Category: Mobile Game Releases

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!

Many years ago, there was a bit of a trend for computer game companies to include a novella with their latest big release. Whether the main reason for this was to enrich player immersion or to help justify the ridiculously large boxes popular at the time is a moot point. Space Leagues may not include an actual novella, but it does have a very wordy background story. If you opt for the long version, then you may want to settle back with tea and biscuits. There is a shorter version, or you can just stick with my even more abridged account – Evil is decimating the universe, which leads to surviving galaxies setting up space leagues to ensure the development of superior combat strategies.

Space Leagues is a fantasy sports management game, in which the sport involves bashing the bejesus out of the opposing team. The first team to eliminate all of the opposition players by draining their health bars to zero is declared the winner. If both teams still have active players when time runs out, then the match is declared a draw. There are four leagues, each with ten teams, who, during the course of a season, will play each other twice. The team that finishes top in each of the lower leagues is promoted, whilst the bottom-placed team is relegated.

Each team is made up of a group of oddball characters, from giant tics to steam-powered golems and pretty much everything in-between. There are over 120 unique characters in the game, which are rated in terms of strength, speed, charisma, intellect and toughness. Before each match, you select five players and allocate their roles. Smashers charge recklessly into battle using their brute force to dish out powerful melee attacks. Strikers attack with speed and cunning, freely roaming the battlefield to identify vulnerable targets. Charmers are the equivalent of magic sponge wielding physios, using healing spells to rejuvenate battered teammates. Blasters use their superior intellect to avoid direct combat whilst peppering the arena with fireballs. Finally, thumpers use their massive constitution to absorb damage, protecting weaker members of their team from attack.

Matches are initially very confusing affairs, being closer to a barroom brawl than a sporting event. The unanimated player graphics are very basic with the action being viewed from above. This means that in spite of player names and the use of coloured auras to identify opposing players, the action tends to merge into a confusing mass scrum. Eventually, you will be able to recognise your established players and have a little more idea whether or not you are winning. After a few games, you may even be able to pick up a few tactical hints. You may realise, for instance, that your blaster is getting thwacked early on because you don’t have a good enough thumper to protect her.

After the match, the otherresults in your league will be displayed. You will then be presented with a drama to resolve. It seems that your team is always bitching about something or someone, and your assistant doesn’t help, tossing in his own snarky comments to further fan the flames of unrest. In one situation, a player was complaining about a minor injury, or “boo-boo” as he insisted on calling it. Do I give him a dressing-down for being a wimp? Keep calm and tell them to toughen up? Sympathise and buy them a lollipop? If I’m too harsh his morale might dip, but although a lollipop may cheer him up, there is a big risk that the rest of the team are either going to lose respect for their sucker of a manager or begin queuing to discuss their ailments and favourite sweeties. These situations are full of humour and how you interact with their demands will impact on the individual’s morale and that of the team as a whole. Well this is the theory – no matter how mean I tried to be there did not seem to be a discernible impact upon team performance. Unfortunately, much like Murder She Wrote reruns, you will soon see the same dramas playing out again and again. Even the funniest ones begin to grate when you have to sit through them for the tenth time.

You also have a financial budget, which will provide you with the funds to buy new players and offer established ones new contracts. Your scout does his best to uncover promising stars of the future, although, he is never actually gushing in his praise. You will usually have a choice of three new recruits and only a rough idea of their overall ability. Getting a new player to join isn’t always that simple. You make them an offer and then follow their thought process as they mull over the offer. Some ambitious types will weigh up the chances of actually winning a trophy, others could just be thinking that they are badly in need of a comfort break. This all sounds quite involved until you realise that it is made redundant by a glaring oversight. A squad of just five players never suffer injuries and these players will improve as soon as they start winning games. Have more players in your squad and injuries will occur, causing experience points to be spread among a larger pool of players. So, stick with five established players and apart from renewing contracts, there is nothing else to worry about.

Space Leagues sets the scene well, being full of humour and quirky characters. Together with the Danny Elfman style soundtrack there is definitely a Nightmare Before Christmas influence. The interactions between the players and management are definitely the game’s highlight, but even these become stale after a short time. The biggest problem is that the strategic elements do not have enough depth to maintain interest. The lack of a squad overview screen means that team selection requires way too much flicking back and forth. You cannot scout the opposition, so you end up going into games blind, meaning that nine times out of ten the best strategy is to ditch any ideas of finesse and just stick to a team made up of smashers and strikers. Grind out a couple of seasons in the lower division to improve your players and your team will begin to rise through the leagues with relative ease. Sadly, by this you point, you will probably be ready to move on to something more rewarding.

