Anthony started Nintendo Life way back in late 2005 and has remained at the helm ever since. He loves Nintendo but sometimes gets confused and starts telling everyone that F-Zero X is the best F-Zero game. We’ve tried getting him help, but alas…

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Happy Holidays! And welcome to Pocket Tactics’ annual Boxing Day Guide, where I endeavor to point you to some of this year’s greatest games to pick up with the gift cards Santa left you. Games are sorted by iOS non-sale price (Android prices vary but usually not by much), and I have tried to include quality titles at a variety of prices. Enjoy, and happy gaming!

Hexologic (iOS Universal and Android) is a quick and clever puzzle game that offers loads of challenging and fun levels for fans of Sudoku and anybody that doesn’t mind a little simple addition. It’s just the right amount of tactical thinking for a relaxing experience, and I’d recommend it to puzzle fans of any kind.

Rogue Hearts (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) didn’t get a very good review here at Pocket Tactics, but despite having some issues, I don’t think it’s a bad game — certainly not for a buck. It’s a turn-based, tactically-oriented RPG with good character-power progression.

Minesweeper Genius (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is a new take on one of the oldest digital video games. The graphics are attractive, and the gameplay, while familiar, is spiced up by special mechanics. Minesweeper Genius a lot of fun, a great nostalgia trip, and a delightful puzzle game in its own right.

Startup Grave (iOS Universal) is a solitaire card game played with a deck of 48 monster cards. There are good and bad monsters, and the goal is to keep them balanced until you can play through the entire deck. It’s simple, fun, and it works well to kill a few minutes here and there.

Meteorfall (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is not just one of the top games of the year, but also one of the best roguelike deckbuilders ever. It’s well-designed, attractive, and a ton of fun to play. Best of all, its vertical orientation and swipe-to-choose gameplay make it easy to play one handed.

Sir Questionnaire (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is a roguelike dungeon crawler that takes place in fast-paced turns, each of which presents you with two options: fight a monster or flee, search a room or move on to the next. As you delve deeper, you level up, improve your skills, get new gear, and become a bigger badass.

Holedown (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is an arcade-style ball shooter from the developer of rymdkapsel. You are a space-miner that must dig deep into asteroids, moons, planets, and more to find valuable gems. You mine by firing balls that ricochet and chip away at rocks,  allowing you to delve deeper and deeper. As you earn gems, you can unlock upgrades like more balls or a larger cargo hold, allowing you to grab even more precious stones. It’s a well executed clever design,  and it is rather hard to put down.

Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is the year’s best simulation game, and arguably the best motorsports game on mobile, as well. I know absolutely nothing about racing cars, but was quickly and thoroughly engrossed in my role as the chief of a racing team. The depth of the game is great, as you really do manage every aspect of the sport.

Pocket City (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is the closest you can come to SimCity on a mobile device. The visuals are attractive and its touch controls intuitive. Gameplay is more casual and laid back than challenging, but will feel right for those looking for a relaxing gaming experience.

Teen Titans Go! Figure (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is the sequel to one of 2016’s best games, and one of the most successful premium games on the App Store, Teeny Titans Go. It keeps what’s great about the original—you run around Jump City collecting figures, completing quests, and taking on opponents in real-time figurine battles—but adds a new main story line, side quests, city layout, new figures and powers, and new tofu battle effects. If you enjoyed the original or like real-time battlers in general definitely pick this one up.

Antihero (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) lets you build your own criminal empire in the seedy underbelly of a city meant to evoke Victorian London. It’s a turn-based game featuring a single-player campaign and online matches against other criminal masterminds, and it’s all about making your move for power through thievery, bribery, and outright assassination.

Card Quest (Android and iOS Universal, REVIEW) is graphically unpolished with some poor user-interface choices, and it’s easy to look at screenshots and dismiss it immediately — which would be a mistake. The game is indisputably a five-star title thanks to its remarkable game design,  which rewards smart tactical thinking and creates impressive depth.

