The original GTA: Vice City is one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve played it on everything, and own almost every version of it including multiple regional variants like the PS2 Japanese release I got a few months ago. I adored it when I played it years ago, and loved revisiting it on iPhone through its 10th anniversary edition. I still get chills with that trailer. I love the game so much that I even bought that awful PS2 on PS4 version they released when Sony was trying to get developers to bring PS2 classics to PS4 with trophy support. So when the trilogy was announced to get a remake, I was excited but nervous.

The collection hit PC and consoles including Nintendo Switch back in 2021, and it wasn’t great. Read my review of the trilogy on Switch here. Since then, the games have improved, but many issues still remain. For the mobile release, I didn’t expect much, but this release surprised me. When I launched GTA: Vice City – Definitive on Netflix and finished the 1.27GB download in-game, I thought I was imagining things, but the actual game looked different. I played a bit more and wondered why it looked better than I remembered from my time with the Definitive version on Xbox and Switch. I booted up those versions and forgot the lighting was different there. Then I noticed GTA: Vice City – Definitive has a new Classic Lighting option which looks so much nicer. GTA: Vice City – Definitive now felt like GTA: Vice City. I was ecstatic to have the vibe back, but there were some issues I noticed.

Without looking into the game’s settings, I was surprised at how blurry it looked on iPhone 15 Pro. I checked the options and found a setting for the resolution. I turned it up to max, and it looked a lot nicer. For some reason, this doesn’t save and you need to turn it up manually each time you boot up the game. Barring that, the game seems capped to 30fps which is disappointing. I hope both of these can be fixed in future updates. The graphics tab is where you can enable or disable Classic Lighting. I recommend trying both options if you’re familiar with GTA: Vice City. Once you manually fix the resolution, GTA: Vice City – Definitive looks excellent with fullscreen support on all iOS devices I tested it on.

On the control side, GTA: Vice City – Definitive includes the new modern control options, and I tested it with both touch and controller. I used my DualSense controller, but the game seems to only have Xbox button prompts. The touchscreen controls work well, and the game is responsive enough. There are camera sensitivity options, movement options to play with modern or classic controls, and more here. I was glad to see a haptic feedback option here.

Since these are a huge part of the experience for me after I finish the story, I wanted to highlight how GTA: Vice City – Definitive includes cheat codes. You can either use a controller and input the controller cheats with button combinations, or go into accessibility and input the PC cheat codes. Both work.

Yes, I know I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the port and features, but GTA: Vice City itself is incredible. I don’t care what you use to play it, but it is one of the all-time greats, and right up there with GTA V and Red Dead Redemption II as Rockstar Games’ best. The story is amazing, dialogue memorable, radio stations despite cuts are still excellent, and it has gameplay that remains fun even today thanks to control enhancements.

I don’t own GTA: Vice City – Definitive on Steam to test on Steam Deck, but GTA: Vice City – Definitive on Netflix and iOS is massively better than the Switch version. Not only does the Classic Lighting option drastically help, but the game loads much quicker on iOS compared to Switch while looking a lot better. The Xbox Series X version runs at a higher resolution with 60fps support though, but I still don’t see myself going back to that until we get the mobile improvements. Speaking of improvements, I’ve been noticing little things like some models being better on mobile, animation improvements, and more.

The only real issues GTA: Vice City – Definitive has on mobile now are the frame rate cap, resolution not saving for some reason on iPhone 15 Pro or iPad Pro on the Netflix version, and the few issues I have with the game like the one super annoying mission that remains the only annoyance in GTA: Vice City itself. While this game (and the trilogy in general) deserved better, I think we are finally at the stage where the Definitive part of the name is actually applicable. This mobile version of GTA: Vice City – Definitive is great, and can be even better with a few updates. The screenshot below shows the Classic Lighting (right) versus the PC and console lighting (left):

While I’d say the original mobile release on modern iPhones and iPads is the best version of GTA: Vice City even now, GTA: Vice City – Definitive complements it nicely and is something I see myself dipping into for years to come, just like the original. GTA: Vice City – Definitive is worth buying, but I think this is the first actual killer app Netflix has to get people onboard its games initiative. Having the original GTA: Vice City would have been enough, but this release is actually better than the PC and console versions in almost every way. I don’t even think I’ll go back to those versions without the Classic Lighting option. The original game is a timeless classic, and my favorite GTA game, so I’m glad we now have a great version of the remake on mobile alongside the original which is still available.

Lizardry developed 7 Days to End With You which was self-published on mobile, and I had my eye on that thanks to its aesthetic. When I got to know Lizardry was behind Refind Self: The Personality Test Game, I expected good art, and it delivered with its aesthetic and music. Adventure games live and die by their story, and I found the smart storytelling and structure here great, but the characters and introspection aspects really elevated it to something special.

Once you get past the name, Refind Self: The Personality Test Game begins with a grave. You control an android near the grave which happens to be of the doctor who created you. You now have the freedom to do anything or go anywhere more or less. As you make decisions including small ones like how long you sit on a bench all contribute to your personality which is being analyzed. Despite the name and structure, you’re playing this to discover the narrative and secrets more than finding your own personality.

Barring the decisions you make in dialogue or for how you want to spend the limited time you have, you get to see a glimpse of your personality and a part of the overall story. The limited time depends on the analysis happening with each decision you make while playing. A single playthrough will take about an hour or a bit more, but you can’t see everything Refind Self: The Personality Test Game has to offer without at least three playthroughs. Once it is all complete, you get to share your ID with others. It is interesting seeing how others responded to specific things in-game as well.

Despite the simple gameplay, I found myself enamored with the world here, and ended up loving the characters and mini-games quite a bit. Lizardry is definitely worth paying attention to for all future projects. I hope each game tries something different like this one did with its structure. The only aspect some might take issue with, is the length. I have no problem with the asking price of $3.99 for a three or four hour long experience, but keep that in mind before grabbing it if you were hoping for something longer.

While I like the pixel art and character designs a lot, I want to give a special mention to the soundtrack. It was another lovely surprise with how much it manages to accomplish in elevating the narrative moments and mini-games. I haven’t seen it up on streaming, but it is available on Steam here.

I’ve been playing Refind Self: The Personality Test Game on both iOS and Steam Deck. While it looks and runs fine on Steam Deck, it has no native controller support. To play it here, I’d recommend using the controller layout that lets you use the left stick to simulate WASD and then using the touch screen for click interactions. Without that, grab an external mouse if you want to play it. On iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro, there is no controller support, but I had no issues with Refind Self: The Personality Test Game barring some slight scrolling jitter in parts. It feels great on touch. It also looks great and loads quickly on my devices. If you have the option, play it on iOS or PC with a mouse over Steam Deck right now. Hopefully we get proper controller support in an update on both Steam Deck and iOS.

If you enjoy touching stories and adventure games with a focus on characters and introspection, you will love Refind Self: The Personality Test Game. I think many folks will skip it thinking it is one of those throwaway test-style games, but I ended up enjoying my time with it a lot across iOS and Steam Deck. I can’t wait to see what Lizardry does next, and look forward to seeing results from more people when they play Refind Self: The Personality Test Game.

I also want to make it clear that I’m not some authority on fight sticks and arcade controllers, and that this review is going to be a bit different. I want this to not only help you understand whether the Kitsune is for you, but also whether you should try leverless in general. I’m going to highlight how I learned to embrace leverless with the Kitsune, what worked for me, what I’d like to see improved in a successor, whether I recommend it as your first arcade controller, and more. My experience with fight sticks and controllers so far is 8BitDo’s arcade sticks, the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha for PS5, and using a gamepad. With the Razer Kitsune, I’m now a believer in leverless, and it is one superb piece of kit, but it isn’t perfect. Before getting into the Kitsune itself, you might not be aware of what a leverless controller is, and why some folks prefer it for modern games.

What is a leverless controller?

Most fight sticks or fighting game focused controllers have a stick (hence the name) on the left with eight buttons on the right. This aims to replicate the arcade layout for fighting games. The positions and other aspects of these inputs vary by controller, with arcade stick and controller customization being a huge part of the fun, at least for me. On the stick side, Sanwa seems to be the most popular brand. Sanwa also makes buttons, but I’ve seen some people prefer other brands like Seimitsu or Hori’s Hayabusa buttons. I love the Hayabusa buttons on my Hori Alpha for PS5, but that isn’t really relevant here.

A leverless controller doesn’t have a stick, and replaces it with four buttons, one for each direction. A stick usually has a square gate (inside to allow you to move across the same four directions), and a leverless controller lets you use individual buttons to allow for quicker responses for specific inputs like quarter or half circle motions. Instead of physically moving the stick from say left to right in a half circle motion, you can just tap three buttons on a leverless controller. The inputs can be thought of like the arrow keys on a keyboard.

Leverless controllers also can let you do things like holding left and right together, which is physically not possible with a stick, but this isn’t tournament legal, and has resulted in Razer disabling that. This is known as SOCD, and where the “cheat" aspect comes into the picture depending on the controller. The Razer Kitsune, disables this to be tournament legal.

One other aspect I want to discuss about leverless controllers before getting into the actual review of the Kitsune, is the button layout. It definitely looks weird in pictures if you haven’t tried it for yourself. This reminds me of the Steam Deck, which I thought wouldn’t be comfortable, but after getting one, I naturally started positioning correctly, but learning what all the buttons did, and not having to look down, was another problem I needed to solve.

Learning leverless with rhythm games, Ryu, and Zangief

I practiced moving from a DualSense and Xbox pad to a stick in Street Fighter 6 with Zangief, and it worked out well. To go leverless, I tried the same thing and was able to make some progress, but I wasn’t happy because I kept looking down at least once or twice in a fight. It then struck me. Why was I not using rhythm games, a genre I love and am good at, to learn the positions of the directions, face buttons, and more. I started playing Persona 4 Dancing All Night on PS5, and Hatsune Miku Project DIVA Mega Mix+ on Steam Deck with the Razer Kitsune in easier stages. This helped a ton. Once I knew the button placement and didn’t need to look down, the next step was training the fingers on my left hand for various motions.

To do this, I picked Ryu to start with the basics. Hadoukens (fireball) and Shoryukens (dragon punches) being mastered, led to me trying complicated motions, and then moving to Zangief, to start doing grappler moves. Zangief has a lot of 360 motions (full circle on the stick). This took a little bit since I needed to get my fingers used to doing this fast, but it paid off. I recommend spending a good amount of time in training or even redoing the game tutorials so you start getting comfortable with any new controller you buy, but I feel like it is more important when trying to transition to something completely different like the Kitsune.

Once I was comfortable, I started playing with friends online, and eventually moved to using the Kitsune in the Battle Hub in Street Fighter 6. Playing and losing initially was still worth the experience. I’m now confident enough in a leverless, to be looking at more options, and even consider things like the Odin V2 for one of the 8BitDo sticks I use.

Razer Kitsune’s form factor and buttons are both amazing, but they might not be for everyone

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about things other than the Kitsune, but it was needed. Whenever I did my research for fight sticks or arcade controllers, I always wanted to know why people prefer leverless or other arcade controllers, and how they learned to get comfortable with a brand-new or different input method. Right off the bat, the Razer Kitsune looks gorgeous in all its promotional material. What’s surprising is how much better it looks and how it feels in person. It feels and looks premium, and perfectly rests on my lap. The large aluminum top plate gives me enough space to rest my wrists while playing, and I never once got cramps during the time I spent with the controller.

I got used to the Sanwa buttons I installed on my 8BitDo sticks, and also the lovely Hayabusa buttons on my Hori fight stick. I love how the Razer Kitsune buttons feel. The layout and spacing both work well for my hands, but this is something that might not work for you. I’d recommend downloading Razer’s artwork template and printing it out to see how the spacing works (to some degree) for your hands. The actual buttons use Razer’s optical switches from its keyboards. These are easy to replace with many you can buy separately. A lot of folks seem to use Keychron switches, but I don’t think I will change them. It feels great and works well out of the box. I feel similar to the Hori Alpha which I only really modded for the removable stick through the Phreak Mod.

The USB-C cable locking mechanism which is a lovely touch. In fact, I feel like Razer went the extra mile with the Razer Kitsune to even include a high quality long braided cable with the controller. I just wish there was a place to store this easily without needing an external case. Maybe a pouch for the cable would’ve been good here.

Razer Kitsune device support

Officially, the Razer Kitsune supports PS5 and PC only. I’ve not actually used it on Windows since I don’t have a Windows device at home, but I did use it a ton on Steam Deck and PS5. On Steam Deck, it works flawlessly in PC mode, and the touchpad button on the top even works as a cursor. While it does not affect me at all, I think it is worth mentioning that the Razer Kitsune does not support the PS4. The Hori Alpha I use works on PS4, PS5, and PC, but the Razer Kitsune is only on PS5 and PC. Keep that in mind if you think some locals and tournaments you take part in are still running on PS4 systems, or you’d also like to use it on PS4.

Razer Kitsune’s other buttons range from being great to just fine

While the main buttons feel amazing and responsive, I feel like Razer should’ve made some of the other buttons a bit easier to press. The share and options button are probably the worst of the lot. I got used to how easy it was accessing the options button the Hori Alpha with it being a nice big arcade button on the top right. On the Razer Kitsune, it is a small button on the top left and too close to the share button. I hope a Razer Kitsune successor improves on this part because it is basically my only real complaint with the controller.

Razer Kitsune skins and decals – how easy is it to customize and mod?

When you buy the Razer Kitsune, you can either get the plain black one (that I have), the Street Fighter 6 Chun Li Edition, or the Street Fighter 6 Cammy Edition. You can also buy some other decals that Razer sells on its store. As of this writing, Razer doesn’t sell different colored buttons or another color Razer Kitsune like a white one. This isn’t as customizable on that front like the Hori Alpha I use, or even the 8BitDo sticks I have. Hopefully we see colors, replacement switches, and even new color top plates being sold in the future. Customization is a huge part of the experience for a lot of folks.

