Mario Tennis Aces smashes onto the court!

Mario and his friends are ready to take center court in the Mario Tennis™ Aces game! Unleash a volley of fun by challenging your friends and family locally* or by hopping online** to take on the world. In Adventure mode, experience a new flavor of tennis gameplay, with a variety of missions, boss battles and more. Intense matches await!

Features

• Rally against other players in singles or doubles as one of 15+ Mushroom Kingdom characters.
• Up your game with new tricks like Zone Speed and Zone Shot. Slow down time to pull off near-impossible returns or aim your shots with pinpoint precision. With careful planning, you can even break your opponent’s racket for an instant KO.
• Set out to rescue Luigi from the Legendary Racket in Adventure Mode! Equip different rackets and take on challenges and bosses that will put your tennis skills to the test.
• Play with up to 4 players locally* or online**.
• Swing your Joy-Con™ controller like a real racket in Swing Mode.
• Take on CPU opponents in the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, or Star Cup in Tournament Mode.

If you would like to buy the digital version of the game, please visit http://mariotennis.nintendo.com/aces/.

*Additional accessories may be required for multiplayer mode. Sold separately.

**Nintendo Account required. Online services and features, including online gameplay, are free until the paid Nintendo Switch Online Service launches in September 2018.

Mild Cartoon Violence

The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next thirteen days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.

Today’s Featured Deals include:

Tom Clancy’s The Division – 80% off
Prey – 50% off
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – 34% off
Planet Coaster – 55% off
Just Cause 3 – 85% off
Sudden Strike 4 – 65% off
Undertale – 50% off
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – 50% off
and many more

Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.

Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.

The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.

This weekend, June 16 – 17, Series 1 of the Forza Racing Championship (ForzaRC) 2018 heads into its final lap with the ForzaRC 2018 Series 1 Playoffs. Broadcast live from Seattle, home of Turn 10 Studios, some of the best drivers from around the world will compete for the title of Series 1 Champion, a $75,000 prize pool and the opportunity to move a step closer to the Forza Racing World Championship 2018 this October.

We’ve got an exciting weekend of racing lined up with competition beginning tomorrow, June 16 at 9 a.m. PDT with the first day of playoffs. Throughout the day, drivers will race their way through the quarterfinals and into the semi-finals, with the field narrowed to just 12 drivers by the end of the day. The playoffs will continue for these drivers on Sunday, June 17 at 11 a.m. PDT as they head into the finals. Tune in all weekend to catch the action live, unlock in-game rewards and influence the day’s races through in-stream voting on our Mixer stream at watch.ForzaRC.com.

In addition to the weekend’s racing competition we’ve got even more excitement lined up for those tuning in:

Celebrating 24 Hours of Le Mans

As many racing fans will know, this week is host to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s (ACO), 24 Hours of Le Mans. In celebration, we’ll be putting a spotlight on the famous track during our Series 1 Playoffs. Famed for its raw speed and punishing effects on drivers in the world’s most famous endurance race, Le Mans will prove to be a test for all of the ForzaRC competitors. For those not familiar with the track, we have a special introduction hosted by legendary motorsport broadcaster, ForzaRC guest commentator, and “Voice of Le Mans” John Hindhaugh as well.

Special Guest Panel

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to have a career in esports or to be a professional streamer? How about starting your own streaming or esports career? Tune into our Mixer stream at watch.ForzaRC.com on Sunday, June 17, as special guests Celeste Anderson, Trisha Hershberger, and Steve “SuperGT” Brown join us, live on stage, to speak to these questions and more.

Voting and Rewards

Tune in to the playoffs livestream at watch.forzarc.com and you’ll have the chance to directly impact which cars and tracks are used during the event. Will you choose day or night? Sunshine or rain? The Ford or the Audi? The choice is yours (and the rest of chat) to make!

Anyone tuning in during the livestream at watch.ForzaRC.com will also have the chance to unlock awesome in-game rewards for Forza Motorsport 7. Just log into your account and participate in the in-stream quests to unlock a variety of in-game gear, including the new ForzaRC 2018 Series 1 Playoffs driver suit!

For those tuning in to ForzaRC for the first time and looking to catch up on all the excitement before the playoffs, check out the Series 1 recap on the official ForzaRC YouTube channel.