This is the story of a brad named Bard who became a … no, sorry, it’s a bard named Bradbarian who … wait, a barbarian named Brad who became a bard. That’s it. He hung up his steel axe for a golden six-stringed axe and has an axe to grind with the monsters trying to destroy his home’s precious Town Crystal, which, as we all know, was the centrepiece of any medieval municipality.

Bardbarian is a really cool mix of tower defense, action RPG, and bullet-hell shooter. Since Brad the Bradbar… Bardbarian has tired of busting skulls over shredding riffs, he doesn’t do any fighting himself, preferring to summon a party from the town to support him. Each party member has a slightly different ability, from pure DPS to area-effect to healing, which makes up the strategy part of the game. More important, though, is the action.

All the baddies shoot projectiles, so that’s where the bullet-hell shooter gameplay comes in. You’ve got to dodge the incoming fire, not only to stay alive but also to build up your stun ability that only charges after five untouched kills in a row and is vital to bring down the larger groups later in the game. Overall, the bullets are slower than in your average space-shooter, and they start pretty well spaced. However, in Bardbarian, you also have to drag along your party of warriors and keep them from getting hit too, which can be an impossible task when a half-dozen goblins are shooting death-flowers at you. Weaving your party through incoming fire is a major part of the gameplay, so much so that one upgrade (it’s Body spray, hah!) helps you tighten up the group to make them harder targets. The controls are a solid swipe-anywhere control stick that is precise and easy to use even as the gameplay becomes more frantic. There are also two bonus modes that get rid of any strategy elements whatsoever and go pure arcade.

The game has a great cartoony art style with floating limbs like Rayman that may have been chosen only because they are easier to animate but are still working really well in this game. Enemies and bullets are easy to spot and distinguish, even on tiny devices. The music is good fun too: pounding heavy metal riffs that will pump you up but won’t bother you when they repeat or get stuck in your head later in the day. Each of Brad’s buffs and summons will let loose a squeal of a solo, but even those are varied and fun enough to not be a drag after the hundredth time you hear them. The sense of humor is goofy in that very online sort of way (strips of delicious bacon are your healing pickups, for example) but never obnoxious.

You make progress by collecting gold each run through the campaign and upgrading Brad’s abilities, the troops, or the town itself. Some of them make bigger change in the gameplay than others, like the pet that will snag pickups for you. Most of them are just iterative numerical upgrades that make your party faster or stronger, without changing the fundamentals is a big way.

Despite all the loot and upgrades, it’s difficult to feel like you are making real progress in Bardbarian, mostly because the playing field is identical every game. Once you finally do beat a boss and unlock the next chapter, you can feel free to start your new game from the checkpoint. However, you’ll be at a major disadvantage, because your troops will start at their base level (admittedly, this base level can be upgraded) and your stockpile of notes will start at zero too. It’s very difficult to make any more progress from that point, so a better idea is to start your new game all the way over from the beginning. Of course, your higher-level allies and buffs will (albeit slowly) make mincemeat of the initial waves of enemies but putting up with the boredom will net you piles and piles of gold and notes that you can use to push forward once you reach a level that’s challenging. That leaves the game feeling very grindy, because your best strategy is just to take it easy until you can upgrade your stuff enough to survive the higher-level enemies. It’s just a slow race to make your numbers bigger than the bad guys.

Whether you enjoy the game will depend on how much the core bullet-dodging gameplay sinks its hooks into you. If you have a blast weaving your party around the slow but soon overwhelming bullets you won’t mind facing the same enemies over and over to make a little progress. If you’re looking for a deeper strategic tower defense or RPG experience, this is not your game. There’s a free-to-play version of the game for Android, so if that’s your platform, you’re lucky to be able to try before you buy. It’s actually too bad that the iOS version is premium only because the real test of a game like this is whether it’s genre-bending scratches your itch or not, because the rest of the design just isn’t that compelling.

Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. We’ve got the release of ARK: Survival Evolved and a couple other new options to talk about, along with a wide selection of sales. Let’s get to it! 

Out Now

ARK: Survival Evolved (iOS Universal and Android)  – Full review coming soon! 