Going back to the Chun Li and Cammy editions, Razer sells Street Fighter 6 branded skins and plates for its mouse and also mousepads. I hope we see the Juri art version decal sold for the Razer Kitsune soon as well. We’ve seen some decals for games like Mortal Kombat 1 or the upcoming Project L at events and more as well. I’d love for more official decals to be sold with game specific branding as options. I’m likely going to commission a friend for art to use on mine, but would buy the Juri decal without thinking twice.

Razer Kitsune vs Hori Fighting Stick Alpha – which one to buy

This is a question I was asking myself when I got the Hori Alpha, and also while using the Razer Kitsune. Which one would I recommend? It is hard to say right now. The Hori Alpha is $200 while the Razer Kitsune is $300. I love both controllers a lot, and think I even prefer the buttons on both to Sanwa buttons. The Hori is more customizable and moddable for sure, but it lacks a removable cable. The Kitsune is more portable, sleeker, and built better.

If you have the option to try them both out before buying, I’d do that. If you value customization the most, the Hori wins. If you want a leverless for your PS5, I can’t think of a better official option right now barring the Victrix which costs more. If you want one for PC and Steam Deck, the cheaper alternatives might be a better starting point before you invest $300 into this.

Razer Kitsune – is it worth the price?

Looking at the cost of getting a leverless controller with PS5 support and not using a Brook converter will bring up the price to almost the same as the base model of the Razer Kitsune. This isn’t a justification for the price because Razer as a huge company is building at scale compared to the smaller boutique stores, but the important point to note is the distribution and warranty that Razer offers. For many folks, buying from smaller stores might not be feasible based on the country they live in or shipping prices, while the Kitsune is available more widely. When I bought the 8BitDo for Switch and PC, I thought it was a lot of money to spend on something I may not even use after a week. It ended up pushing me into the fightstick and arcade controller rabbit hole. That cost a third of the Kitsune, so this is definitely not an entry level price point, but more of a premium price.

The Razer Kitsune feels amazing, has held up perfectly in the time I’ve used it, and is very portable. I don’t have any of the other leverless controllers to compare with, but the Kitsune has made me believe in leverless for sure. It is that good. If I hadn’t gotten this one already, but had been able to try one for a few hours, I’d definitely order it. It exceeded all my expectations for its buttons, build quality, and how it feels to play on Steam Deck and PS5.

Will the Razer Kitsune make me completely ditch sticks for leverless?

It will not. I’ve found myself preferring the Hori Alpha or 8BitDo over the Kitsune for shoot ’em ups on PS5 and Switch so far. It might be a case of not getting used to a specific game on leverless since I’m only about a month into using leverless, but I think I will be playing leverless for many, but not all fighting games. I definitely have seen the light with this controller, and will be experimenting with the other smaller options, and even looking into getting a second one for Xbox if Razer ever does one for the platform. I think the Razer Kitsune also will be my goto controller for specific rhythm games on Steam Deck.

I’ve enjoyed slowly getting deep into customization, modding, and learning the various control options for fighting games, shoot ’em ups, and other arcade games ever since I got an 8BitDo stick. Having now gotten one stick per platform at this point with the Hori Alpha Street Fighter 6 Edition being my main PS5 stick, the 8BitDo on my Switch, and the newer 8BitDo Xbox edition for my Xbox Series X, the Kitsune has made me want a leverless option per platform as well.

Is the Razer Kitsune the best Steam Deck arcade controller?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve used the Razer Kitsune when playing on the Steam Deck itself, and also when connected to an external monitor. I played with it wired of course, across Mortal Kombat 1 (which has a huge performance boost in the newest SteamOS), Street Fighter 6, Skullgirls, The King of Fighters XV, Guilty Gear Strive, UNICLR, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. I played both online and offline and the Razer Kitsune just works as it should. In the time I’ve spent with it (over a 100 hours across PS5 and Steam Deck), it has given me no trouble. The touchpad even functions as a mouse without me having to change any settings.

Based on what I have access to with four arcade controllers now, I think the Razer Kitsune is the best arcade controller for fighting games on Steam Deck, and it is one of my favorite controllers ever. I’m confident in saying that already. Note that I haven’t tried the Snackbox and other similar controllers that are even more compact, but I definitely will try and get my hands on them in the future. For now, I adore how the Razer Kitsune feels to play. The fact that it basically fits into the larger iPad sleeve I have at home also helps. It is sleek and gorgeous, but more importantly, it works flawlessly on both PS5 and Steam Deck.

If you do buy the Razer Kitsune models listed above through our links on Amazon, it helps TouchArcade in a small way.

Anyway, Gubbins. It’s a word game, that’s no lie. Letters are distributed to you in some manner or another, and you need to flex your vocabulary skills to try to make big, fancy words in exchange for big, fancy points. This was one of the more obvious kinds of games to put on mobile phones, so it’s not surprising word games came in early and strong. There are absolutely tons of these available, and a lot of them are very good. So how can a new entry stand out from the pack? The answer, I think, comes down to two things. You have to have a twist or gimmick that actually works, and you have to bring your A-game to the presentation. Anything less and people are just going to keep playing Spell Tower or what have you.

I’m going to do the less obvious thing and touch on the gameplay features first. You’ve got three modes to play, though if you opt to go free-to-play you can only choose one to play per day. The mechanics are similar between the three, with only a few different points. Classic mode is the normal game, and I’ll explain what that means soon. Pencil mode removes all but one of the Gubbins from the game, turning it a relatively pure word game. Daily mode gives you the same set-up as every other player on that day, with particular words laid out and certain rules in effect. There’s a reasonably-priced IAP if you want to unlock everything, by the way. I recommend doing it if you like the game. Studio Folly seem like decent folks, and the game is good.

Okay, you’ve selected your desired mode. You’ll now have a board in front of you with a little tray of letters, and you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s something awfully familiar about all of this. But some of the letters are stuck together with other letters, and there are letter tiles behind the letters. It’s like some sort of bizarre solitaire game! If you want to see what’s on those tiles, you’ll have to play the ones on top first. That’s just how it is. You can place them anywhere on the board, and you don’t have to worry about them crashing into other letters or anything. You can rotate them between vertical and horizontal alignments, which is nice.

Once you’ve made something resembling a proper word on the board, you just run your finger along to submit it. The tiles will will be cleared, you’ll get your points, and everyone goes home happy. Keep on playing those tiles until you reach the one at the bottom that says FIN, and when you’re satisfied that you’ve done all you can, play that tile to finish the game. It’s like every game is a fancy little French film. Classy as heck. Your score will be displayed along with all the nifty words you made, and you might even unlock some achievements. If you’re the sort that shares your score, this is where you can do it.

The tile stack is an important feature of this game. It’s not unusual for a game like this to keep which letters are coming next a surprise, but you can clearly see which tiles are blocking the next batch and are nudged towards using letters you might otherwise leave behind. It’s a good set-up that gets players to use new strategies. But it lacks that sizzle, doesn’t it? We’ve got tile stacks! No one is throwing down their wallets for that one. We need some extra gubbins in here. We need some… Gubbins.

In Gubbins, Gubbins are special tiles that will show up randomly as you’re playing through your stack. Some of them will help you, and some of them will hurt you. At first there will only be a few kinds of Gubbins, but as you play you’ll unlock more of them. One of the IAPs also adds more Gubbins to the game. Each Gubbin has its own specific effect, and you’ll generally be given a choice between two of them when they first appear in a game. Some will let you move letters around. Some will move letters around on their own. Some will add useful tiles to the board. Others will add largely unwanted junk tiles.

Bad Gubbins will play themselves once revealed, while it’s up to you to play the good Gubbins whenever you think it’s best to do so. It’s an interesting random element that gives the game a lot of its mechanical flavor, and it’s why I tend to prefer Classic mode to Pencil mode. You might feel differently of course, so it’s good we have the choice. The thing about the Gubbins though is that they also give the game a lot of its aesthetic flavor, and that’s how we move into talking about the presentation. That’s the kind of smooth transition you get from a twenty-five year veteran of the trade.

The presentation in Gubbins is really good. The music is chill, with some soft piano and trumpets making you feel like you’re relaxing in a cafe or something. And who knows? Maybe you are. Sound effects are serviceable and do what they need to. The look of the game is what really puts it over the top. It’s very cartoony, with lots of pop-up effects that punctuate the in-game action. The Gubbins themselves are all individually-designed creatures with their own little animations. When you play them, you’ll see short little flourishes, and some of them will just be hanging out on the edges of the board. The whole game feels alive with all these cute little animated elements, and I dig the creature design. That weird-looking fellow coming out at the end of each game has some impact, to be sure.

It’s hard to find much to object to in Gubbins, really. It doesn’t do anything dramatically different from other word games on a fundamental level, so if you don’t like that kind of thing I guess you won’t enjoy this? Otherwise, this is smooth sailing all the way. It has tons of charm thanks to its lively presentation, the extra twists give the gameplay a flavor of its own, and you can try it out for free, buy extra bits like more Gubbins a la carte, or pay one reasonable fee to get everything. I’ll happily take this game and all the gubbins and Gubbins that come with it.

As someone who doesn’t really watch football, I’ve been playing almost every main release of Football Manager since 2014 or so. That might sound weird, but I never cared for the FIFA games at all, but still love Sports Interactive’s games. I ended up watching a few videos of Football Manager games from lollujo who has been one of the best resources for the series ever and have been enjoying most of the games since. Anyway, back to Football Manager 2024, it is now available on mobile exclusively through two subscription services. I didn’t play much of last year’s games barring launch week on Apple Arcade and completely skipped the main PC game. Football Manager 2024 has been even better for the most part. It feels like this is the year to come back to the game if you skipped the last few as well, and I mean that for most platforms. With next year’s game changing things up quite a bit, now was the time to check out all current versions of Football Manager 2024 and see how Sports Interactive dealt with different platform hardware restrictions and input options.

If you’re looking for a more-detailed review covering what has changed this year compared to last year’s game on different platforms, this is not that. I’m going to focus on how the current version of the game looks and feels on multiple platforms, while covering the individual versions at the end of this feature. There are a few notable features that are included in all versions of the game, with the new content and features being implemented slightly differently based on the platforms. The one feature that applies to all versions is J.League from Japan finally arriving in the game. This is also the first version of Football Manager to have Japanese language support in-game.

On launching Football Manager 2024 PC, Touch, or Console, you now have the option to play as Football Manager Original mode, Real World mode, or Your World mode. Original is if you want to play Football Manager 2024 like traditional entries. Real World is a new option if you want to get an up-to-date experience for players and clubs. This mode will have players start as they were at the start date of this Career with them moving to the new clubs like in real life on the same dates. Your World will have players, clubs, and more accurate to the start of the 23-24 season, but no real-life transfers happening after that date. This gives you more freedom than ever before for each career save.

Speaking of saves, on Apple Arcade, your older save loads normally in Football Manager 2024 Touch. On Football Manager 2024 Mobile through Netflix, older saves aren’t compatible sadly. They do load for console and PC though. Sports Interactive also said that they aim to have this working in Football Manager 2025 which is a good sign to ensure people are more invested time wise knowing things carry over with the ability to access the new features and not have to start over.

If you’ve been playing the games for many years or just want to know what is available on each platform version in Football Manager 2024, the official website has a handy comparison going into details of how much of a specific thing is included and what level of detail or speed is available for careers. Check that out here.

Having not really bothered with last year’s entry, the new features here and general polish across most platforms make Football Manager 2024 really feel like a game that has been years in the making. Whenever I play the WWE or NBA games each year, you can tell when big strides have been made in a specific year versus just adding on to prior releases in other years. I usually always recommend getting every second game in a yearly series if you aren’t someone who exclusively plays a specific game. With Football Manager most of the community is hardcore, and they play each game, but thanks to more platforms, entry points, subscriptions, and more this year, there has never been a better and easier time to sample one of SEGA’s best modern franchises.

If you’re completely new to the world of Football Manager, the games usually go in the following descending order when it comes to features and complexity: Football Manager, Football Manager Console, Football Manager Touch, and finally Football Manager Mobile. The differences, detailed above in the link, get closer usually each year on the Console and Touch side, with Mobile being the most-streamlined version with the least features. With Football Manager 2024, that holds true, but I’ve come away very impressed with the Football Manager 2024 Console version on PS5, and Football Manager 2024 Touch version on Apple Arcade this year.

Football Manager 2024 is a paid game on PC, but also available on Game Pass. Football Manager 2024 Console is available as a paid game on PS5 and Xbox, but also included in Xbox Game Pass. Football Manager 2024 Touch is a paid game on Switch, but available on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS through Apple Arcade. Football Manager 2024 Mobile is exclusively available through Netflix Games on iOS and Android. There is no standalone paid version of it.

Balancing different careers across platforms has been interesting and difficult since launch, and despite having access to the Netflix Mobile version and PC version on Steam Deck pre-release, I wanted to wait for the public versions on all platforms before properly starting to compare and experience Football Manager 2024. For the rest of this feature, I’m going to go into individual platform impressions and short reviews with a score on portable versions.

Football Manager 2024 Console impressions

While I dipped my toes into Football Manager 2024 Console last year through Xbox Game Pass, I was more interested in the PS5 version this year to see if the game had any PS5-specific features. Having now played all versions of Football Manager 2024, Football Manager 2024 Console feels like an upgrade over Football Manager 2024 Touch, but not at par with Football Manager 2024 (PC) yet in its complexity and features. There is some silver lining though. Having tested Football Manager 2024 Console on my TV and my monitor on PS5, the interface is very good for a controller.

Visually, it looks great and the load times are super fast. In fact, Football Manager 2024 Console on PS5 seems to load faster than all other versions of the game I have access to including the PC version on an SSD. It unfortunately does not have any DualSense features, but does have PS5 Activity Card support. You can press into the left stick to bring up a virtual cursor option which is good to have for some menus. Speaking of controls, SEGA really needs to partner with Sony and Microsoft to officially sell the controllers they use for promotion here.

Football Manager 2024 Console on PS5 isn’t perfect, but I think the team has nailed the experience of bringing as much of Football Manager 2024 to console as possible while keeping things more complex yet accessible on a controller. This is a big step above Football Manager 2024 Touch for sure. I just dislike the fact that this is a full-priced game and there are multiple consumable microtransactions included. This might sound like the old man yelling at cloud meme, but it does feel bad seeing these purchases available when you have Football Manager 2024 Touch on a subscription without any added purchases.