Participate in ForzaRC 2018

Interested in joining the competition? It’s not too late! Visit ForzaRC.com to register and you’ll be ready to compete when ForzaRC 2018 Series 2 begins on July 9! Not quite ready to compete at the ranked level? No problem, we’ve got activities for drivers of all skill levels in Forza Motorsport 7 with more to come all season long.

Catch every minute of this action-packed event beginning tomorrow, June 16 at 9 a.m. PDT and Sunday, June 17 at 11 a.m. PDT on our Mixer stream at watch.forzarc.com. For more information, head over to ForzaRC.com and follow us on Twitter for the latest news and updates. We hope to see you there!

Level-5 has revealed that Inazuma Eleven Ares will be released in the west next year, with a new anime series hitting Europe and North America in the coming months, too.

The news comes as part of Level-5’s 20th anniversary celebrations, during which the company has shared plans for some of its upcoming titles. As mentioned above, the next video game instalment for the soccer RPG franchise is simply listed as being a “2019” release, but the new reboot for the anime series is a little more set in stone. The show is scheduled to air in Europe this fall, with North America having to wait a little longer.

Here’s the official PR:

“The latest instalment in the Inazuma Eleven franchise, Inazuma Eleven Ares, depicts a parallel world that will feature both new characters and cast from the original in action-packed, heart-wrenching matches between the good, the evil, and those in between.

Building on the foundation laid by previous series, which number over 250 episodes, four movies and more than eight million Nintendo games sold to date, the reboot series has begun its broadcast premiere in Asia, is scheduled to launch in Europe Fall 2018, and is planned to debut in North America for the first time in 2019. The slate also includes the premiere of the video game in 2019 with the aim to tap into the growing eSports movement.

Are you a fan of the Inazuma Eleven series? Are you excited to see another game on the way next year? Let us know with a comment below.

We’ve just launched an open beta for Creator Homepages, a new part of the Steam store designed to help players discover and connect with the developers and publishers behind their favorite games. With this feature, you can explore the full catalog of games created by the developers and publishers of games you enjoy and you can choose to follow those creators to be automatically notified when they release their next title.

How does it work?

Any developer or publisher on the platform can now set up a customized homepage to showcase their full catalog of titles and content. Once set up, these homepages can be found by clicking on the developer or publisher name from the store page of your favorite games.

Check out the official Creator Homepage Announcement Page, which includes a list of all the homepages so far. This will quickly become an overwhelming and unusable list as more developers create their homepages, so at the top of the page we’ve also specifically highlighted the developers and publishers behind games that you’ve recently played.

On these homepages, you’ll find standard lists of top-selling or new released titles from that developer or publisher.

You’ll also find collections that the developer or publisher has created to best highlight their portfolio of games and content available on Steam.

A studio might divide its games into collections by genre or franchise, or could choose to highlight their fan-favorite or top-selling games. A developer of only a single game might primarily dedicate their homepage to announcements of new projects.

Regardless of how each developer or publisher chooses to customize their homepage, you can easily follow them to be notified when they release their next title or post an announcement. Newly released titles from developers or publishers that you follow will show up at the top of your Steam homepage and we’ll send you an e-mail to let you know that they’ve released something new (as with other Steam e-mail notifications, you can opt out at any time by visiting your e-mail preferences page).

Creators can also set up unique URLs within Steam for easy reference to their homepage. You can see an example by following this customized URL for the Valve developer homepage: http://store.steampowered.com/dev/valve

Why Beta?

We’re pretty excited to get the core functionality into the hands of players and give developers the opportunity to set up their presence on Steam. While we haven’t worked out all of the smaller bugs or finished adding every feature we’d like to, we decided that the basic set of functionality is worth putting into the hands of players and creators. We still have a number of features that we are considering adding and there are still a few rough edges that need smoothing out, so opening this system up as a beta to players and developers will help us gather feedback and suggestions that inform the direction of those features.

Over the previous few weeks, we’ve worked with a number of developers and publishers on Steam to get their pages set up and help us work out as many of the bugs as we can. As a player, you’ll find that many of your favorite game makers probably already have a spiffy homepage created and customized. But there are still quite a few developers that have not yet had a chance to set up their pages and will do so during this open beta period.

Looking for more details?

Check out the official Creator Homepage Announcement Page.

For game developers, check out the Creator Homepages Steamworks documentation for more details and information on how the system works, the features that are included, and necessary permissions for game creators.