Fidel Dungeon Rescue (iOS Universal) is a clever pick-your-path puzzle/dungeon crawler featuring Fidel, a puppy protagonist. You must guide Fidel through grid-based levels, defeating monsters, grabbing gold, and ultimately getting to the exit intact.

Grimvalor (iOS Universal, REVIEW) is an action-RPG-platformer inspired by Dark Souls, set in a gloomy fantasy world. It features fast-paced combat with plenty of jumping, dodging, rolling, and exploitation of your enemies attack patterns. It also includes plenty of dying, at least for me. It’s a fun game, looks great, and the controls are rock solid — if you’re good at these skill-intensive action-RPGs, you should definitely pick this one up.

Stardew Valley (iOS Universal, REVIEW) is a farming-simulation game where you step into the shoes of a disgruntled office worker who leaves their job in favor of restoring their deceased grandfather’s farm. There’s a ton to do, both on the farm and in terms of the town’s social scene, and the game is a big sandbox where you really can do whatever you desire.

Barbearian (iOS Universal, REVIEW) is a frenetic hack-and-slash fest against overwhelming hordes of foes. It’s about as real-time as it gets without requiring ninja-like reflexes to succeed, and it offers highly customizable controls and difficulty settings.

Chaos Reborn: Adventures (iOS Universal and Android, REVIEW) is a tactical turn-based combat game from the creator of the original X-COM that plays a lot like CCG games Duelyst and Faeria, but in a premium pay-once-and-play-forever package. Combat is turn-based, tactical, and fun, and the game features a single-player campaign mode as well as online duels against another real-life human where you can choose live or asynchronous action.

One Deck Dungeon (iPad  and Android, REVIEW) is my favorite tabletop-to-digital conversion of the year. Handelabra did a fantastic job capturing both the crunch and flavor of the game, and about the only thing better about the tabletop version is the tactile feel of rolling a handful of dice. One Deck Dungeon is ideal for fans of single-player games full of strategic depth and replay value.

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind (iOS Universal, REVIEW) is the spiritual successor to King of Dragon Pass, an iOS classic, and features the same mix of RPG, tribal management, turn-based tactics, and interactive fiction. There’s plenty of mythology, top-notch artwork, and meaningful choices.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Here are just some of the many, many positions being advertised right now. If you’re a recruiter looking for talent, you can also post jobs here.

Location: San Francisco, California

Ubiquity6 is looking for a developer with experience rapidly building games or other complex experiences in Unity, Unreal or Javascript to join its studio in San Francisco. This role tasks a developer with determining engine feature needs, documenting and recording gameplay footage and feature specifications, and working with other members of the team to rapidly prototype and refine augmented reality features and prototypes. 3D experience is strongly preferred.

Location: New York, New York

The Lead Artist will have a balance of artistic talent, technical knowledge, and leadership skills. This role is critical to the success of the division by leading key projects for the studio. Responsibilities include directing and participating in the production of all visual material, both environments and characters, being accountable for the visual quality delivered while staying within technical limits, managing the project artistic team which will be a mix of internal, remote and outsourcing, and working in partnership with the producer, technical lead and creative lead to hit the project objectives.

Location: Marina Del Rey, California

Skydance Interactive is looking for a Gameplay Engineer to join our studio. In this position you’ll be responsible for maintaining and extending major game subsystems, creating and optimizing gameplay elements, and working with the design team to implement ideas while providing technical and creative feedback. At Skydance Interactive, we believe that a small, focused, and dedicated team of talented people can create exceptional games.

Location: Austin, Texas

We are looking for awesome graphics engineers (with strong technical art skills!) who are excited about empowering mainstream consumers with the ability to create 3D graphics and animation. You will be working with exceptionally talented engineers and artists from top companies and universities such as Google, Nvidia, Blizzard, Stanford, MIT, and Yale. Not only will you have the unique opportunity to work on challenging technical problems, but also use your artistic instincts to develop visually stunning features for our 2M+ users worldwide!