Football Manager 2024 Touch Apple Arcade Review

This is the version I was most excited to check out. When it arrived as an update to Football Manager 2023 Touch, I started playing a new save and also loaded an old save to see if that works. I focused on playing this version with touch controls on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro, but also tried it with my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 14 Plus. Football Manager 2024 Touch on Apple Arcade played on my iPad Pro is my favorite version of Football Manager 2024 for sure. I cover the Nintendo Switch version of Football Manager 2024 Touch later on in this feature.

I didn’t have this one early, so came into Football Manager 2024 Touch on Apple Arcade and Switch after playing the PC version and Football Manager 2024 Console for a good amount of time. There are cutbacks compared to those versions, but I’m impressed with the state of Football Manager 2024 Touch on iPad Pro. Going over to the iPhone version, I was curious to see how the UI scaled since that was touted as one major improvement this year. While it is much better, Football Manager 2024 Touch still feels very much like a game perfect on iPad.

Football Manager 2024 Touch on Apple Arcade supports touch controls and controllers. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on an iPhone 14 Plus to test out the controller interface and stuck to touch controls on my iPad Pro. I also tried touch controls on my iPhone 15 Pro. The team has done a great job here with the interface and load times. On the visual and performance side, Football Manager 2024 Touch runs and looks great on modern devices with fast loading.

I’m curious to see how Sports Interactive and SEGA handle updates to this version because Football Manager 2023 Touch got updates adding things like a boost to bank balance, one-time only Dream Transfer item, and more. Since this is on Apple Arcade, there are no microtransactions either.

If you do have Apple Arcade, Football Manager 2024 Touch is worth your time. I’m impressed with the improvements to the iPhone version as well this year. The added features and the ability to Load your save from the old version (as this is an update over FM23 Touch) make Football Manager 2024 even better. Not only is Football Manager 2024 on modern iOS and iPadOS devices drastically better than the Switch version, but this is the version of the game I will spend the most time in for sure. Easily the best portable platform to play Football Manager 2024 on.

Football Manager 2024 Touch Apple Arcade Review Score: 4.5/5

Football Manager 2024 Touch Switch Review

Football Manager Touch on Switch has been my goto version of the game because I enjoyed dipping in and out of it as a break from other longer JRPGs or games I was covering. Football Manager 2024 Touch on Nintendo Switch retains everything the Apple Arcade version has, but it sees cutbacks to visuals, performance, and has much longer load times.

On the control side, you can use touch controls in handheld mode, but it isn’t as responsive as the Apple Arcade version. The match engine also doesn’t look close to how it does on my iPad Pro or iPhone 15 Pro as expected. As of this writing, there is no mention of paid DLC like the PS5 and Xbox versions of Football Manager 2024 Console either, and there is no mention of the in-game editor being added.

I’d only recommend Football Manager 2024 Touch on Switch if you want to own a version of the game and don’t want to be tied to a subscription. The downgrades in all areas are too much to recommend this over the Apple Arcade version if you have that option on a modern iOS or iPadOS device.

Football Manager 2024 Touch Switch Review Score: 3.5/5

Football Manager 2024 Mobile Review

Football Manager 2024 Mobile is the most curious of the bunch this year, because it takes a paid game that has microtransactions, and brings it to Netflix Games on iOS and Android. In fact, this new Netflix version of Football Manager 2024 even includes the in-game editor, something available as paid DLC in prior versions, and something not included in Football Manager 2024 Touch. As with other games only available on mobile through Netflix, I try and think of whether this one is worth subscribing to Netflix for. Football Manager 2024 Mobile is literally not available without Netflix. Football Manager 2024 Touch is on Switch as well.

Football Manager 2024 Mobile still uses the 2D match engine unlike the other versions of the game. It does, however have the fastest and most-streamlined game flow. When it comes to other downgrades, it supports about half the playable nations and a bit over half the playable leagues compared to Football Manager 2024 Touch. It does include Challenge mode, which is something I’m surprised isn’t on PC yet, but is in other versions.

I don’t think this is the game worth subscribing to Netflix for. A lot of other ports are good to play if you subscribe for a month or so, but Football Manager 2024 is a long term game. We don’t even know if Football Manager 2025 will be on Netflix or on mobile, so I can’t even speculate whether saves will carry over. Right now, this is a great value add for existing Netflix subscribers.

If you own an iOS or iPadOS device, I’d only recommend Football Manager 2024 Mobile if you do not have or will not subscribe to Apple Arcade. It is more streamlined and a great intro to Football Manager 2024, but isn’t representative of the full game like the other versions are. I hope Football Manager Mobile gets closer to Touch next year, or that we eventually get to a point where the same game is scaled differently across platforms. Football Manager 2024 Mobile is only worth your time if you already have a Netflix subscription. If you don’t, focus on playing the other versions of the game.

Football Manager 2024 Mobile Review Score: 3.5/5

Football Manager 2024 Steam Deck Review

Since Football Manager 2023 was Steam Deck Verified, I had high expectations of Football Manager 2024 on Steam Deck. It doesn’t have a rating from Valve yet, but I am impressed and disappointed with Football Manager 2024 on Steam Deck right now. It brings the full PC experience to a portable and handles things well, but the controls are not ideal. Even with the official layout right now, it doesn’t feel remotely as nice as the console or Touch versions of Football Manager 2024.

If you play Football Manager 2024 on PC or macOS and also own a Steam Deck, this is a great additional way to experience the full depth of Football Manager 2024, but I won’t recommend it as your only version of the game until the controls are improved. If you, like me, are used to using the trackpads and dealing with PC-specific games on Steam Deck like I do with Victoria 3, you will get used to the controls here. Sports Interactive is close to making the Steam Deck my favorite way to experience Football Manager, but until then, it remains a modern iPad.

Football Manager 2024 on Steam Deck is a very disappointing experience when it comes to controls. I was hoping the game would have proper controller support, but it does not feel great to play on Steam Deck without a mouse (or using the trackpads). The interface doesn’t scale down too well on the smaller screen either. Don’t get me wrong, Football Manager 2024 PC is a fantastic version of the game, and one of the best we’ve seen from the game in years, but I do not recommend playing it on Steam Deck without big control and interface caveats. It runs very well and the match engine looks great, but I hope future patches can bring in proper controller support and an interface that actually scales down better for the platform.

Football Manager 2024 Steam Deck Review Score: 4/5

Hopefully this new format helps you decide which version of Football Manager 2024 you should get or try if you have access to multiple game subscription services or platforms. I am glad I ended up playing the game on almost all platforms this year, because it showed me how Sports Interactive can scale its complexities, features, and visuals across devices. Next year sounds very exciting, but this year’s games are better than ever before, at least for Touch, Console, and PC. I just hope we see more optimization on Switch, improvements for Steam Deck, and Mobile seeing an overhaul for Football Manager 2025.

Unlike prior games in the series, Kingdom Eighties is a standalone singleplayer expansion that actually has a notable story. When Jared mentioned Stranger Things, he hit the nail on the head. In a lot of ways, Kingdom Eighties feels like a Stranger Things game, but it isn’t, and it is still excellent if you’re after a polished tower defense and building hybrid like the prior games in the series. If you never clicked with those, this isn’t going to change your mind, as it builds on the base (no pun intended) of prior games and plays very similarly.

In Kingdom Eighties, you basically move on a 2D plane, collect coins, explore, interact with NPCs, and build by investing said coins at specific locations or points of interest. You eventually unlock all sorts of wild things to help you against the greed in the different chapters and locations of the campaign. While I feel like these games are very much “learn from experience", the tutorial does a good job of getting you up to speed with the basics of the game flow.

The narrative or campaign in Kingdom Eighties has you playing a camp counselor recruiting people to build or defend as you face off against the Greed. As this is a Kingdom game, you cannot afford to lose your crown or it is game over. The story here isn’t just some dialogue like a visual novel, but there are actual retro-style animated cut-scenes. Depending on the difficulty you choose, expect to get through Kingdom Eighties in about 6 or 7 hours with the survival mode unlocking after the campaign.

Kingdom Eighties nails its aesthetic and music for the 80s setting, and I love both aspects of the game a lot. The only thing I’d have changed is maybe adding some music from The Midnight, but that’s more of a want than a need for me. I love the reflections in the water, the subtle animations while riding the bike, and the VHS effect on the cut-scenes. I’m all for developers pulling out of left field things like the 80s setting here in their games. This obviously isn’t meant to be the next full Kingdom game, but as a standalone expansion, it is so good.

The lack of co-op might be a dealbreaker for many given the focus it had in Kingdom Two Crowns. I know many folks who loved that aspect of Kingdom Two Crowns, and keep playing that even today. Kingdom Eighties isn’t going to replace that, but it does do things a bit differently with its story and setting. The lower asking price compared to the main games definitely helps as well.

On mobile, I played Kingdom Eighties on my iPhone 11, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPad Pro (2020). I tested progress syncing between the iPhone 11, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPad Pro with no issues. The game runs mostly fine, but I noticed some of the similar scrolling issues the Kingdom games have also present here to varying degrees depending on the device. Barring that, they have controller support or touchscreen controls that both are implemented well. On iPhone 15 Pro, performance was great, but that scrolling issue was still present to some degree, though not as bad as on Switch and older iOS devices.

Since I had access to the Switch version and bought Kingdom Eighties on Steam to play on Steam Deck as well, I was curious how it scaled. The Steam version is Steam Deck Verified, and it had the least amount of performance issues across the platforms I played it on barring iPhone 15 Pro. The Switch version while decent, has quite a bit of frame pacing issues in some parts, but it isn’t game breaking. I see no reason to recommend Kingdom Eighties on any platform other than iOS from the ones I own, since you get the full experience here at less than half the asking price of consoles and PC and with a conversion that runs much better than the Switch version. The Switch version also lacks touchscreen support.

Having now played Kingdom Eighties with its latest updates on iOS, Switch, and Steam Deck, it absolutely delivered in its promise of being a story-based expansion to the world of Kingdom. I was interested thanks to the setting, but the team nailed almost everything about this across its aesthetic, music, and story. The lack of co-op will no doubt be disappointing for some though, and I wish it ran without the few scrolling issues I encountered. Barring that, I have no issues recommending Kingdom Eighties at its current asking price. I hope the team builds on this setting for a future mainline game though.

Let’s start by talking about Face. Face was a Japanese developer and publisher that first popped up around 1988, and it was around for a relatively long time as those things go. None of its games were especially big hits, and only a few of them ever saw release outside of Japan. That said, there was a certain flavor to many of its efforts. Face made some very unusual games that had a lot of character to them, with Hany in the Sky on the PC-Engine (the Japanese Turbografx-16) being a great example of that. Its best game was probably Money Puzzle Exchanger, a charming variant on Data East’s Magical Drop that still has a cult following to this day. It was a company whose output always felt like it was one or two small changes away from being great, and in light of that it wasn’t terribly surprising when it shuttered its doors somewhere around the year 2000.

Zupapa! makes for a great excuse to talk about Face. It was first shown by Face at a Japanese arcade exhibition in early 1994, which would have likely seen it come out alongside some of the company’s other arcade games around that time. It disappeared after that, which was odd but not completely unprecedented for Face. It buried an entire Time Cruise game, after all. No, the really curious thing about Zupapa! isn’t its disappearance. It’s that it showed up again after the death of Face, published by SNK in 2001. Presumably when the company closed down, SNK decided to pick it up and use it to bolster the release schedule of the aging NEOGEO system. But this was during the brief span of time that Aruze owned the company, just before the bankruptcy of the original incarnation of SNK. Why was it picking up long-dead games? Was Zupapa! finished by Face, or did SNK have to bring it to the finish line? Questions we’ll probably never have the answers to, friends.

Still, knowing that Zupapa! was originally meant to arrive in 1994 does help us understand how such a modest game arrived so late in the console’s life. Zupapa! is a fixed-screen platformer, a genre that had its heyday in the mid-to-late 1980s with games like Bubble Bobble, Snow Bros., and Rod Land. They were fairly scarce after Street Fighter II made its impact in the arcades, but you still saw the occasional release here and there for a couple of years after. By 2001, it was practically as dead a sub-genre as the fixed-screen shoot-em-up. A very odd release in what was otherwise a sea of fighters and Metal Slug sequels on the platform. But hey, we’re looking back more than twenty years later. The whole library is vintage at this point. Still, that genre’s place in time relative to the NEOGEO itself means there aren’t too many games like Zupapa! on it, something that helps this game shine even brighter.

Zupapa! shares a lot of traits with the best games in this genre. The graphics are colorful, detailed, and well-animated. The levels have a lot of variety to them, and you’ve got a rather large number of them, with forty-five in total spread across nine worlds. The bosses are huge and really creative, and the different enemies are fun to deal with. The goal on each stage is to clear out all of the enemies, all while getting as many points as you can. You can’t take too long to do it, either. Beat them all and you’ll be whisked to the next stage. You can play with another person, but that’s obviously a bit of a pain in this mobile release. It’s too bad, because as fun as it is solo it’s even better with a friend.

Games like these always have some kind of gimmick for how you attack the enemies. Bubbles, snowballs, vacuums, slamming them back and forth into the ground with your rod, and so on. In Zupapa!, you have two ways to tackle your foes. First, you can punch them. It has limited reach, though you can get a power-up to extend it. Smack them and then touch them to finish them off. It’s reliable but it won’t earn you many points. No, if you want to get those big scores, you’ll have to engage with the game’s main gimmick.

There are little creatures named Zooks populating each stage. If you touch them, they’ll follow you around. You can throw them at enemies and they will start pounding on them, immobilizing them. Up to four can be attached to an enemy at once, though even one will stop the enemy in their tracks. Touch the enemy and not only will they be taken out, an explosion will trigger, taking out any other enemies it touches. Its size is based on how many Zooks were on them. Enemies that are defeated by an explosion will leave behind foods you can collect for points, and the more you take out at once the higher the point values of those foods. It’s in your interest to try to set things up for those big scores. I mean, unless you just want to play through the game and don’t care about scores. Even then, exploding a bunch of enemies in one go is sometimes easier than knocking them out individually.