Reporting bugs and feedback

As always, we’ll keep an eye out for your feedback and suggestions as to what you’d like to see added or changed about this system.

The third pre-release for Update Aquatic is now available!

A full changelog for this pre-release can be found on Minecraft.net.

FIXED BUGS IN 1.13-PRE3

• MC-131706 – Water doesn’t destroy carpet
• MC-131633 – Mobs get stuck on carpet
• MC-131458 – Cobwebs don’t appear on maps
• MC-131419 – Squids, fish, and dolphins don’t suffocate on land
• MC-131416 – Conversion of a 2013 world crashes as of 1.13
• MC-131400 – Structure names allow trailing dots for folder names
• MC-131343 – Crash when clicking on a recipe in the recipe book without sufficient ingredients
• MC-131154 – Resource locations allow empty path pieces
• MC-130778 – End return portals don’t return you to the centre End Island
• MC-130690 – EntityTag for spawn eggs is not working
• MC-130667 – Flowing water freezes in frozen biomes.
• MC-130554 – Waterlogged blocks have a full cube hitbox
• MC-130486 – Side of water and lava not rendered besides non-full-height blocks
• MC-130475 – Boats immediately sink when placed on water
• MC-130374 – vSync turns off in fullscreen mode
• MC-130169 – Enchanted items with capitals in enchantment ID cause crash (path of location: minecraft:Cookie)
• MC-129526 – Grass and ferns don’t show up on a map
• MC-128558 – Swamp Hills (mutated_swampland) biomes have wrong colored water (light yellow)
• MC-128237 – Conduits, kelp, coral (fans), and tall grass have full hitboxes
• MC-128071 – Desert rabbits were the wrong color, but now they are missing
• MC-127720 – Baby horses have long necks
• MC-127326 – Rain splash particles don’t appear on the surface of the water
• MC-127109 – Nether caves under lava oceans don’t fill up with lava properly
• MC-127044 – Waterlogged blocks don’t move entities if the water in them is flowing
• MC-126809 – minecraft:exploration_map loot table function only works on block containers
• MC-126138 – No rain sound in ocean
• MC-126038 – Observers getting moved in “on” state rather than “off” state
• MC-125644 – Dispenser filled with bone meal cannot create sea grass
• MC-124876 – Villagers requesting tools with no damage provided specifically want Damage:0
• MC-124325 – Nested /execute commands can only store success/result once
• MC-124174 – Game crash when give yourself an item with empty name
• MC-124025 – Terracotta, spawn egg and entity statistics are lost on world upgrade
• MC-123362 – SuccessCount of command blocks use the “result” return value of a command instead of “success”
• MC-123011 – Scores on scoreboard objectives created with old stats causes scoreboards to not store changes to scoreboard.dat
• MC-122498 – Some advancements and recipes are not upgraded when opening world in 17w47+
• MC-35856 – Multiple background /title songs playing at one time / automatic music overlap (not Jukebox music)
• MC-258 – Most text boxes / chat / scroll bars revert when the window changes size, fullscreen mode is toggled, or fullscreened game is tabbed into

To get pre-releases, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Pre-releases can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 

Share your thoughts on how 1.13 is shaping up in the comments below!

Apple was rumored to refresh its MacBook line at WWDC 2018, but with the event come and gone with nary an announcement to be heard, we know we have to wait a bit longer for new hardware. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at how our 2017 MacBook Pros have fared over the past 12 months.

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Let’s start with one of the biggest concerns aired when Apple redesigned its top-tier laptop in 2016: dongles. A good swath of negative MacBook Pro reviews cite a distinct lack of ports as a primary issue with the line, noting most models require a seemingly endless number of USB-C dongles. Depending on the model, MacBook Pro comes with two or four Thunderbolt 3 ports, each of which relies on the USB-C connector format.

At first, USB-C solutions were scarce, but if you take a look at Amazon today, the online marketplace is flooded with cables, adapters, high-speed SD Card readers and more. The affordable AmazonBasics brand offers practically every kind of USB-C cable users need. The accessories are so inexpensive that we have replaced every single cable we typically use with a USB-C version.

Thanks to fairly quick adoption of USB-C technology, dongle hell is pretty much over.