ARK: Survival Evolved is a popular desktop and console crafting/survival game set in a world where humans are not the apex predator. Dinosaurs abound and must be defeated, or tamed. A mobile version has been in the works and is now available in the App and Google Play stores and features the same basic gameplay as on other platforms. You start with nothing and must gather materials, find food, build a base, craft weapons and equipment, explore your dino-infested world, and of course fight. There’s both a single-player campaign and 50-player multiplayer matches.

The game is free-to-play with an in-game currency, amber, which allows you to buy items and food, rather than resource-gathering and crafting, as well as some special buffs. There are amber deposits throughout the world you can harvest and some of the big creatures drop it, plus you can get it for free by watching ads. It’s pretty much the usual freemium setup. There’s also a ‘Primal Pass’ that pulls the ads and offers permanent XP doubling and some other stuff for $3.99/month or $34.99 a year. As a result, the multiplayer will likely be very pay-to-win. There may be a single-player pay wall, but I haven’t reached it.

I’m a huge fan of the genre so I’ve been keen to put it through its, even with the freemium stuff. It’s not bad—the gameplay is decent and there’s quite a bit to explore, craft, and fight. The touch controls, a critical part of any mobile conversion, do feel somewhat clunky but not so bad one couldn’t get used to them. I’ve been tinkering with the single-player campaign and haven’t played long enough to determine if there is a pay wall, hopefully not. ARK: Survival Evolved pales in comparison to something like Crashlands, but if you’re looking for more crafting-survival game options on mobile it’s worth checking out.

Talisman Digital Edition (iOS Universal and Android)

The Talisman Digital Edition has rolled out yet another expansion, this time The Woodland Edition. It adds the Woodland Board, a new wrap-around game board, along with 103 Woodland cards, 10 adventure cards, 20 path cards, 14 destiny cards, 5 spell cards, and 5 new characters. The Woodland Edition is available now for $3 via in-app purchase.

Cartoon Craft (iOS Universal)

Cartoon Craft is a simple real-time strategy game with a, well, cartoony art style. It covers all the genre bases: you start small and must gather gold and resources in order to build up your settlement and develop your military. You explore the map and go looking for enemies to fight and then beat them down in real-time combat. It’s simple and fun and worth a look for genre fans.

Sales

To the Moon (iOS and Android): $1.99 on iOS

A heartwarming role-playing game is a bit of a rarity, but that’s what you get in To the Moon. It’s the tale of two doctors who travel through an old man’s memories in order to make his deathbed wish come true. It’s an emotional story, with great music and atmosphere to match, along with deep and powerful characters. It’s not perfect, the controls leave a little to be desired, but it will leave an impression on you.

Monument Valley 2 (iOS Universal and Android): $1.99 on iOS

Monument Valley 2 is the sequel to one of the bigger mobile puzzle games of all time and is a good game in its own right. The sequel brings 16 new levels full of M.C. Escher inspired architectural puzzles and is set in a different part of the same world as the original. The game is still on sale on iOS, though not Android.

Beholder (iOS Universal): $2.99

If you’re ready to make some tough choices in a grim, dystopian future now’s your chance. Beholder, a game where you run an apartment building and must spy on and rat out your ‘unpatriotic’ neighbors, is on sale for a couple bucks off.

Icewind Dale (iOS Universal and Android):  $3.99/$2.99

Go adventuring in the tundra of the Forgotten Realms and take on an epic evil in classic D&D RPG Icewind Dale. It’s available on the cheap right now. 

Steamworld Heist (iOS Universal): $4.99

Turn-based strategy with a twist of action, Steamworld Heist was near the top of a crowded field of great games in 2016 and earned four well-deserved stars from JP. It’s also half off right now.

Updates

Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal (iOS Universal) – Full review coming soon! Finally!

Highly tactical WWII naval combat game Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal is frequently updated with new content and updates. It’s most recent update made the game universal, so you can now play on your iPhone. If you’re a fan of hex-based, heavily tactical wargame simulators this is worth a look.

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

Our eagle-eyed peers over at TouchArcade have spotted an update to the iOS version of Valve’s Steam Link App. While Apple prevented the app from releasing on iOS due to “business conflicts”, if you get invited to the TestFlight you can still try out a beta version of the streaming software.

This morning, the TestFlight was updated with a few UI tweaks and one key changes – you can no longer purchase games via the Steam Link app, although TouchArcade reports you can still buy certain things via Steam Wallet funds on the Marketplace.

Hopefully this concession will be enough for Apple to greenlight the app so that iOS users can enjoy the novelty of their Steam library on their phone.