Each stage layout presents its own challenge. Sometimes the Zooks are easy to get at, while other times you’ll have to go past the enemies to get them. Sometimes you have a lot of room to maneuver while other times you’ll have to squeeze in with the baddies to get at them. There are special gimmicks like springs and breakable walls, and some interesting hazards too. I’ve always found that the best games in this sub-genre have a strong focus on varied level designs, and Zupapa! carries itself quite well in this regard. None of the themes overstays its welcome, and you’re always facing something new. The bosses are genuine highlights, but make sure you grab a speed boost power-up before facing them if you can. This is an arcade game, after all. It wants your coins, not your forgiveness.

As you can probably tell, I like Zupapa! a lot. I’ve always been fond of this particular kind of arcade game, and if you’re like me then I think you’ll have a good time here as well. It’s a little trickier to play with touch controls than it is with a controller, but it only uses two buttons so it isn’t particularly egregious so long as you’re not completely turned off by virtual buttons. If you play with an external controller, then you really have no worries at all here. Sadly, you can only play multiplayer if you have enough controllers and a display you can share, but that’s nothing new for the ACA NEOGEO line. I’m going to save us the usual paragraph here and say you get all the usual options and extra modes here, and those Score Attack and timed Caravan modes work pretty well with this game. Hamster’s done a good job here.

Zupapa! is one of those games that is really hard to hate. It looks nice, plays well, and has plenty of game to offer for your buck. Provided you’re okay with the control options you have access to and aren’t repelled by fixed-screen platformers, I think this is one of the easier ACA NEOGEO games to recommend. It’s just good, simple fun, and that’s something that has always translated fairly well to mobile play.

Have we settled on a name for this genre yet? Bullet heaven? Horde defense? HoloCure-like? Auto shooter? A stroll gone wrong? Well, whatever you want to call it, that’s what Pizza Hero is. Almost to a tee, really. You start out with one weak weapon, wander around procedurally generated areas battling enemies, level up, unlock new weapons and passive abilities, and try to survive as the enemy waves get more numerous and powerful. Level up enough times and it starts to feel like you’ve flipped the script and become the monster. Your goal in each area is to survive a set amount of time, an arduous task at first but one that becomes easier as you unlock permanent upgrades and new weapons.

So with that said, what sets Pizza Hero apart from the crowd? The most obvious thing is its theme. You’re playing as some kind of sentient slice of pizza, and all of your weapons are toppings. Passive abilities? They’re all spices and seasonings. The aforementioned pineapple laser beam is here, along with things like a basic mozzarella shot, explosive green peppers, and heat-seeking mushrooms. There are eighteen toppings in all, and you can discover some fun combinations that actually make sense if you know your pizzas. There are also eight different passive spices, which adds up to quite a bit of variety all told.

As with other games of this sort, your main source of upgrades comes from defeating enemies. They’ll leave behind items that give you experience if you can pick them up, and collecting enough of them will give you a level-up. You’ll be presented with three perks you can choose one of as your level-up bonus, and the usual strategies apply here. You have to choose between adding new weapons to your arsenal to expand your spread of attacks or upgrading existing ones to make them more powerful. You’ll also want to pick up the occasional spice for passive boosts. Sometimes you’ll find sauce cans that can contain experience, gold, or health. You’ll also earn experience by firing up any pizza ovens you come across.

One thing you don’t see in many other games of this kind is the dash/combat roll you’re given in Pizza Hero. A quick swipe will boost you out of the way of harm, but a cooldown timer ensures you can’t abuse it. You can get by without using this move if you really don’t feel like using it, but learning it assuredly has its benefits. Since you’re invincible during that little dash, it’s a great way to escape when you’re surrounded. At times, anyway. Sometimes it will just put you in a worse mess. Well, that’s why you have to learn when to use it and when to keep it in your pocket. It’s a neat extra element to the game, if nothing else.

The other interesting mechanic here is that you have a pet with you at all times. You’ll start with a trusty pup that will fetch items for you, but as you play you can rescue its friends and add to your options. Of course, rescuing them is one matter. Surviving long enough to open the portal to bring them home and fully unlock them is quite another. There are ten different pets in total, making for quite the menagerie of furry/feathered friends to lend you an assist. In mechanical terms, this adds even more variety to your builds.

You can also unlock more weapons to choose from at the start, using the typical method of finding it and leveling it up to a certain point. At first, you’re limited to three starting weapons and just one pet to choose from. That’s not a bad thing, as it allows the player to get comfortable with the game before things get more complicated. In a lot of ways, Pizza Hero feels like a more guided experience than some of its peers. Following the roads will always take you somewhere of interest, adding a bit of structure beyond simply surviving. Still, it would behoove the player to remember that surviving is the main point. You won’t unlock the additional maps if you can’t pull that off. There are four maps in total, but one is the tutorial stage. It’s fun when you only have a few minutes to play but most of the action is in those other three areas.

Outside of each individual playthrough, there are a few over-arching elements to take care of. There’s a full list of achievements to work through, each one offering you some valuable gold. That gold can also be found in the game, and you can use it to permanently upgrade ten different stats. Well, if you’ve played Vampire Survivors you know how this works. The upgrades give you a sense of progression beyond trying to unlock the different areas, weapons, and pets, and some of the achievements are fun to figure out. All in all, Pizza Hero gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

That brings us to the monetization. The game is free, after all. And we all know that nothing is truly free. The thing is, Pizza Hero is pretty close to it. You’ll get the occasional mandatory ad after a session, but fairly rarely. You can also watch an ad to continue once after being taken down, and you can watch ads to reroll the upgrades presented to you at a level up. It’s all incredibly inobtrusive, but if even the presence of those few ads bothers you, the developer is apparently looking into adding an IAP to remove them.

Pizza Hero doesn’t reinvent the cheese wheel by any means, but its specific seasonings add an extra flavor to the familiar Vampire Survivors dish. The fun theme, bevy of interesting upgrades, enjoyable list of achievements, and solid action make for a game well-worth playing even if you’ve gorged yourself on a large serving of other titles in the genre. Sometimes it’s just one secret ingredient and a bit of charm that can make a dish its own, and that’s what Pizza Hero offers.

Your aim in Unpacking, as the name suggests, is unpacking and arranging various objects. You experience someone’s life through different stages with a narrative that slowly unfolds through objects, locations, and puzzles. Don’t expect a traditional story here though. Unpacking will take you about 3 or 4 hours to play depending on how good you are at positioning and placing objects. If you ever get stuck, you can enable an accessibility option to let you place objects anywhere. This removes the puzzle aspect of Unpacking, but is there as an option. It was fun seeing specific objects change over time, and also learning how you should arrange things, because I definitely have been organizing some items wrongly if Unpacking is to be believed.

These items are all in boxes, and Unpacking grows more complex giving you different rooms and more kinds of objects to place. As a zen experience, Unpacking nails everything, but I found myself confused for the specific placement for some objects. When you finish, these objects will glow telling you that they need to be placed somewhere else. This leads to trial and error, and is the only actual gameplay element of Unpacking that I didn’t like.

When I first played Unpacking, I used a combination of touch and button controls. I loved it on Switch, but it felt like a game that would shine on iPad. Fast forward to today, Unpacking is available on iOS and Android at half the price of the console and PC versions. The developers of the port have done a fantastic job, but there are a few issues right now on mobile, less so on iPad.

Unpacking supports full touch controls and controllers on iOS. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 11 and had a great time with Unpacking. Playing with touch controls isn’t an amazing experience on my iPhone 11 though. It is better on iPhone 14 Plus. On iPad, Unpacking feels right at home. The visuals are gorgeous on my iPad Pro, and it even supports controllers with correct button prompts. When I used my DualSense controller, it automatically swapped to showing me PlayStation button prompts. I have no complaints with the iPad version’s interface.

Unpacking on iOS has a lower frame rate than the console versions, but it isn’t a dealbreaker. I am disappointed to not see support for 120hz like the PC version has or even a locked 60fps option on modern iOS devices. When it comes to controls and the interface, mouse and touch are the best ways to play Unpacking. I would only use a controller with an analog stick to move the cursor as a last resort option or if you’re playing on your phone with a Backbone or Kishi controller.

The iPhone version even has a vibration option that uses haptics. They are very well implemented. Barring that, you can increase the touch target for icons to make it easier to play on iPhone. Unpacking isn’t a long game, but I would’ve still liked to have cloud saves using iCloud on iOS.

Having played Unpacking on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox before the iOS version, it is hard to find fault with the latter barring the lack of iCloud save support. The asking price being half of other platforms and such an excellent conversion definitely makes it an easier recommendation. I already loved the storytelling, relaxing gameplay, gorgeous visuals, and soundtrack in Unpacking, but it has found a new home on iOS and shines on the plattform. I hope the developers can add a higher frame rate option, but I have nothing bad to say about Unpacking barring that. If you held off on the PC and console versions, Unpacking is essential on iPad.

I’m quietly a bit of a fan of Thomas Young. Somehow I didn’t really play any of his games until they came to the Switch, but once I had my first taste I knew I had a new developer to follow. The Super Fowlst games are tricky in all the right ways. The Dadish Quadrilogy (IT’S A WORD!) are rad, cute, and funny platformers that can get devilishly challenging, especially Daily Dadish. This fellow makes some cheerful little action games that can make you want to yank your hair out. I guess that’s his deal. But wait, what’s this? His next game isn’t an action game at all? It’s a word game?

In hindsight, we should have seen it coming. Those end of level gags in Dadish demonstrate that this fellow is something of a wordsmith. So here we are with Molecano. Good title. Simple, short, rolls off the tongue. Shows up well in a web search. Makes you want to ask what the deal is. What is the deal with that? A mole and a volcano, presumably? Why would they be bedfellows? I must find out. No, I am not trying to stretch things out because a word game doesn’t really have a ton to talk about. Maybe that’s what you’re doing, and you’re just projecting.

Projects! Let me tell you about a project. Molecano has over four hundred levels to play, and apparently more are on the way. I trust Thomas Young on that, he’s never been one for idle promises. But even if he never added anything else, four hundred stages is a whole lot of stuff to do. On each of those stages, you’re trying to get your cute mole (or whatever other character you’ve selected) to the foods scattered about. The problem is a classic one we all know too well: the floor is lava. You’ve got some letters down at the bottom of the screen, and they’ll work as well as anything for platforms. But this is a picky volcano, friends. It won’t allow platforms of nonsense. Those platforms have to be proper words. Spell them out, rotate as needed, and create some paths for our hungry hero.

You only use a set amount of words to solve each stage, though. You also have to connect your words, and Scrabble rules apply so you can’t overlap carelessly. Sometimes there are bits blocking longer words, and you have to use at least three letters on each word. You might have to first pick up keys sometimes to unlock other areas of the stage. The interesting hook here is that you really have to consider how long each word is because it’s not always a case where bigger is better. It really depends on the stage layout, where the foods and keys are, and how you want to reach all of that. That said, in the absence of any other factors, longer words are certainly more desirable. Those will earn you coins, and those coins can be exchanged to unlock new characters. Some will be familiar to fans of this developer’s previous works.

This is all wrapped in a very charming presentation, which is another hallmark of this developer. It’s cute, colorful, and you’d have to be a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon villain to hate how it looks and sounds. Even then, I think Skeletor goes for it. Shredder too. Mumm-Ra, probably not. He was always a bit of a curmudgeon. Cobra Commander yes, Serpentor who cares. Ridiculous usurper. The point is that this game’s mechanics aren’t particularly unique but the package they’re delivered in help the game stand out. Throw in the aforementioned bonkers amount of stages to clear, and it’s easy to see why this is worth the fantastic price of… free?

I just picked my monocle up off the floor and cleaned up the seltzer I spewed all over. Yes, Molecano is free. It will throw an ad at you now and then, and if you don’t like that you can pay a highly reasonable $5.99 to remove those ads forever. I think that’s a fair business proposition, so I’m not going to waste too many more column inches talking about it. Try the game out for free, and if you like it you can rest easy knowing it is certainly worth the six bucks to keep King Robert and Austin the Butler away.

I’ve always been a sucker for good word games, and Molecano is exactly that. You get a vibrant and frankly adorable presentation, an absurd number of stages to play, mechanics that are incredibly familiar but have that slight twist to make them feel fresh, and a monetization model that’s hard to argue with. If, like me, you enjoy flexing your vocabulary muscle (I think that’s called a brain, Shaun), then I strongly recommend helping this little mole get some chow post-haste. There, can I have my puns back?

I really need to work on my intro paragraphs. Well, nothing to be done about it now. Stone Story RPG has been around on PC via early access for a pretty long time now. Just as the game starts with a single stone and expands considerably from there, so too did this game grow over the years, finally achieving a state that its developer decided was worthy of being called a release version. That early access period means that the developer has received a lot of player feedback, and that presents an excellent opportunity to polish the heck out of an idea. Stone Story RPG is certainly that. Other than a few clumsy bits of the interface that might be a result of not being designed first as a touchscreen game, I don’t think I can find a single issue with the game that isn’t intentional.

The story starts with a stone. That stone is actually apparently the head of a person, a person we shall call hero. Or heroine. Or Dave. Whatever you like. That person collects more stones in the area around them, and finds the stones make for useful weapons against the creatures roaming about. Soon they find another resource, and that opens up things that can be crafted with resources. Weapons, armor, accessories, and chests can be found as well. The most important thing you’ll find are special stones which grant major new features and serve as the McGuffin you’re chasing for much of the adventure. Most are in the possession of large, angry, hungry things. Poke them or zap them as needed to pry those stones out of their grubby appendages.

As you play, the game gets a lot more complicated. Not terribly so, mind you. But you’ve got crafting systems, gear with elemental attributes, the ability to set up various load-outs, and more. You’ll discover new areas and run into puzzles you’ll have to solve using items. Naturally, lots of things to kill and goobers to collect. Before long you’ll have to make use of elemental weaknesses to have any serious chance of success, and you’ll find yourself flipping gear on the fly to collect resources and take advantage of weaknesses. Rather busy for an idle game, I’d say. And you absolutely need to keep your gear at its best. Whether by crafting, lucky drops, or picking things up from the shopkeeper, if you don’t have the right tools you’ll end up banging your head against the wall.