The keyboard

All 2017 MacBook and MacBook Pro models feature Apple’s second-generation butterfly keyboard mechanism, which definitely improved over the first-generation’s butterfly keys in terms of feel and reliability. However, it took less than a year for some major flaws to be revealed.

Apple’s design keeps key travel very short and leaves internal switches unsealed. Over time, dust and other small debris like bread crumbs can begin to collect inside the keyboard mechanism, eventually blocking internal contacts to render affected keys useless.

Apple is already facing multiple class action lawsuits due to this problem, but luckily we have yet to experience similar issues with our 2017 MacBook models.

While Apple has already launched an extended repair program for those afflicted, Apple has two options to fix this issue in future refreshes. The company can individually seal each key or create a new mechanism that is more resilient to debris.

As for the key switches themselves, we like them, but the extremely shallow travel takes some getting used to. Our fingers still get tired after a long day of typing,

To Touch Bar or not to Touch Bar

2017 marked the second year that Apple’s dynamic Touch Bar was made available on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. To be honest, we’re glad we have the base non-Touch Bar model. Let us explain.

One of the best Touch Bar features is quick, secure, and easy unlocking with integrated Touch ID, but after using the feature for a year we have reverted back to entering our password via the keyboard. Of course it depends on your passcode, but for us typing is just faster.

The same goes for the Touch Bar itself. A year later, our Touch Bar use is literally limited to display brightness and volume adjustments. Sometimes it’s a little bit annoying, because Touch Bar forces users navigate an extra menu to find certain settings, like adjusting the keyboard backlight and skipping audio tracks, tasks that take one simple keypress on standard function keys.

If we had the choice of saving some money by opting out of the Touch Bar, we would do so in a heartbeat, in fact, that’s what we did for our 13-inch MacBook Pro.

My one wish is that Apple would replace Touch ID with Face ID. Windows Hello works like a dream on the Dell XPS 13, it’s basically the perfect way to unlock your laptop, so I’m just waiting for Apple to bring Face ID to their Macs.

Trackpad

Let’s quickly mention the massive trackpad, which receives a little bit of hate from some Windows users. We can tell you that once you use this trackpad, it will be incredibly hard to go back.

Windows machines are far behind the MacBook Pro’s trackpad, which has user-adjustable force-touch input and feedback. The best part is that the clicking feel is even across the whole surface of the trackpad, unlike most, if not all Windows laptops. You can right click from anywhere by simply using two fingers, so you don’t need extra buttons.

MacBook also boasts incredibly quick gestures for almost any command within the macOS user interface. Swiping up with four fingers, for example, launches Mission Control, while a pinch gesture with four fingers invokes Launchpad.

Hardware

Moving on to hardware, MacBook Pro’s speakers are very good for their size, much better than most Windows laptops that we tested, including Dell’s XPS 13.

As for performance, the base 13-inch MacBook Pro is just as fast as the day we got it. It obviously floors the similarly priced 12-inch MacBook, and in regular use it performs basically the same as the base 15-inch MacBook Pro. This is borne out in nearly identical single-core processor benchmarking scores between the two machines.

The 15-inch does, however, excel at multi-core tasks like video editing.

We recently compared the base 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Dell XPS 13 laptop, which for us is one the best Windows laptops available. It packs Intel’s 8th-gen i7-8550U Coffee Lake processor, so CPU performance is far better than the MacBook Pro’s, especially in multi-core.

However, Apple chooses to pay more for CPU’s with powerful integrated graphics like the Iris Plus Graphics 640 chip in the base 13-inch Pro. This results in a 20 percent boost to graphics benchmarking scores compared to the XPS, despite the MacBook Pro being an older laptop.

When we use apps that are optimized by Apple, like Final Cut Pro X, the MacBook Pro edits way above its class when compared to a Windows machine using Adobe’s Premiere Pro.

Design-wise, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is almost perfect. The aluminum chassis is in a whole different realm compared to Windows laptops. It’s basically flawless, all-around. The size is perfect for traveling, it’s not too heavy and not too light. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is definitely nice for the extra screen space, but it’s a bit more difficult to travel with.

The 13-inch Pro’s display is gorgeous and we love the black bezels around it. Our favorite feature is the taller 16:10 aspect ratio, which affords more real estate when compared to the standard 16:9 ratio on most Windows laptops. That extra vertical screen space is what you want when browsing the web.