Remember if you’re an Android user, you can download the beta-version of the app right now and take it for a spin. Gadget Hacks has a great guide for getting your Steam Controller to work with your phone (it requires signing up to Steam’s beta and doing a firmware update), and the app analyses your network to see if you’re likely to get a good performance while using it. You can still purchase games via Steam Link on Android as well.

We plan to take the app for a spin ourselves soon, so we’ll report back our findings when we can.

By Joe Robinson 13 Jun 2018

Sir Questionnaire is on a quest, a quest that rather unsurprisingly, involves responding to questions. Don’t worry; you will not be needing a brain the size of a planet as each question only has two options.  Run or fight? Head left, or right? Buy or don’t buy? Search or move on? Your answers will help determine your progress in this rapid roguelike adventure.

Sir Questionnaire himself is not your typical dungeon delver, being a rather elderly gent who sports a topper and monocle. However, do not let these cultured sensibilities fool you, since our hero is more than happy to exchange the posh surroundings of the Kit-Kat Club in favour of a dank dungeon. He swaps his dapper cane for a sword or spell-casting wand without so much as raising an eyebrow. Before entering the dungeon, Sir Q must first choose a quest. These are randomly generated and arranged into three levels of difficulty. An easy quest may have you searching for a couple of skulls, whilst a difficult one may require the demise of a handful of fearsome orcs. The advantage of completing a more difficult quest is that when you eventually die or actually defeat the final boss, you will start the next game with many more items already in your inventory.

Each level of the dungeon has a set of randomly generated rooms that Sir Q has to make his way through. He will be grabbing loot, killing monsters and, in a nod to the modern world, taking lots and lots of photographs. He may prefer a walking stick to a selfie-stick but there are plenty of photo opportunities here, enabling our hero to fill his albums with pictures of all of the monsters and items that he encounters during his journey. Indeed, completing the collection is a big incentive to repeatedly return to the dungeon’s depths.

Battles are turn-based and handled with the minimum amount of fuss. Most monsters only take a hit or two before exploding into a satisfying splatter of blood or goo. As well as equipping a weapon, Sir Q can also have a shield at the ready, alongside other items such as magical rings. During combat, you are free to swap and change items in your inventory or recover health without fear of being attacked. Sir Q has several characteristics that can help him defeat enemies. These can be improved as his experience grows. His attack ability will determine the damage he inflicts with melee weapons and increases the durability of an equipped shield. Meanwhile, his magic rating increases the damage inflicted by magic weapons and also the longevity and power of magic items. A high agility rating will increase his chance of hitting fast moving enemies such as spiders and also improves the likelihood of him fleeing combat without being hit. His luck level has an impact in numerous ways, such as improving the chance of finding rare items or of selecting the most favourable option. Finally, his craft skill increases the durability of equipped items and alchemy enhances the value of coins.

The graphics are displayed in a small window and the resolution is so low that at first glance they look a bit of a mess. However, much like those magic eye puzzles, once your eyes get accustomed to the style you begin to work out what is going on and realise that they do have a certain charm. I felt like I was playing an early Gameboy Color game. Sound consists of some dramatic battle music and a hilariously over the top booming voice that introduces you to some of the dungeon’s many denizens and events. The action can be viewed in both portrait and landscape modes. The portrait mode works best with phones whilst landscape is ideal for larger devices. Landscape mode does reduce the size of the already small action window, but this provides enough extra space to also include the inventory on just a single screen. This is quite handy as swapping between weapons and equipment is something that you will be doing on a regular basis. All equipment has a limited lifespan, so you don’t want to damage your best weapon taking out a weak enemy when a rap from your trusty walking stick would be just effective.

During the time that I have been playing the game, the designer has already added a load of new content. In fact, these updates have come so thick and fast that I feared I would never actually finish the review. Each one has ushered in significant improvements, resolving many of the game’s teething problems and added some impressive new features. There is now a range of achievements and additional objectives that will unlock new character classes. Some monsters are more sociable, sometimes showing up in groups, rather than just singularly. They also have different traits, such as being exhausted, or deadly. This really helps add some extra variety and interest, especially as the monsters themselves are a rather generic bunch of the usual dungeon inhabitants. In the first version, you could encounter and defeat the boss after only a few levels, which was all a bit of an anti-climax. Now, the boss tends to lurk on much deeper levels of the dungeon. I like the fact that you stand a good chance of actually winning – most roguelikes tend to be hard as nails, and your inevitable death is often down to running low on supplies and health, which is a pretty dreary way to go.