When things are going smoothly, Stone Story RPG is both highly compelling and a ton of fun. You’re discovering new things, new systems and mechanics are opening up, you’re knocking out quests, and you’re feeling clever for getting around various obstacles. I would say that the majority of the game’s several hours of runtime are very enjoyable. I’m going to start talking about the game’s issues soon, but I want to stress before going into them that you should not let them stop you from trying the game. It’s very good, and just watching it move is a bit of a magic trick. When it heats up and you’re juggling gear sets, barely defeating a boss thanks to your strategy, it’s tense in all the right ways. Go download it, it’s free. You have nothing but time to lose.

Okay, time to talk a little turkey. Stone Story RPG is a free game on mobile. It is not a free game on PC. There isn’t a single IAP that unlocks the game, either. A quick glance at the list of in-app purchases in the App Store shows things like bags of crystals that go up to fifty bucks, single weapons that cost ten bucks, and of course the obligatory DEALS that probably aren’t very good deals at all. This game would like you to pay something, which is fair. It isn’t asking for that thirty bucks flat that it wants over on Steam. How you feel about that is up to you. But the type of monetization used here forces me to really consider how it presents things.

For example, the game can be pretty grindy if you find yourself with inadequate gear or insufficient resources. Is that part of the natural design, or is it like that to nudge the player into making purchases or watching the daily incentivized ad? Is the boss difficult because conquering tough enemies is fun, or is it difficult because it wants you to buy the fancy weapon the shopkeeper is featuring? And gosh, those fancy weapons. The game really sells you on them, hard. They make your character look so much cooler, and they’re going to solve a lot of problems for you. Now, to the game’s credit, it doesn’t try to sell you anything for the first little while. And you genuinely don’t need to buy anything to beat the game’s main story, though you might have to do some grinding from time to time. But when a game is being this aggressive with its salesmanship, I just can’t help but feel a little put off.

I think Stone Story RPG is a game any fan of RPGs or mysterious adventures should give a bit of their time to. The presentation is very cool thanks to those ASCII graphics, and the soundtrack is almost as enchanting. It surprises in ways that some of my favorite games do, and it’s extremely clever in how it peels back its layers. You can play through the whole thing without paying a cent, and that’s a lot of quality entertainment for nothing. That being said, the way the game tries to sell its IAPs feels just a little… it feels like too strong of a word, but ‘repulsive’ is what immediately came to mind. Like having a slick dream and one of the characters pulls you aside to remind you that you’re asleep. There’s an illusion being woven here, and the game has to break it to try to sell you something, anything. A chip in a grand boulder of a game.

Peglin is a “pachinko roguelike" and it involves a lot of elements from both kinds of games. There are a lot of balls, pegs, luck, charming designs, catchy music, and more as you try to aim to get as much damage by hitting pegs as one of many orbs while trying to survive. These orbs and pegs have their own interactions, and there’s a lot of RNG or luck involved depending on how you aim and what’s on the board. This affects your attack to damage enemies. Your aim is to progress to the end of the area you’re in. Even selecting the next path on your map is done by launching yourself as an orb into one of many paths on the bottom of the screen.

These paths range from events to treasure chests and even mini bosses in addition to general battles. In addition to your starting orbs, you collect loads throughout your run while also gaining relics and more. Everything changes up how you will approach the next encounter because you could have something damaging enemies further away, something that gives you more critical attacks, or something that heals you. The first many runs will be a learning experience as you try and find your bearings in Peglin. This is another reason I recommend finishing the opening area which is free to try on mobile. That will tell you everything you need to know about whether Peglin is for you or not.

Peglin could do with more variety in its unlocks, but said variety isn’t as accessible early on. These kinds of games benefit from throwing unlocks at you to keep you invested, and Peglin’s structure and difficulty don’t help. Neither does the reliance on luck, but that isn’t something I knock it for. Peglin 1.0 would be a lot more accessible with some quality of life improvements and accessibility options for newcomers. In a lot of ways, Peglin reminds me of the early game of The Binding of Isaac where you see tons of weapons or modifiers, but struggle to make much progress making you feel like you are wasting your time. The difference is that the gameplay in Peglin hasn’t even remotely stopped being fun while I did tire of Isaac before its DLC at one point.

Having played Peglin on my iPhone (with touch and a Razer Kishi V2), iPad (with a controller and with touch), and Steam Deck, Peglin right now is great on all of them, but I’d try it out on every platform if I were you before investing time into them since there is no cross platform syncing. If you do play on Steam, you can play at a higher frame rate as well and sync to your Steam Deck if you have one through Steam Cloud. The Steam Deck version even supports 120fps while docked over DisplayPort, which is how I’ve been playing it when at home.

In its current state, Peglin on iOS has almost every feature I want. The major miss is the lack of iCloud save support. As with all my reviews mentioning iCloud save support missing, I need to specify that sometimes the developer does implement it, but iCloud itself isn’t too reliable. The only times it has worked flawlessly for me are with Apple Arcade games or Feral Interactive releases. Cross platform syncing seems to be out of the question though. Barring that, a feature I’d like, but one that isn’t essential, is the ability to play in portrait mode on iPhone. Peglin is the perfect portrait game, but I understand that it would require a lot of work for the interface and to make things readable.

On modern iOS devices, Peglin is a 16:9 game so there will be black bars depending on your device. It runs very smoothly on my iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020). You can enable a battery saver option if you’d prefer to conserve power while running at a lower frame rate. Barring that, Peglin does have controller support on iOS. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone and DualSense controller on iPad without any issues. The button prompts changed immediately depending on my input.

Peglin has a few quality of life features like being able to speed up movement and gameplay, but I hope we eventually get one that lets you skip the animations and do things even quicker. The speed up option also wasn’t implemented fully at launch on iOS, but now it offers the same 3x option as the PC version.

One of the advantages to Peglin on mobile, is that it has a very generous free trial available. Peglin is a free to start game with a one time unlock in app purchase. If you aren’t sold on it, I urge you to try the game and see how you feel in the first area. If you do like it, the unlock price is about half of what the PC version costs making the mobile version an even better option with how the pick up and play nature of the game suits portable play. It also helps that the iOS version is superb, and only really is missing iCloud save syncing.

Having never played Peggle before, Peglin has been a ton of fun even with all the luck and RNG involved. It may not be for everyone, but even in its current state, I recommend trying Peglin on iOS. The free to start model means you can try it out for yourself and see how you like it. I was sold after a few runs, and have not grown tired of it even months after launch. I’ve even started playing it on Steam Deck as a break from other games like I do with Vampire Survivors there. I can’t wait to see where Peglin goes when it hits 1.0.

Early Access review score: 4.5/5*

A few months had gone by, and I did end up playing it more on Xbox. The way things work out, Devolver Digital announced a mobile version just as I was near the end. I’ve been replaying the game and trying out the different hint systems while seeing how the game differs if at all across platforms. For this Return to Monkey Island mobile port review, I’m going to cover why this is the gold standard for point and click adventure games in many ways, but also touch on the port quality for mobile, Switch, and how it plays on Steam Deck as usual.

Despite its name, Return to Monkey Island can be enjoyed as a standalone story. You will miss out on some references though. While there is an in-game scrapbook that I used as a refresher for the original games, don’t let the name or anyone tell you to skip this until you play games that aren’t as accessible outside of playing on PC. If you’ve already played a few games in the series, Return to Monkey Island will feel like going back to an old bar after many years, but remembering many things you loved about it. Familiar faces, voices, style of puzzles, and more await you in Return to Monkey Island, but this time there are plethora of accessibility and quality of life features that you can enjoy if you ever get stuck. You don’t need to worry about looking up a walkthrough here. Return to Monkey Island has it all included if you ever need some help, and the hint system is very smartly implemented.

Return to Monkey Island has Guybrush Threepwood back talking about an adventure going across many new and old locations. Not only are series’ creator Ron Gilbert and co-writer Dave Grossman back, but also composers Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian who worked on both The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge are back with Rex Crowle who worked on Tearaway which I adored on PS Vita. This feels very much like the band coming back for the most part, and while many revivals have taught me to be skeptical, I’m glad this team pulled it off. While we have had Special Edition versions of both The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge hit mobile in addition to Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island, none of them have felt this polished and great to play on mobile.

If you’ve never played a game in this series or are new to the genre, Return to Monkey Island has you tapping to move around, tapping and dragging to find points of interest, interacting with said points of interest, and going through a plethora of well-written and in many cases voiced dialogue to progress through the story and puzzles. There is a lot of backtracking in parts, so keep that in mind as you approach this adventure.

Return to Monkey Island has a few control options available on mobile. I played with touch controls on both iPhone and iPad which felt like the best way to play it. I also used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone 11 and it worked great. On the iPad, I only tried my DualSense controller, but the game lets you choose between controller button prompts for PS5, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch. It defaults to Xbox, but you can change it. I don’t have a wireless keyboard handy to try out keyboard and mouse support, but using a mouse worked fine. It treats it like a touch input in Return to Monkey Island. I don’t have an Android device to test on, so whatever I’ve said so far applies to the iOS version on the mobile side.

I’m glad to have come around on the visuals in Return to Monkey Island. While I prefer the look of the original game, Return to Monkey Island feels like the correct step forward for bringing the franchise into the modern era. The aesthetic not only works well in motion, but it looks gorgeous on high resolution displays. Return to Monkey Island on iPhone doesn’t have fullscreen support and runs in 16:9 with black bars on my iPhone 11. The iPad version runs fullscreen on my 11" iPad Pro though and looks superb.

Barring the writing and visuals that are a huge part of the experience, audio is where Return to Monkey Island absolutely shines. The voice acting is superlative, and it is backed by an incredible soundtrack. It feels weird to think of it like one, but this is probably the closest we will come to a AAA point and click adventure game. While not the same genre, I think we should be talking about Return to Monkey Island alongside great games like Pentiment.

Having now played Return to Monkey Island on basically everything but PS5, it shines on a portable. The iOS versions have controller support as well as touch support as I mentioned above, but so do the Steam Deck and Switch versions. Given the game looks, runs, and plays brilliantly on all portables I tried it on, I recommend getting it wherever you enjoy playing games the most. There is no definitive portable version because they are all excellent. My favorite version is definitely the iPad version on my iPad Pro.

On the topic of accessibility, when you start a new game, you’re given the option of playing in casual or hard mode. The former is for those who want easier puzzles and to focus on the story while the latter aims to be a “full monkey" experience with more and harder puzzles. The hint book which you obtain in-game can be used in both difficulty options. If you did play prior games and have more time to spend on the game, I’d recommend the hard mode. I think 11 hours is about what you should expect if you don’t use casual mode and end up retrying some puzzles a few times. Return to Monkey Island ended up being a lot meatier than I expected.

Usually, I’d be hoping for a Switch physical release for a multi-platform game I enjoy a lot at this point, but Return to Monkey Island is already getting a physical release this week on PS5, Xbox, and Switch. I pre-ordered it the moment I finished writing this review. My only complaint about Return to Monkey Island on iOS right now is that it doesn’t seem to have functional cloud save support between iPhone and iPad. I tested this with the pre-release build so things might change at or soon after launch, but it didn’t work across two different iCloud accounts on four devices.

I hope Devolver Digital can work with Lucasfilm and Terrible Toybox again to bring some of the earlier games to modern platforms. They deserve to be played by as many people as possible, and Return to Monkey Island proves that the team handling the games knows what makes these special, and does enough to make them feel good for newcomers and veterans to the genre. The only reason you should avoid Return to Monkey Island is if you don’t enjoy point and click adventure games that can have some obtuse puzzles. This release does enough with accessibility and hints to negate that, but I’d only hesitate in recommending it to that group of people. If you do enjoy the games, just go buy Return to Monkey Island on iOS and enjoy your weekend with it. It rules.

Luck be a Landlord has you trying to defeat your landlord by earning more through slot machines to pay your ever-increasing rent. Despite the aesthetic and it involving slot machines, Luck be a Landlord is a premium game with no in app purchases. Initially, Luck be a Landlord felt like a decent time waster that I might get bored of in an hour or so, but the hooks were in after a few attempts at defeating the landlord. You see, each spin gives you things to add to your deck, or in this case slot machine. These change how much you earn, synergize with other items, and can turn the tide of a spin as you inch your way towards your rent target for that cycle. After every rent payment, your rent increases and you eventually need to keep track of many items or symbols so you know what to pick next to make the most of the situation.

There are so many combinations of items and symbols that I sometimes feel like I’m playing The Binding of Isaac. Luck be a Landlord also has loads of achievements though the developer couldn’t add as many on Game Center thanks to a limitation on Apple’s side. The in-game achievements match other platforms though. One quality of life feature I’m glad to see included from the start, is the ability to increase the speed or turn off animations and go for instant results in spins as you earn coins. This makes it even better to just pick up and play on iPhone when you have a few minutes spare.

On PC, Luck be a Landlord has support for mouse and controller inputs. On iOS, it only has touch controls. I wouldn’t use a controller for a game like this given the touch option, but it is worth keeping in mind for those who plan to play on iPad where I prefer using controllers in most games. The interface has been brought over very well to touch, but you will need to tap on a few things more often to understand mechanics in the early hours of playing. For accessibility, Luck be a Landlord lets you adjust font, maximum frame rate including 120fps on my iPad Pro, various colors including that of the main background, item text, symbol text, and more.

As I played more, I started discovering specific items and symbols that I found working better, but the randomness element is going to constantly make you think on your toes with each spin. This is a positive or negative depending on who you ask. As someone who enjoyed the randomness element in games like Hearthstone to the point where I only focused on those joke decks by the end of my time with it, I’ve enjoyed being screwed over by a bad spin in Luck be a Landlord as weird as that sounds. Since this involves slot machines, you need to expect and welcome that, but it still might not be a positive for some players. The other aspect some might be put off by is the sheer number of items and possibilities making the early hours feel a bit daunting to progress, but this learning by experience is what gets me deeper into games like Luck be a Landlord and Slay the Spire.

