues many new and veteran players face is fluidly moving across the map. This will typically end with players wasting a ton of resources, not having enough time to loot, or getting separated from their squad. Thankfully, the golf kart alleviates many of these problems and can even present some unique opportunities to secure kills.

Unlike its console counterpart, Fortnite mobile players don’t have the fastest reaction time due to the game’s UI. This makes it quite easy to drive towards an enemy, get out, and kill them before they can react or set up a proper defense. It’s also useful since players driving it are way harder to hit since precision aiming on a phone is very tricky. Even though this cart will cause some mischief on the PC, it will absolutely define games on mobile.

Finally, we need to look at the changes directly made to the mobile version of Fortnite. Epic has introduced a new mechanic that allows users to automatically fire at enemies by holding their finger down. Below are all of the patch notes that are specifically for the iOS version: 

• Autofire has been added as an option on mobile platforms. Enabling this causes the player’s weapon to automatically fire when the reticle is over an enemy that is within range.
• Players will be given the option to select their preferred fire mode after launching. All players can change their preferred fire mode by navigating to Options, Custom HUD Layout, then choosing the ‘Select Fire Mode’ option and confirming their selection.
• Tap-to-fire.
• A dedicated fire button.
• Autofire.

Bug Fixes

• The Thermal Scoped AR now has the proper visual effects on all devices.
• Vehicle passengers can now detonate Remote Explosives.
• Entering build mode while holding the “fire” button will no longer adversely affect your ability to build in the future.
• Health and Shield numbers will no longer be displayed as your own while spectating. 

Having another way to fire your gun is certainly a welcome addition, even if it has limited application. If you are going to use Autofire, make sure it’s with weapons like SMGs, shotguns, Miniguns, and LMGs. Any type of rifle should still be fired by tapping so you can control the bloom and have better accuracy. Overall this is a smart decision that will certainly alleviate some frustration and it can be turned off if you don’t like it. While this update doesn’t fix some of the major problems in the mobile battle royale genre, it’s definitely another step in the right direction.

Let us know in the comments how you’re getting on with the game now that Season 5 has landed.