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Best mobile games of the year so far: Knights & Slimes
Following on from two story-driven premium titles, I’ve decided to mix things up a bit by making the third entry in this little rundown a free-to-play roguelike. This one takes the simplest of premises and enemies – the otherwise unthreatening slime – and gradually evolves both to the point where it easily cements itself as one of the best games we’ve seen all year. Kinghts & Slimes Knights & Slimes’ 5 stages each play out across 10 smaller levels, almost all of which can be bested in under a minute. Hitting a slime with your weapon will result in it splitting in two, leaving you with double the enemies to take on. Though each time you do land a succes…
Best mobile games of the year so far: Photographs
This here is part two of my little rundown of the best games of Q1 2019. The Stillness of the Wind was my first pick, and – big surprise – my second pick is yet another premium narrative-focused title. I swear I’ll mix it up for the next one. Photographs Photographs, a narrative-focused puzzler from the ‘You Must Build a Boat’ team, spans five vignettes that outwardly appear wildly different. Among them, there’s the story of a young, budding diver; a mage who aims to use her magic to prevent tragedies; and an alchemist who, together with his daughter, studies and creates cures. You’re given a brief introduction to each one, before their lives slow…
Latest update for Brown Dust adds new characters and an exciting tournament mode
Turn-based fantasy RPG ‘Brown Dust’ has become a tremendous success for publisher Neowiz thanks to its stellar visual presentation, intense combat, and compelling storytelling. Since launch, the game has received an impressive amount of fresh, fan-requested content, and its latest update might just be its best yet. The biggest draw here is the inclusion of a super challenging tournament mode, all ready and set to launch on May 30th. The top 128 players on each server will have the chance to progress through rounds, take on rivals, and earn a cache of exceedingly rare diamonds. And if you don’t quite make the cut, you can instead participate and nab some rewards by suppor…
AndroidBest mobile games of the year so far: The Stillness of the Wind
Now that Q1 of 2019 is behind us, it’s time to look back at the best of what’s released so far. It’s not all been peachy, with a number of big-name titles disappointing, but I’d wager we’ve already seen several proper GOTY candidates – most of which are premium single-player games. It’s impossibly hard to keep up with every mobile game that comes out, so this little series might spur you on to try out a few you said looked really cool but never got around to playing. So without further ado, here’s my first pick. The Stillness of the Wind It’d be easy to downplay this one’s successes, shrugging it off as a dreary take on somethin…
Mortal Kombat 11 on Switch look like another super impressive mobile port
With Mortal Kombat 11 now available for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch, the big question of how that mobile port stacks up against the home console versions has now been answered. And, for the most part, it seems like pretty good news. It comes as an especially big surprise that it’s decent seeing as we only got our first look at the port less than a week ago. Unsurprisingly, the Switch version has taken a noticeable hit to resolution – with the cutscenes in particular looking fairly murky, to my eyes below 720p – but the framerate does appear solid, which is really the most important thing in a fighting game anyway. When in motion, that lowered resolution isn’t quit…
Distraint 2 is a truly great mobile horror game
Genuinely great horror games on mobile are typically few and far between, so it’s absolutely cause for celebration when a title as sharp and unnerving as Distraint 2 comes along. The original Distraint launched for iOS back in 2017, gaining praise for its tight control of tone and absorbing exploration of guilt. Thematically, it was a challenging game, forcing players to confront the widespread impact of their own struggles to make ends meet in a system that allows for the constant and easy dehumanisation of others. The sequel continues to follow this thematic line of questioning, expanding it in ways that surprise and disturb in equal measure. It retains the grim aesthetic of the…
Very Little Nightmares for iOS expands the world and mythos of Little Nightmares
I don’t think I’d ever have guessed that 2017’s Little Nightmares would become such a sizeable trans-media hit. With a fully-fledged sequel likely in development, a mobile spinoff on the horizon, and a TV show hailing from Marvel’s Russo brothers & stop-motion animation legend Henry Selick, the Little Nightmares IP is well on its way to becoming a household name. In retrospect, I suppose there was no better time for Little Nightmares to have come along, with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, It 1& 2, and Goosebumps 1 & 2 proving that fantasy horror – with a specific focus on children vs monsters storylines – is very much in high demand. Very…
My week with The Elder Scrolls: Blades
Around a week ago now, I put together something of a beginner’s guide over on Pocket Gamer for The Elder Scrolls: Blades. In that article, I had a bit of a moan about the current state of Blades’ chest/loot system, as has seemingly everyone else who’s played the game at this point. Now that Blades’ early access version has opened its doors to any and all comers, I have to wonder just how many people will actually stick with it until the full 1.0 release. Usually I’m happy to reserve judgement until such time as a game is in a finished state, but something about Blades’ monetisation model has got me irked. I think the reason why is that the core gameplay…
The Elder Scrolls: Blades’ latest update looks to fix the game’s biggest problem
The much-reviled silver chest has been the bane of many a Blades player’s existence for the last couple weeks. Every mission seemed to doll out a silly amount of them, meaning everyone’s chest inventory was almost constantly full. The real issue, though, was that each silver chest took 3 real-world hours to unlock, a dreary process that put many of us off the game entirely. However, with the game’s latest update, Blades’ development team has listened to the overwhelming fan feedback and shortened the timer significantly. Now you’ll only have to wait a mere hour before yet again being disappointed with the contents of your 30th silver chest in a row. The move j…
Will Tencent’s Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming head westward?