Visually, I like the Luck be a Landlord aesthetic a lot. It has great pixel art for various objects, animals, and more. Animations are also very nice and smooth on my devices. Given the amount of different characters and items in the slots, the pixel art is still quite varied and recognizable. The music from Vincent Colavita is surprisingly catchy as well.

If you’ve already played Luck be a Landlord on PC, and are wondering how the mobile port is, it is fantastic if you’re ok with portrait gameplay on iOS. Barring that, I saw nothing in the PC version that would make me want to play it there over my iPhone. You can play it on Steam Deck without issues if you prefer playing there over mobile, but the iPhone version is my favorite way to play Luck be a Landlord.

In its current state, the only thing holding Luck be a Landlord back on iOS is seemingly lack of cloud save support between devices and the lack of landscape support which the developer has already commented on. Everything else about Luck be a Landlord on iOS is fantastic. This is easily my favorite way to play it, and I hope the patch with landscape mode does end up releasing soon after the engine adds support for it on iOS.

Luck be a Landlord manages to perfectly blend slots with a deckbuilding roguelike. I never thought those two would work, but just like Peglin taught me recently, the developers that manage getting genres like these working together are the real ones to keep a watch over for future games. Luck be a Landlord is a game I’ll have on my iPhone homescreen for a long time. I just hope the update with landscape support arrives in the near future. I liked it enough to buy it at full price on Steam soon after playing the iOS version. It is that good.

In pretty much every culture there is the concept of the “one-hit wonder". Lou Bega. Dexys Midnight Runners. Los Del Rio. The Tokens. These are all musicians, but you can apply it to other art forms. It’s a term of light mockery, relegating such creators to the annals of trivia for the crime of only making one amazing thing. The absolute absurdity of it only became apparent to me as I got older. Stepping up to the plate of creation and sending that cultural ball flying out of the park even once is more than most of us will ever manage. So what if a person only pulls it off once? Wow, you only made Take On Me. Ridiculous.

It’s ridiculous precisely because making something great, even once, is hard. Like, stupid hard. You have to have a great idea, you have to do the work to bring the great idea to fruition, and you probably need more than your fair share of support and luck along the way. If you’re missing any of those things, there’s a very good chance the rest is going to fall apart on you. So yes, if someone makes one awesome thing, I absolutely tip my hat to them. Without all of those “one hit wonders", the world would be a lot less interesting. The App Store in particular would be in rough shape, because some of the best games in the history of iOS were one-offs. Either the developer moved on, or nothing else quite landed the same way.

So, Arnold Rauers. TiNYTOUCHTALES, if we want to use the official developer name. I know not whence Rauers came, in terms of game development. As TiNYTOUCHTALES, he hit the ground running with the phenomenal Card Crawl. Perfectly suited to mobile, and a game I can still fire up and have a really good time with. Simple enough for anyone to pick up in a game or two, but complex enough to keep you playing for years. Card Thief was another piece of brilliant work, and very much unlike Card Crawl in terms of design and rules. Miracle Merchant, perhaps his most approachable game of all, and once again completely different. Even the games that didn’t quite hit as well as those, ENYO and Maze Machina, show a remarkable amount of ingenuity in their design while carrying forward what I can only assume are the basic principles by which Rauers works. Hey, where did Gnomitaire go? Well, no matter.

It would not have been unusual for Rauers to have disappeared after Card Crawl, but he kept on making more mobile games and steadfastly refused to retread old ground. It has not ruined him, as far as I can tell. Certainly not in terms of the quality of his games. I have eight folders on my phone dedicated solely to the works of single publishers: Radiangames, Simogo, Butterscotch Shenanigans, Michael Brough, Quantum Sheep, SEGA, Square Enix, and TiNYTOUCHTALES. It is the most minor of honors, but it is the one I have to offer. I do not need to know anything about a new game from any of these parties before buying it. They have my utmost trust.

Geo Gods is probably not going to have the same pick-up as Card Crawl or Miracle Merchant, but I might end up being completely wrong. I hope I am. As upfront experiences go, this is certainly on the more complex end of Rauers’ works. It doesn’t take too long to learn how to play, but it does take some effort to learn how to play in a satisfying way. The basic idea here is that you are planting a garden of gods. I don’t know either, but let’s roll with it. You’ll do this by placing gods in each of the spaces on the game board, with the game ending when you’ve either filled up the board or run out of the Mana Gems you need to play your gods. Your aim is to rack up as high of a score as possible, with that score resulting from a wide array of complex interactions.

Bordering the board are Power Crystals, each attuned to a specific element. They’ll apply their elements to spaces on the board, with the result being that each hex space has one to four marks on it associated with them. Sigh. This is already getting hard to explain. Let’s go back to Mana Gems and the gods. Each turn you’ll be presented with three god cards drawn from three piles. You can pick one of the three to play, and where you can play them is determined by the Mana Gem that is up at the moment. It will have a number from one to four, and that will determine which spaces are open to play a god on. One is for one elemental mark, two is for two marks, and so on. Each of the gods has their own point value, and they’ll also have an ability of some kind. These abilities can be very beneficial or troublesome depending on how you use them, so you can’t just fire them out carelessly.

Playing gods will also count down the numbers on the Power Crystals. When they reach zero, that Crystal is unlocked and will give you an additional point bonus. Unlock them all in a game and you’ll get a huge boost. So you’ll want to have that sub-goal in the back of your mind as you play, keeping some degree of balance in the elements of the gods you throw out there so as to unlock each of the Power Crystals. But it’s just as important to focus on the gods you’re playing and how their abilities will interact with each other, because that is where the real gold is found points-wise. Each turn you’ll be given three fresh cards, but you can lock one of them if you feel like. You can also pass a turn, but you’ll reduce the value of the current Mana Gem the first time you do so and shatter it if you do it again. This of course puts you at risk of running out of Mana Gems before you’ve filled the board. You have to be careful with these moves, but they too interact with some god abilities.

Simply putting up one good score isn’t enough, either. You have to play six rounds of the game, after which your average score will be taken as your high score. With all of the variables at play, there are plenty of opportunities to find your way to new highs with smart strategy or a bit of dumb luck. You can also find your way to a low score if you lack both. Geo Gods is a game where you really need to think carefully about each card you play, where you play it, and what is around it. At the same time, there isn’t a whole lot of push back for playing badly. You’ll get a low score, but that’s the only real penalty. I think this might be the part of the game that isn’t as strong as some previous Rauer efforts, as the lack of clear and immediate feedback about how the player is doing might cause some players who are less motivated to become disinterested.

As Jared also mentioned in his write-up, however, Geo Gods is free to try out. You can more or less play the whole game as much as you want, allowing you to get a feel for whether or not it is for you. There is an IAP you can purchase, and it will unlock some extra cards and features. If you like the game, you’ll want to buy it. It’s a meager $4.99 in US dollars, which is more than fair for how much you can get from this game if it gets its claws into you. I guess I should also mention the presentation. It’s nice. Looks decent, and it’s quite functional. Rauers always handles this well, so it’s not very surprising he’s pulled it off again here.

Geo Gods is another clever game from a developer who is now holding a full hand of them. It takes a little more effort to come to grips with than some of the other TiNYTOUCHTALES games, and there is the usual strong random element at play that will occasionally mess with you, but such is life. The important thing is that this is a game that keeps on growing as you put more time into it, flourishing like the garden it depicts. It’s more than worth the investment to learn for all the entertainment it will offer you in the long run.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, is a standalone sequel to Oxenfree: Netflix Edition, but given both games are now included in Netflix Games, I’d still recommend playing the original first. Having context and expectations from the first game definitely shaped my experience in Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, and I ended up appreciating it a lot more. Even if you aren’t a fan of paying for a subscription to play games, the original Oxenfree is often dirt cheap on PC and consoles, and is absolutely worth checking out.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is set half a decade after the first game. The opening hour felt very weird in a good way as I played more as Riley, the protagonist of this game. It kind of felt like coming back to an old vacation home that somehow is creepier and bigger than before. That holds true for most of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. Everything here is bigger than the original, and things feel more polished overall. The voice acting is superb, visuals amazing, and music everything I wanted. There are some downsides though, and they involve backtracking. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals‘s vibe is immaculate, and while the puzzles were simpler than I expected even coming from the first game, I loved seeing the characters over the course of the six or so hours I spent to see it through to the end. There is some replay value, but the slow-paced gameplay made replaying it a bit annoying.

I ended up liking Oxenfree II: Lost Signals more than the original in many ways thanks to its cast. Just like the studio, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals feels like a more mature story despite the supernatural and thriller elements. This also applies to the visuals and scope that feel bigger and better. The flashbacks, interactions with other NPCs, and narrative all come together very well. I mentioned the opening hour feeling weird in a good way, but the opening bits should’ve been paced better. The later parts of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals ended up carrying the narrative where I wanted. Night School definitely needs to do another game, and I’m glad to wait half a decade more to see how a potential Oxenthree would end up being. While I didn’t get on with Night School’s Afterparty, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals feels like a return to form for the studio.

Playing Oxenfree II: Lost Signals across multiple devices has also been interesting. It runs and looks amazing on Steam Deck and newer iOS devices. On Nintendo Switch and also on iPhone, some of the larger portions of the games with a zoomed-out camera can cause some visual issues, but this isn’t a problem on Steam Deck or iPad. On the visual side, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals looks excellent on Steam Deck and iOS, but is a bit blurry on Nintendo Switch. The performance on Switch is also not as nice as modern iOS devices or Steam Deck, but it gets the job done for the game. The load times are my main complaint with the Switch version right now.

On the controls side, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on iOS supports full touch or controllers. I played with my DualSense on iPad and touch controls on iPhone. Both worked as they should. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals even showed me PlayStation button prompts on my iPad when I used my DualSense controller. The Switch version also includes touchscreen support which is how I spent most of my time with it in handheld mode. On Steam Deck, you can use touch controls to simulate mouse input. Speaking of Steam Deck, despite not being Steam Deck Verified, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals runs perfectly. If you want the best portable experience and don’t want to play it through a subscription service, I’d recommend playing it on Steam Deck.

Barring the backtracking and some issues with the camera, my only problems with Oxenfree II: Lost Signals have to do with how I ran into a few bugs with the dialogue boxes or some tutorial tooltips glitching out and remaining on screen longer than they should. Everything else was polished and great. If you didn’t like Oxenfree, I don’t think Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will click with you, but it is worth trying out in Netflix for sure.

I did end up using the larger font option while playing. The default size feels built for playing on a monitor while the larger one worked better for portable play. Since I’ve now played Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on Steam Deck, iPad Pro, iPhone, and Nintendo Switch, I’m going to replay it in a few months on PS5 to see if Night School did anything interesting with the DualSense controller there.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on mobile is my favorite way to play it. Not only did Night School do a great port that feels perfect on iPad, but it also looks and runs nicer than the Switch version. Having now played Oxenfree II: Lost Signals on Steam Deck, iPhone, iPad Pro, and Nintendo Switch, Night School and Netflix exceeded my expectations, and I hope it gets a physical release so I can add it to my Nintendo Switch collection alongside the physical release of the first game. This is Netflix’s best original addition to its games subscription since Poinpy, and one of my favorite mobile games of 2023.

In this Bugsnax iOS review, I’m going to cover the game itself, the port quality, touch controls, controller support, comparisons with other consoles, and more. I’m very impressed with the port, but it needs a bit of work on the iPad version right now. Since launch it has already been updated once to improve thermals and also to adjust the default frame rate, but I’d recommend playing around with these settings if you do buy Bugsnax to find the best settings for your device.

In Bugsnax, you arrive on Snacktooth island looking for Elizabert Megafig. You interact with various colorful characters on the island while trying to discover the mysteries and solve puzzles that involve capturing Bugsnax. There are tons of species, and each one involves its own little puzzle. There are also secrets to discover with the tools available to you growing over the course of the main story. The world of Bugsnax feels very real, and it is quite cozy despite getting dark later on. Bugsnax on iOS, just like the Switch and Xbox versions, debuts with the Isle of Bigsnax DLC included. This was a free addition to the base game on PlayStation and PC platforms with a nice location full of larger Bugsnax species. The only thing I don’t like is how you can’t directly access this DLC if you already played the game through a previous release.

On iOS, Bugsnax lets you adjust the maximum FPS across targets of 30fps, 30-60fps, and 60fps. Devices with 120hz screens also have a 40fps option. This isn’t something you usually see on mobile, but is something I’ve been seeing on PS5 with 120hz and also been using on Steam Deck after adjusting the screen refresh rate. You can also adjust the field of view. Since launch, the game has gotten updated a few times with the newest update (as of Sunday) even allowing you to choose quality presets, resolution scale, and shadow quality. These are visible on my iPhone 11 but not on my iPad Pro (2020).

My iPhone 11 ended up running the game better than my iPad Pro (2020) model overall. Bugsnax runs superbly on iPhone 14 Plus as well. The performance and visuals are better than Nintendo Switch overall, especially the performance, but it doesn’t look as nice as the PS5 version on my iOS devices. I feel like it might be close if I had a newer iPad Pro model. Overall, I’m very pleased with the performance and visuals in Bugsnax on iPhone, but it could’ve looked a bit better on iPad.

When Bugsnax was announced for iOS, I was curious how it would control on the touchscreen. It took me a little while to get used to it after playing Bugsnax multiple times with a controller, but the touch controls are great. I found them better on iPhone than iPad though. On iPad, I’d stick to using a controller like I do with most games that are ported to mobile from console and PC platforms. The touch targets and on-screen buttons are well thought out, and it almost feels like Bugsnax was always planned to hit mobile.

On the controller side, Bugsnax has full controller support. I used my Razer Kishi V2 on iPhone and my DualSense controller on my iPad Pro to play Bugsnax. The implementation of adaptive trigger support is great, and it immediately makes this my second favorite way to experience Bugsnax. The best way is still the PS5 because of how awesome the DualSense features are, but Bugsnax on iOS is the best portable version for sure. If you play with a controller, it is the same control experience as on other platforms.