G2A Pay is charging a recurring service fee for members who are inactive for over 180 days, justifying the charge because “as a supervised financial institution, we must meet many requirements related to the monitoring and servicing of each account.” 

It’s worth noting that this is separate from G2A, which is known for being a digital marketplace (similar to eBay) to sell video game keys. G2A Pay is its payment service. 

First noticed by a user on Reddit, they share an email detailing a service charge of €1 (~$1.14) for nearly 180 days of inactivity on their account.

According to the post, a recurring fee of €1 will be charged every month after the 180 days pass during which the user does not log in. 

Indie dev Dan Marshall posted a screenshot of the email to Twitter as well, leading to others speculating as to if the inactivity fee was real or not. Turns out that it is, and appears in G2A Pay’s terms and conditions under section two, item 20. 

“It costs money to upkeep accounts and if someone does not use the account, it doesn’t make sense to upkeep it,” explains G2A Pay in an official statement (which is pinned to the original Reddit post referenced above).

“We don’t require these users to buy anything, just log in at least once every 6 months, just so that we know they are still with us. As a financial institution we are also monitored, supervised, and audited and have to back up and explain all our accounts and the funds stored on these accounts,” the post continues.

“Once an account may be considered ‘abandoned’ we take certain steps to make sure we are in line with all regulations, jurisdictions and laws.” 

This has lead many users are question the legality of the charge, citing gift card laws, considering how gift cards are repositories for a cash balance and can be comparable to a user’s wallet in G2A Pay.

“Account balances are not the same as gift cards. You can use a gift card to recharge the balance on your G2A account, but you can also recharge it a myriad of other ways, therefore the two are not the same,” the company responded. 

This week we’re excited to invite all Xbox Insiders on Xbox One to participate in the Aftercharge Closed Beta! There’s limited space available for this Closed Beta, so please follow the steps under HOW TO PARTICIPATE to join in now.

Aftercharge is a 3 vs 3 competitive game pitting invisible robots against an invincible security squad in high-octane tactical skirmishes. Six glowing structures called extractor are at the center of the gameplay and serve as the objective for both teams.

The robots have to coordinate their attacks, create distractions and sneak around to destroy them. The enforcers on the other hand have to cover as much ground as possible and use their abilities wisely to spot the attackers and stop them before they can destroy all of the extractors.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1. On your Xbox One console, sign in and launch the Xbox Insider Hub app (or install the Xbox Insider Hub app from the Store first if necessary).
2. From the main landing page, navigate to Insider content > Games > Aftercharge.
3. Select Join.
4. Wait for the registration to complete (Pending will disappear) to be redirected to the Store and install Aftercharge!

NOTE: Space is limited for the Aftercharge Closed Beta, and will be offered on a first-come first-served basis.

Submit feedback, suggestions, and issues you encounter via Report a problem (hold down the Xbox button on the controller and select Report a problem from the power menu).

Thanks for being an Xbox Insider!

The NES Zapper was a cool little piece of kit back in the day, allowing gaming fans to use a realistic peripheral to enhance their experiences in titles like Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, and more. As always, though, someone out there has to go and ruin the fun, with one man being caught using the accessory in a shocking criminal offence.

The earliest NES Zapper models, originally released back in 1984, were almost entirely grey to fit alongside the NES’ colour schemes. Soon after, Nintendo completely changed the design to include bright orange sections, realising that the simplistic grey models could potentially be mistaken for real weapons if they were taken outside. Of course, wrapping the toy in dark tape sadly negates this bright colouring, and that is exactly what happened in this particular case.

The taped-up weapon was used by a man in Hermosillo, Mexico to rob a bank, with the accessory’s usually-bright colouring being almost entirely hidden from view. Bank workers reportedly described the man to local police who, after mounting an operation to find the culprit, managed to track him down and arrest him. The man in question is thought to have potentially been involved in up to 15 other crimes.