If you’ve got the extra cash, definitely pick up the base 13-inch MacBook Pro instead of the MacBook Air, which is long-overdue for a redesign.

Wish list

First and foremost, we obviously want the latest processors, but most of all we want quad-core chips instead of the current dual-core CPU’s.

We would also like an updated keyboard with more travel and, more importantly, a reliable architecture that doesn’t break when a little dust gets in. It would also be nice if Apple could slim its screen bezels and fit a 14-inch display into the same, perfect form factor.

Of course we can wish for some unrealistic things like a nice dedicated graphics chip and support for 32GB of RAM, but at this price point and form factor, MacBook Pro is nearly perfect as it is.

If you’re in the market for a 2017 MacBook Pro, be sure to check out our Price Guides for the latest deals and special offers. Current discounts of up to $400 off are available with our exclusive coupon.

RPGs swallow a player’s preconceptions about how things work and re-forge them into something new. The best ones take this opportunity and seal the deal with unique environments, well-rounded and written-characters, and unusual, original plots. Some of these games are more action-oriented while others are strictly turn-based, but they all have distinct, immersive visions in which the player might find their own ego subsumed, for a time, as deeply as is desired.

Not wanting RPGS? How about some awesome sports management games instead? 

Below is a collection of great games, sure, but they also are paragons of the genre and represent ‘role-play’ at its finest on Android and iOS.

Shadowrun Returns

Developer: Harebrained Scheme
Platform:  Android
Price: $1.99

I was gobsmacked to find that one of the chief members of this list is no longer with us iOS gamers thanks to the Appocalypse. Harebrained Scheme’s initial offering, Shadowrun Returns, didn’t quite find its footing, but their next standalone adventure saw a vastly improved set of characters, a more intriguing anarchic setting in the flux-state of Berlin, and a more robust and tense battle- and character-progression system. Unfortunately, this better sequel died with the advent of iOS 11, so hold your cherished apps closed, everybody, for the digital is more ephemeral than one would think. Unless you’re an Android user and then everything is fine. 

The Shadowrun saga’s unique blend of modern technomancy with high-fantasy magic and races (goblins, elves and dragons, oh my!) could have easily lapsed into farce, but the writing and plotting of Shadowrun made every moment and every meta-human the player meets count. They are all great fun, but it’s a right shame the most focused and shining example is lost to the mists of ages. Cybernetic augmentation, spellcasting, astral projection, drone warfare, synthetic brain chips: the future is here, and it all came true. To say nothing of the grid- and turn-based battles and the character backstories.

Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition (Review)

Developer: Overhaul Games
Platforms: iOS, Android
Price: $9.99

Planescape is strange and idiosyncratic, its characters ranging from a chaotic fire-lord whose passion is simple, total consumption and destruction of the world around him to a cherub from the Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts. Its take on a D&D system isn’t particularly balanced, for the stats and character builds favor wisdom above all, both in terms of raw bonus experience and the extra interactions and dialogue options. But the story is to die for. 

The multiplanar quest of an immortal, tormented, amnesiac main character to know thyself is at once alien and deeply human. Enjoying this pre-millennium classic before its enhanced edition debut last year meant overlooking a multitude of practical shortcomings; the non-scalable and at times grainy graphics, to say nothing of bugs and lost content. Now one can meet the protagonist and experience his joys and sorrows with ease, if not comfort. The game’s peccadillos are entirely the point, its strange, singular vision undimmed by age.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Developer: Aspyr
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $9.99

In a galaxy far, far away, in a distant time immemorial, the Sith and Jedi wore very different masks. To make something as nostalgic and cherished as Star Wars new again, BioWare and LucasArts flung their players millennia into the past and pitted them against Darth Malak in a struggle for the fate of the galaxy.

The characters remain iconic and memorable to this day (HK-47 as a murderous, seemingly punctilious droid, for example), and the now-standard paragon-neutral-renegade trifecta of alignment-based decision rubric for RPGs was a natural fit for the Star Wars mythos. Choose light or dark, good or evil: these archetypes resonate because they work, as does the class- and skill-systems which were tweaked from the paper RPG baseline.

Avadon: the Black Fortress

Developer: Spiderweb Software
Platforms:  iOS
Price: $9.99 

The best introduction to Spiderweb Software’s all-around excellent series. Its interface is functional and natty in its own way, despite the overall retro impressions it might give. Ditto for the game’s deliberative, even stately pacing. The simmering political intrigue is carried throughout the game’s sense of detailed yet colorful writing and excellent rich cast of characters.