Barring my issue with the game not letting older players directly access the new DLC content, there are some aspects of Bugsnax that might not work for people. If you aren’t too bothered by certain puzzles and solutions to problems being a bit too vague or out there, you will not have any issues in Bugsnax. Just be prepared for it to not look as nice as it does on PS5 if you have an older iPad model like I have.

Bugsnax is priced at $24.99 on PC and console platforms. Bugsnax on iOS is priced at $9.99 and it is a universal app covering iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS. As a value proposition, Bugsnax on iOS is the best version for sure since you have access to playing it on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV while also getting touchscreen and controller options. It also helps that this port is very good. I’ve also been glad to see a developer of the mobile port be very responsive to feedback in our forum thread.

If you skipped Bugsnax before, this iOS version is superb. The developers went above and beyond with the port by even adding many DualSense features that work wirelessly in addition to delivering an excellent conversion when it comes to visuals and performance. This is easily the best portable version of Bugsnax, and the low asking price compared to other platforms makes it an even easier recommendation. It still has the same issues as the original game, but Bugsnax has never been more accessible, and this is one of the best mobile ports of 2023.

If you’ve not played McPixel or even heard of it before, it is basically a parody of a parody taking place with hilarious over-the-top situations that play out in point and click puzzles. McPixel 3, the sequel to McPixel, is big enough to be basically two games combined compared to the original. The real draw of McPixel 3 is seeing the various situations play out as you work your way towards more of the levels and see more of what Sos has to offer here. Over a decade after launching McPixel, McPixel 3 on iOS is a joy to play, and it is good enough to make you forget about the awful McPixel 2. If the humor doesn’t click with you though, this is going to be a waste of three bucks. McPixel 3 and its blend of crude or “out there" writing and solutions is definitely not for everyone. It is however for me, and I was super glad to see Sos manage to impress me nearly throughout when I first played McPixel 3.

McPixel 3‘s structure is a bit different though as you make your way through the levels and earn coins. Earning coins in a game always makes me feel like things will get grindy because you do use coins to unlock new stages, but things never get annoying. The few times I did have to go earn coins, it was a rewarding experience. It must have taken a ton of design work to make sure this aspect doesn’t become annoying for players. Nothing in McPixel 3 is a waste of time, and you’ve already wasted some time reading this review while wondering about McPixel 2 instead of buying the game haven’t you?

Expect to see everything McPixel 3 has to offer in under half a dozen hours. It isn’t a long game, but is beyond worth the asking price. While I already knew the solutions thanks to playing McPixel 3 before the mobile release, I still enjoyed my time with it on iPhone and iPad. It looks and runs perfectly, and I’d say it even feels better to play on iOS than any other platform. This is where I’ll get into the platform comparisons based on my time with McPixel 3 on Xbox Series X, iPhone, iPad Pro, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck.

On iOS, McPixel 3 does not have controller support. It doesn’t need it though. I did not enjoy playing it with a controller on Xbox and even used touch controls when I played McPixel 3 on Nintendo Switch. The touch controls are perfect. On the visual side, depending on your device, you can enable or disable cinema mode and also toggle scaling. It scales perfectly across every device I tried it on, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to you on whatever you’d like to play it on, but just keep in mind that it doesn’t feel as nice with a controller as it does with touch controls.

Here’s the thing. I get why games like this are now released first on PC and console platforms. McPixel 3 is priced at just $2.99 on iOS and Android while it is $9.99 on other platforms. I don’t think it would’ve done well at full price even if it did hit mobile alongside other platforms. I’m ok with Devolver Digital bringing games to mobile after they’ve sold enough at full price on PC and console platforms. We are seeing that with Return to Monkey Island as well. Hopefully these late ports do well enough for Devolver to keep getting more games on iOS and Android. I hope we eventually get stuff like Cult of the Lamb as well even if it does require a controller to play.

Playing through McPixel 3 feels like grabbing an issue of MAD Magazine because I never knew what to expect when I went ahead in my initial playthrough. McPixel 3 on iOS is essential, but it will absolutely feel like poop if the humor doesn’t click with you. I loved McPixel and McPixel 3 is everything I wanted in a sequel and more. The wait for it on mobile has been long, but even in my third playthrough, McPixel 3 is just superb, and it will make you forget all about McPixel 2 which doesn’t exist so don’t worry.

Stakes Winner 2 was a relatively swift sequel, as these things go. The first game was an immediate hit in Japan when it hit in late 1995, and SNK wasn’t going to rest on its laurels. Developer Saurus was tapped to make another game in the series, and it wouldn’t be the last time it would have to take on this task. It would, however, be the last time Saurus would do so on the NEOGEO hardware. Given the quick development cycle of just one year, you can probably imagine that the game doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. In a lot of ways, it feels very similar to the first game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something to keep in mind.

That means the racing action is going to be familiar if you followed my advice and played the first game. You’ll have to manage your stamina as you make your way around each track. grab useful items, and try not to run into any of the other horses while doing so. There’s a new Burst move you can use once per race in the final sprint and it can be the difference between victory and defeat. Each horse now has a stat for this ability, so you’ll want to consider that when picking between the now dozen-strong roster. Jockeys now have some special moves of their own, busted out with fighting game-style commands, and this adds yet another layer of strategy to each race. The races are faster and even more fun than before, and while I will once again bang my drum that this game is super-fun with another player, it’s good enough to enjoy even if you’re riding solo.

Those new jockey moves come courtesy of the Jockey Training selection between races, a new feature added to the game. Pay a big chunk of money, get a slick move. You can also pick these moves up if you manage to beat a Rival when they challenge you. As before, you can also train your horse in a minigame between races to get some permanent upgrades to their stats, an essential part of keeping pace with the pack as you go deeper and deeper into the career mode. You’ll also find yet another new addition between races in the form of a special shop. You can spend your hard-earned money here to buy items you can use in the next race. So here again we see the basic foundation of the first game left intact but with new things built on to add some complexity and strategy to the proceedings.

One more cool thing is that you can now choose between two… what are they called? Derbies? Well, you can pick between Europe or America this time, which means you’ve got two completely different modes to clear in story mode, each with their own tracks. Given that you will likely be playing this mobile version of the game in single-player, that kind of extra content is extremely meaningful. All the new ways to spend money add another consideration to your gameplay choices, because your final winnings is your score. If you spent more along the way, your score will be lower. To push your score higher, you have to rely less on the various helpers the game offers. In this ACA NEOGEO version, it’s even more important since you’ll be posting that score to the leaderboards to compete with other players.

Look, I’ll wear it proudly: I love Stakes Winner and I love its sequel even more. I didn’t think I would, but after giving them a fair shake I think these are some of my favorite non-fighters on the NEOGEO. The second game is one of the deeper single-player experiences available on the platform, as far as I’m concerned. I know this kind of game is odd for Western tastes, but if you’re patient with it and take it on its own terms, I think you’ll love it too. As a game, Stakes Winner 2 is excellent.

How is it as a mobile experience, though? Well, as mentioned you aren’t going to get to play the fun multiplayer mode unless you have external controllers and a desire to huddle around your mobile device. I think it’s wonderful even as a single-player experience, so it can survive that loss. As for the controls, I do have to admit that pulling off the special moves is a bit trickier than I’d like on the virtual stick. It’s a bit better to play on an external controller if you have one, but I’d say it’s still mostly fine on touch controls. Just be aware this is a more complex game than the first one and that means the controls have more to deal with.

The extra ACA NEOGEO modes are here, and the Score Attack mode is a great challenge. The Caravan mode doesn’t do much for me on this game, but you can’t win them all. The usual options are available, so you can tweak game settings, controls, and so on as you like. Hamster’s emulation is as on-point as ever, so the game looks, sounds, and plays just the way it should. I’d like to do my usual whinge about not having internet or wireless multiplayer, but I acknowledge that some of these games are so niche that I should be happy we’re getting them at all.

If you liked Stakes Winner, you’ll love Stakes Winner 2. While the core of the game remains the same and the overall presentation hasn’t changed a great deal, the additions to the single-player mode significantly enhance the overall experience. It’s a zippier game, a more strategic game, and just a better experience on the whole. There aren’t many games like this out there, especially in English, and I think those who are willing to take the gamble on something unusual will find themselves rewarded for their courage.

I don’t think we’re alone in that, though. The screenshots look like any other game of this sort. The description’s English is a bit spotty. The price is quite low. Even when you start playing, it’s not immediately obvious that there’s anything especially cool about it. I’ll be direct here and say the game is absolutely terrible at teaching the player how to play. You just go in and start playing it like it’s a normal duck, matching swords and coins and watching the enemy health go down. But there are mysterious elements in the UI, and unless someone tells you what everything is about you might well play several stages without knowing even about the game’s main hook.

You see, Bright Reappear has one especially compelling mechanic. One that actually gives the genre a good hard shake. You’ll see some little dots in the window with your character and their foe. These are action points. You can make one match per dot on each turn. By default you’ll usually have one dot, so you make one match. But depending on your chosen character and other circumstances, you might have more. Tap the pieces you want to move corresponding to how many dots you have, then move them all with one mighty swipe. They have to move in the same direction, but other than that you can do whatever you like. Building up a bunch of action points and then letting it rain on the enemy is very satisfying. If you’re careful, you can also use these multiple matches to set up big combos. They’re also useful for managing the status ailments that enemies toss at your tiles.

They toss a lot of them, too. There are tons of ways they can mess with your field of tiles, and even defeating an enemy won’t remove the mess they’ve made. You’ll either have to clear them yourself or finish off the boss of the stage. It is really easy for things to get way out of hand, so making careful use of your action points is a must. Matching multiples of pieces works like most other games of this sort, creating pieces that will clear out rows or columns, explode the immediate area around them, or even take out every matching piece on the board. You’ll want to save as many of the big ones as you can for the boss of each level.

The tiles come in four types. The attack tiles look like your chosen character’s weapon and deal damage when you make a match. Green potion tiles restore some of your health when you match them. Coin tiles give you coins, naturally. I’ll explain about those soon, but they work like you would expect. Finally, there are books. Matching them will give you experience points, filling a little bar that sits under your health bar. When it tops off, your health will be refilled and your stats will go up. A well-timed level-up can be the key to getting past some bosses that are giving you trouble, so even managing your experience points gain is part of the strategy.

Leveling up isn’t the only way to improve your character, though. I suppose this is as good a time as any to go into the more RPG-focused bits of the game. First up, you can choose from six different heroes, though only four are initially available. This of course changes your appearance and your starting stats, but the main thing this decision affects is your suite of special moves and abilities. For example, the Thief can hide in the shadows so long as he doesn’t attack, allowing you to rack up matches of the other three tiles practically unscathed. He is absolutely broken. The Archer gets an extra action point every second turn, which is also quite useful. Don’t stress too much about it, you can change whenever and start leveling up a new class if you don’t like your current one, and then switch back later if you prefer.

When you level up you’ll earn points that can be assigned to your three stats. By default the game will do this automatically, but you can override it and do it yourself if you like. I advise doing so. Beyond your stats, you can also equip gear. You’ll find that gear when enemies drop it, but there’s also a shop back at your base that will sell a selection of goodies if you have the gold. There is also a blacksmith there who will upgrade your existing gear if you have the gems to fuse to them and the necessary coins. This can fail, but I’m not sure if it’s a bug or a feature. That is not the only part of the game I can say that for, but I suppose more on that later. Anyway, better gear helps. And you’re going to need it.

Bright Reappear doesn’t have a difficulty curve so much as a difficulty mountain range. A very craggy one, at that. Expect to hit certain bosses that can feel almost impossible, depending on your character and build. The levels of the game are broken up into worlds, with five levels per. The final boss of each world is usually a real nasty piece of work. Thieves keep winning, is all I will say. Otherwise I recommend redistributing your stats and trying to get a level up at the right moment. Tenacity will eventually see you through, even if only by pure luck, but it can take a really long time with some of them. I think it was the fourth world where I was just about ready to throw my device out the window. Well, the first time. It gets a lot worse from there.

Anyway, it’s a neat game. Very fun. The action point gimmick is fantastic, and I find myself trying to come up with really wild chains that simply wouldn’t be possible in other games. It’s hard as an old boot, but that’s fine. I’m in no hurry. The dialogue is goofy because of some iffy localization, but it’s not like other games in the genre don’t suffer from a similar issue. The game looks alright. It could use more music, but I suppose there’s only so much you’re going to commission or compose when most people are going to have the mute switch on. The biggest problem in Bright Reappear, in my opinion, comes from the bugs.

There are times where elements of the UI won’t disappear when they are supposed to. Sometimes fusions will fail and as I mentioned I am not sure if that is intended or not. Once while I was playing the game glitched out and my shop for the Archer turned into the one for the Dwarf, with Chinese language descriptions instead of English ones. I restarted the game and it corrected itself. Sometimes you can still keep playing after your character dies. Just a lot of weird little glitches and bugs all around. Nothing fully show-stopping as far as I’ve found, and I’m very far into the game, but they all add up to make the experience feel a lot less polished than you might hope.

Still, none of that really keeps Bright Reappear down. The action point system adds a whole new dimension to a genre that frankly has gotten a bit stale of late, and I’m happy to be having to use my brain in a new way for a puzzle RPG again. If you enjoy match-3 RPGs and can forgive a healthy sack full of rough edges, I strongly encourage you to check out Bright Reappear. It’s good stuff.

Going through parts of the campaign again to help my friend get through it for the first time has gotten me to enjoy bits of it even more now. One specific scene towards the end of the story remains a highlight for Blizzard’s cinematic team as well. It reminds me of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. The quality of life improvements to inventory are also welcome. In a lot of ways, this is how Diablo 4 should’ve launched for its post-game and in general.

If you missed the news from around its launch on the platform, Diablo 4 is Steam Deck Verified and the only real caveat is that it is an online-only game. To revisit the game for its Steam launch, I resumed an older character and started a new seasonal character on my PS5 and Steam Deck. Progress syncs seamlessly across both, and Diablo 4 just feels perfect on Deck. As such, my score will not change as it currently is still a 4.5/5 experience. The original review based on the game’s launch and Battle.net version is below.