The final season of Game of Thrones might have started, but the big question isn’t who’ll still have their head once all is said and done, but rather when – if at all – Tencent’s mobile spinoff Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming will become available for mobiles in the west. Strangely, Winter is Coming recently released over here as a browser game, despite seemingly starting life as a mobile title developed by the Shanghai-based Yoozoo and produced by the goliath Tencent. From what I can gather, the game merges city building with RTS battle sequences and fan-favourite characters from the show, including Jon Snow and that creepy fire lady. Looking at footage of…
3D puzzler Globesweeper offers up a new take on classic Minesweeper
If you’re into gaming as much as we are, you’ve likely played (or at least heard of) Minesweeper. One of the original set of puzzle titles that came with Windows operating systems back in the day, its straighforward and addictive gameplay quickly made it the most played game on PC. Globesweeper takes everything that made Minesweeper great and ups it, adapting the grid-based layout of the original game to make it entirely 3D. Rather than simply navigating around a flat square grid you'll be trying to not blow up across entire worlds. These can range from smaller 92 tile maps to colossal 20,480 tile ones. There are four levels of difficulty to choose from which when combined wi…
Grand Mountain Adventure, the award-winning open-world skiing game races onto Android
The stellar open-world skiing title Grand Mountain Adventure has finally mid-air flipped its way onto Android. This one made a sizeable impression at the Big Indie Awards 2018, coming in 3rd place overall, so it’s fair to say that anticipation levels have been high for some time. Starting out right at the bottom of the Hirschalm ski resort, you’ll be tasked with navigating the open mountain to find ski passes, challenges, and well-hidden secrets. With huge scope for a more meditative, exploration-focused playstyle, this one clearly isn’t just for thrill-seeking sports fans. That being said, they’ll find plenty to sink their teeth into with the intuitive trick syst…
Apple Arcade is a subscription gaming service coming to iPhone and iPad later this year
Last night, Apple revealed the details about its new gaming subscription service. It's called Apple Arcade, and it's being touted as the Netflix for games that we've all been hoping it was going to be. Apple confirmed that the service won't use cloud servers to stream games directly to your handset - something Google is working on with its Stadia concept - instead you'll pay a flat monthly fee, which will then give you access to the entirety of the Apple Arcade library. You'll need to download them onto your device the same way you do now, you just won't have to go through the payment process again. All of the games on the service are going to be premium - there'll be no ads or extra purch…
Our pick of the top iPhone and iPad game of the week - Monsters With Attitude
Every week here at AppSpy we like to pick one new game that we think you should definitely check out. This week's just the same, and the game we've chosen is the raucous multiplayer brawler Monsters With Attitude from Flaregames. The game sees you playing as one of the titular attitude-crammed critters, and stomping around a little world smashing everything that moves. So far, so .io, but there's more to the game than might first meet the eye. For one thing you can unlock new and more powerful monsters, as well as toughening up the ones that you've already got. And there's no eating here either - mash into another player and you'll steal some of their energy, which you use to get bigger.…
Call of Duty Mobile is real, and it's coming to iPhone and iPad later this year
This week, Call of Duty Mobile was officially revealed over at GDC. The game, which is being developed by Tencent and Activision, has long been mooted to exist, but over the past couple of days we finally got to see it in action thanks to a brand new trailer. That trailer shows off a hell of a lot of action in just 30 short sections, as you'd expect from the mobile version of one of the most bombastic and explosive FPS series that the console world has ever known. And pretty soon you're going to be able to get it all in the palm of your hand. Expect famous characters, famous maps, and loads of famous modes to make an appearance - there's not much point making a game based on one of the big…