Even after a few successful runs, Sir Questionnaire maintains interest with both the photography task and several secrets to unearth. There are numerous special rooms such as altars and throne rooms, each with their own secrets. Also, some monsters will react if you drop specific items in their vicinity. These secrets can be discovered by experimentation and listening to the odd characters you encounter. The new additions really add to the game and with more updates on the horizon the future looks really promising. 

For some, Sir Questionnaire will be just too casual and undemanding to maintain interest. The decisions are simple, and the constant switching of inventory items can also get a little tiresome. However, for the rest of us, this is without question a spiffing release. The developers, Orange Pixel, are making a name for themselves for producing condensed fast-paced roguelikes. In many ways, Sir Questionnaire feels even more stripped back than Pocket Tactics favourite, Space Grunts.  They have again managed to capture that magic ingredient, producing a game that it is both quick and compulsive, as you rapidly move from room to room with the tap of a button or two. Sir Questionnaire serves up progress and rewards in a quick and addictive flurry of activity.

By Joe Robinson 11 Jun 2018

It’s not often that E3 throws up anything truly interesting on mobile, but you can always count on EA to do something in this space. This year, they announced a new 1v1 competitive real-time tactics mobile game in the form of Command & Conquer: Rivals.

Now, it IS a bit of a shame that a franchise with as storied a history as C&C’s now has to be used to give a new mobile game some legs, but if you look past that to what Rivals actually IS, there’s some potentially interesting dynamics at play. Here’s the official overview video that EA put out (don’t watch the EA conference segment, it’s awkward AF):

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The objective is ultimately to destroy the enemy’s base, but you do this by taking control of the missile silo in the centre of the map (although you can also attack directly). This is in turn achieved by owning at least 2/3 of the launch pads surrounding the silo. When you own the majority of the points, the Silo will tick up. If you lose control, the opposing team keeps your progress and when the Silo ticks up to completion, a missile will launch at whoever isn’t in control at the time. Rinse and repeat until your enemy’s base is destroyed.

Beyond this, you choose a faction, a commander (they all have different special abilities) and then six unit types you want to take into the field. This potential for variety means there’s going to be a meta to contend with, and how well EA balance’s it will determine how much potential the game will have. Tiberium does feature as the key resource, and both sides generate it at the same rate unless you deploy harvesters, but these can be attacked and destroyed.

Rivals shares a lot of key-points with another game we tried last year called Mini Guns. We ultimately didn’t end up reporting on it in any great detail as we weren’t 100% sure on the business model, but the core gameplay loop was actually pretty solid, and a lot of dun. The tactical problems presented by Rivals, and the constant jockeying of position over those control points could give rise to a genuinely fun strategy experience. You just have to look past the hallow shell that is now Command & Conquer.

If you are genuinely interested in giving Rivals a shot, you can pre-register on Google Play if you’re an Android user or go directly to the game’s website to pre-register as an iOS player. There will be a pre-alpha launching sometime soon, although only residents of the US and Canada will have a chance to be invited in.

Engadget has a hands-on preview that you can read that gives a bit more insight – it’s going to be free-to-play (unsurprising), with the micro-transactions revolving around the purchase of “more diverse and powerful units”. Doesn’t sound promising but then you can earn those same units via grinding, according to the article. Mini-Guns did something similar but you bought ‘packs’, which had a couple of minis that could be of any rarity, so it wasn’t a direct money-unit transaction.

We’re not going to rule it out just yet, but the key things to pay attention to will be that business model and how they take it, and then the ultimate balancing of abilities and units so that there is a healthy and accessible competitive meta.

After nearly 19 years, we’re finally going to be getting that successor to King of Dragon Pass. A-Sharp’s Six Ages: Ride like the Wind has been on our radar for a while, but progress has been slow going up. Finally, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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A press release that dropped last night informed us that Six Ages will be launching on iOS on 28^th June for $9.99. Pre-orders will be available from June 21^st.

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind takes the elements that made KoDP unique (the mythic setting where you can visit the gods, multiple-choice decisions with consequences, advisors with personality, a generation-spanning story, story elements that recombine for replayability) and remixes them. Play is both simpler and richer (for example, you’ll get to make more decisions in combat), and the UI was designed with attention to mobile devices (the menu puts more information at your fingertips, and all artwork is high resolution).

Your device will need to have iOS 9 or later running, and A-sharp mentioned that the game is being developed for “other platforms”, which will materialise later in the year.