The best-laid plots and gameplay are given full space to develop and be grasped piece-wise, increasing the ultimate payoff of each. Its presentation is staid, but its functionality and ease are top-notch. Point in fact: there was a minor controversy upon the game’s release that it was too accessible and intelligently streamlined to offer a meaty experience on a natty platter.

Legend of Grimrock (Review)

Developer: Almost Human
Platform:  iOS
Price: $4.99

What is Grimrock? Four prisoners marked for death are flung into the heart of an ancient mountain to see trial by the elements. By delving deeper as a party, defeating the enemies and unravelling the riddles, you will overturn your sentence and start afresh. The mysteries of the game’s titular dungeon, whose design indicates was intended a prison for a multitude of strange beings, mount with each level until the mother-horror is finally met on the deepest level. An old-school game with grid-based real-time combat, riddles, puzzles, traps and hand-crafted (read: non-procedural, non-roguelike) levels. Good looking and thoughtfully made, its battle pace and minimal input requirements make it a natural fit for mobile.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition (Review)

Developer: Overhaul Games
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $9.99

D&D spent a long time banished to the corners of a select few lives, shining for hours at a time in small gatherings held regularly among the elect. There have been many implementations of the various settings and rule systems of the original grand-daddy of pen-and-paper RPGs, but Baldur’s Gate is perhaps the most significant and enduring of them all. (Sorry, Temple of Elemental Evil and friends, close but no cigar).

Chrono Trigger

Developer: Square Enix
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $9.99 

A journey for the ages, with a motley crew visiting each era to repair the mistakes of the past and break other timelines, zig-zagging across character arcs and plot holes with aplomb. The RPG elements are just as great as the story, both of them equally…timeless. And the soundtrack is nuanced and varied, with mysterious, mournful threnodies as well as rousing boss-battle hymns. The game keeps popping up everywhere, and for good reason, for its characters, music and story both exemplify the JRPG genre and somehow transcend it. Chrono Trigger is Chrono Trigger; to play it involves learning about RPG conventions and mechanics but to experience it is so much more, a different creature altogether.

Titan Quest (Review)

Developer: THQ Nordic
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $6.99, $8.99 

A diabolic, pan-Hellenic action-RPG whose loot system and mythic references have earned its place in the pantheon. See the world, from the Aegean to Bosphorus, to the Nile, slay its beasts of prominence. At the time of its release in 2006, the game seemed redundant and derivative; now it shines in a mobile market where a premium game with fascinating, nay, compelling, rich pool of random loot, none of it locked behind premium currency or lootboxes, is something of a rara avis. Serviceable combat, shiny loot, excellent pacing and nice controls: this is good simple fun.

The World Ends With You: Solo Remix

Developer: Square Enix
Platforms:  iOS, Android
Price: $17.99 

Fashionable youths spirit themselves away to the Tokyo underground to do battle against the reapers. This is a vibrant panegyric to the intense and at times bizarre whirlwind of city culture and the influence of fresh music and tech on subcultures. It’s not for nothing the game uses pins as equipment, nay, as full-fledged partners in battle. The touch-based battles get frantic at times, and the countdown clock trudges slowly on to the final crisis. Zany and inspired yet ultimately cohesive, The World Ends With You is still a fresh thrill, even this many versions later.

Transistor

Developer: Supergiant Games
Platforms:  iOS
Price: $4.99

The world is falling apart, being destroyed from without while society crumbles and the citizens of Cloudbank panic and retreat from their formerly comfortable lives. Transistor’s pace has only one setting, relentlessly pushing the player to new areas while a narrator overdubs the scenery and battles with evocative, if florid, prose. Transistor’s techno-utopia has clearly gone wrong at some point, and the whole city is flooded with swarms of the Process, a monochrome enemy whose various forms eerily mimic lifeforms.

The modular battle system with its flexible customization options is fun and satisfying, for any program you acquire can be equipped either as a primary (active) ability, a modifier boosting another active, or as a passive. The relative small number of programs means that this mix-and-match is always interesting, never burdensome. The combat itself is real time with the special ability to ‘pause’ the game and plan out actions.

What would your list of the best mobile RPGs look like? Let us know in the comments!