Original review from launch: I hadn’t played a Diablo game until Diablo 3 hit PS4 and a close friend convinced me to get it to play in co-op. I ended up enjoying that quite a bit, and have since bought Diablo 3 on every platform to replay over time. The Switch version is by far my favorite way to play Diablo 3, so I was a bit disappointed that Diablo 4 was not only not coming to Switch for launch, but also to not see it on Steam. I hadn’t invested any effort into trying to get third party launchers on Steam Deck, but Diablo 4 was the push I needed. In the time I’ve spent with it, Diablo 4 joins Dead Cells and Hades as “Perfect for Steam Deck" despite the few issues it has.

Before getting to the actual Diablo 4 Steam Deck review, I’m going to emphasize that Battle.net is not officially supported on Steam Deck and Blizzard does not officially support the platform. I only decided to do this review after getting Battle.net working and setting things up in minutes, and having tested it twice to verify things are easy and simple. This resulted in an amazingly fun Diablo 4 experience that I’ve enjoyed for more than 55 hours across Steam Deck and Xbox Series X with full cross progression and online play. I got it running through this amazing guide from MonroeWorld on YouTube. I’d recommend watching that if you aren’t familiar with getting Battle.net installed on Steam Deck.

After getting Battle.net running and installing Diablo 4 (without the high resolution texture pack), I was floored at how good it felt to play, and also how well it ran for the most part. The main areas I ran into performance issues or stutter were in the towns with a lot of other players around you. Dungeons, strongholds, exploration, story moments, and just general combat hold up brilliantly on Steam Deck with the settings I used. While some might want to opt for 60fps by turning things down, I couldn’t get a stable 60fps at all, so I set the Steam Deck screen refresh rate to 40hz and played with a 40fps target. I was very happy with this blend of settings based on the medium preset with FSR helping a lot.

Since Diablo 4, unlike Diablo 3, has full controller support, there are no control issues on Steam Deck. The font scaling and native 800p support make Diablo 4 shine on Steam Deck even though it hasn’t launched on Steam and is on a system that isn’t officially supported by Blizzard. I played Diablo 3 and Diablo 2 Resurrected on a controller, so I had no trouble playing Diablo 4 on Steam Deck. In fact, having the same positions for face buttons on Steam Deck and Xbox Series X made this feel like a perfect complement to the home console version. This obviously requires two purchases, but I will get to that in a bit.

Since the Steam Deck is a portable system and Diablo 4 is an online-only game, I wanted to make sure I test it when played outside the house. I went to my favorite coffee shop and tethered my Steam Deck to my phone hotspot. With this setup, I played through a few dungeons with friends and had no connection issues. The only time I ran into any issues here were in towns with other players loading in. I’m not sure if this is network related or just the game itself, but the frame rate was more stable in busier boss fights in dungeons and strongholds with a lot of enemies and effects.

Speaking of online-only, Diablo 4 has had the best launch of any Blizzard game in recent years. I expected a mess like the launch of Overwatch 2, but I’ve only had 2 disconnects and two instances of server-related issues in over 55 hours of playing across two different platforms. When I learned Diablo 4 was online-only, I joked about how the launch would be miserable, but here we are. Blizzard proved they can handle it for the most part. I just hope it gets updated to fix the few glitches I’ve run into with NPCs stuck in animations or in the geometry.

Now, Diablo 4 itself is fantastic. It isn’t perfect mind you, but feels like everything I wanted from a follow-up to Diablo 3, with its superb combat, excellent gameplay loop, loot, and its stunning visuals and art direction. I’m definitely going to buy a full artbook if Blizzard releases one for Diablo 4. The character designs, enemies, and cut-scene direction are a lot better than I expected. On the audio side, it delivered in spades with its memorable soundtrack and superlative voice acting. Caroline Faber, Steve Blum, and Gabe Kunda are highlights for the main characters alongside Andrew Morgado who voiced the Druid that I played.

Speaking of the Druid, while I spent time in the beta as a Barbarian, I specifically chose a Druid for my first full game character because I wanted to try out a class I hadn’t played before, and also see some particle effects to push the Steam Deck. I ended up loving the Druid builds I used and experimenting with quite a few options in my campaign playthrough. The campaign has a few moments that feel like padding where you spend too much time walking between objectives, but I’m impressed with the open world Blizzard has created here, and how much you are rewarded for exploration. The level scaling is something you may or may not like though, but how Blizzard handles balancing when you play with friends is excellent.

This Diablo 4 Steam Deck review aims to help a few kinds of potential buyers. The first is those who have Diablo 4 on PC already, and are wondering if the effort of getting it running on Steam Deck is worth it. The answer is an easy yes. The second group is those who want to play Diablo 4 on a console, but are wondering if it is worth buying Diablo 4 on PC again to play on Steam Deck. This depends on if you like what you’ve played of the game on console. I’d say buy it on PlayStation or Xbox and play for a few hours to see how you feel. The final group is those who only are considering buying Diablo 4 to play on Steam Deck and nothing else. As of this writing, I can recommend it, but because of how things might change with updates, my answer might vary. Assuming nothing changes with compatibility, I will recommend Diablo 4 on PC to play on Steam Deck. It feels amazing on the handheld.

Diablo 4 also launches with an in-game shop that has free-to-play tier in-game currency bundles available, but as of this writing, you can only buy items that are cosmetic. The battle pass is not available right now, so I cannot comment on that. The in-game store right now reminds me of how Ubisoft handles Assassin’s Creed Valhalla cosmetics, but I’m not a fan of how most of the ones in the Diablo 4 shop look. It isn’t great to see these in a $70 game though, but that ship has sadly sailed a while ago. I can only review what was available to play right now, and not potential future issues, so keep that in mind.

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I should even spend time trying to get Diablo 4 running on Steam Deck, but enjoying Diablo 3 on Switch as much as I did pushed me to test this out on Steam Deck. Setting things up was simple, and Diablo 4 is a joy to play on Steam Deck with barely any additional work needed. The game itself is fantastic, and I’ve enjoyed my time with it solo and with friends on Steam Deck and Xbox Series X since launch.

I’m not a fan of it being online-only, but barring that, Diablo 4 is brilliant, and I hope Blizzard releases the soundtrack on vinyl soon. Diablo 4 feels like a game Blizzard made to show it still has it. I adored Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and the first two years of Overwatch, but never really clicked much with the publisher’s releases since. Diablo 4 is a true Blizzard home run, and one I look forward to playing for years to come. Even in its current state, it is a massive win, and a superb base to build on.

Diablo 4 Steam Deck Score: 4.5/5

Note: Given how things can change on Steam Deck with updates, the OS itself, and third party games, consider this review and all performance information as valid and tested (on two Steam Decks) as of the time it was published. With Diablo 4 in particular, it is a third party launcher and those sometimes break with Steam Deck system updates.

Interested in more Steam Deck coverage? Check out our Steam Deck recommendations!

• The Best Steam Deck Games of 2023 So Far
• The Best Upcoming PC Games We Want to Play on Steam Deck in 2023
• The Best New PC-Only Games
• The Best New Games
• The Best Indie Games
• The Best JRPGs
• The Best Accessories
• The Best Fighting Games
• The Best Games to Play on Steam Deck
• The Best Steam Deck Games You Can’t Play on Consoles

League Bowling is another one of those early NEOGEO games, dating back to the console’s first year on the market. Its most impressive on-paper feature was its support for the NEOGEO Multi Link, which allowed four cabinets to be connected together for a whopping eight-player battle. In practice, I don’t think I ever saw four NEOGEO cabinets in one place together. But hey, cool idea. Each cabinet supports two players, and indeed even when you are playing solo you’ll only be working with half of the screen. The other half will helpfully display the extremely complicated set of controls for the game.

There are three different modes of play in the game, and in all of them your goal will simply be to score as many points as you can. You can pull in a second player in this mobile version if you have enough external controllers to go around, but otherwise you’re just going to be bowling alone and trying to carve your place on the scoreboards. The first mode is Regulation, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Bowl your ten frames and see how close to a perfect 300 you can notch. Flash mode offers up a timing-based bonus if you can throw a strike or spare, and the total here can go as high as a whopping 3,000 if everything lines up right. Finally, there’s Strike 90. In this mode, strikes earn you 90 points for the frame and spares get you 60. The maximum score here is 900 points.

After choosing your mode, you also get to choose which hand your bowler will use and how heavy of a ball you want. It adds a little depth to the game, but you can also just ignore it if that’s your preference. Then, it’s time to bowl. This is one of the more straightforward NEOGEO games control-wise, and it makes it a great fit for mobile players who are using touch controls. The stick moves your bowler left or right. One you’re in your preferred position, press the button once to stop the direction meter and again to stop the power meter. It’s all timing and knowing which throws you need when, so pretty much anyone can get the hang of it in a hurry.

And that, my dearest chums, is it. There’s nothing more to it. Get your best score, enter your initials, tell Hamster’s wrapper to submit your score to the online leaderboards, and have another go. You can choose between the Japanese and International version of the game, and you also have a Score Attack and Caravan mode as usual. The Score Attack mode is functionally the same as playing normally, as it’s always one credit for one game anyway. The Caravan mode gives you five minutes to get as high a score as you can muster. Realistically, unless you really dawdle, your game should always be over within three or four minutes. But hey, another leaderboard to compete on.

League Bowling has often been criticized for being a little too thin and a little too repetitive. But it’s bowling, isn’t it? If you try to jazz it up too much, you’ll just break it. Within an arcade setting, it was just about perfect. Waiting for your clothes to finish washing? Need to kill a few minutes before the movie starts? On a break from work? Pop in a coin and have a quick game. Its simplicity and straightforward nature are exactly what make it an excellent arcade game, and I’ll go as far as to say that it also makes it a great mobile game. Touch controls? No problem. Don’t have a lot of time to spend or don’t want anything to involved. It’s got your back.

The leaderboards add further incentive to keep improving, and you can always compete with your own scores as well. But it’s also just good fun to play a game or two, in and of itself. Who doesn’t like watching a ball speed down the lane and take down all of the pins? It’s one of those primal joys that jolts humans directly in the happy zone of our monkey brains. We throw a thing at a thing that is pretty far away, and we knock down that thing. Ah, that’s the caveman happy juice. And League Bowling will absolutely hook you up with it. Throw in some colorful, cartoony visuals, and the crisp sounds of the ball and pins, and you’ve got a great mobile sports game that isn’t going to shake you down for extra money. Well, not in this form anyway.

Now for the boilerplate ACA NEOGEO stuff. In addition to the two different versions of the game and the extra modes, you’ve got a wide assortment of options for the game, display, and so on that you can tinker with as needed. You can use an external controller if you would prefer to, and if you have an extra you can play multiplayer. This is the only way you can do so, however. And there is unfortunately no way to access the multiplayer modes for more than two players. It’s just how it is. The emulation quality is up to Hamster’s usual speed for NEOGEO, which is to say it’s pretty much spotless.

Simply put, if you’re looking for a great pick-up-and-play sports game for your mobile device, you can’t go wrong with League Bowling. It’s perhaps simple and streamlined to a fault, but the bowling action is precisely what it needs to be where it counts. It’s a great companion to Big Tournament Golf, and indeed might even be a better choice when time is of the essence. The light nature of the game suits this platform well, and it plays like a charm with touch controls. An easy recommendation.

For my review of The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, I’m going to cover why this is my favorite FMV game of all time, how it plays on both iPad and iPhone, compare the different versions briefly to help you find what to buy, and also what needs fixing in potential updates. I’ve said this before, but The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story feels like the closest experience to an interactive version of a big budget Netflix drama.

The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story has you tackle multiple murders taking place over the span of a century in an FMV game, and its production values are superlative. It is unlike anything I had played before, and I still think about how the developers pulled this off during a pandemic as well. As an FMV game, you will spend most of the 14 or so hours runtime watching scenes play out, but the way the cast takes on different roles across different time periods across the story is fantastic.

As the name suggests, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story focuses on the Shijimas, and begins with you taking on the role of mystery novelist Haruka Kagami meeting them. The story deals with murders, betrayal, family heirlooms, curses, and more. On paper, I thought I’d get tired of the same cast throughout, but this is the best showcase of the actors’ talent with how they managed pulling off multiple roles and how it all fit perfectly into the overarching narrative and reason for this playing out. As a story-focused release, I’d recommend buying or trying this through the demo if you have a remote interest.

Barring watching the story progress through a video and making some decisions, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story has you putting together clues and mysteries to form your hypothesis as Haruka Kagami. This involves scrolling through a timeline grid and placing hexagonal pieces correctly. It isn’t very simple, but sometimes going through the motions of various options to find the solution you’ve already figured out might get tiring. This section plays out like a blend of a basic matching game as you find the correct patterns on the pieces. The solution phase comes after this where you use your hypothesis to try and get to the bottom of the problem.

As a smaller cast than I expected, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story does a lot with its talent. FMV games live and die by their acting and production for the videos, and I’m yet to see one deliver on immersion like The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story did since I played it last year. Barring Nanami Sakuraba who plays the protagonist Haruka, Mansaku Ikeuchi is easily my favorite of the cast. The original actors spoke in Japanese, but there is an optional English voice track. I was pleased to see the option, but the English dub here should’ve been better. I stuck to Japanese for my playthroughs across all platforms after testing out the English option for a few hours.

Hayashi Yuuki’s score for The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is amazing. The different versions of specific songs that play based on the era in-game are excellent. The entire soundtrack is great, and I’m glad Square Enix finally added it to streaming services worldwide when the mobile version of the game was released. The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story was a highlight of 2022 not just for its story and actors, but also its music which I continue listening to outside the game.

Visually, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story looks gorgeous. The encoding done for the videos isn’t perfect, but it looks great on my iPad Pro (2020) model almost all the time. There are some instances where I’d have preferred higher resolution videos though. As a game designed for 16:9 displays, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story does have black bars with artwork to fill up the screen depending on your device. There is seemingly no way to zoom in or change the artwork used in these parts. There is an option to change the quality of the 3D gameplay portions which apply to the hypotheses.

When it debuted on PC and consoles last year, I wasn’t a fan of the controls. The cursor movement was too slow even on PS5, and it just felt sluggish on Switch in parts. It was also a bit annoying to go through the Reasoning Phase with picking up hexagons and placing them on the grid. A post-launch patch dramatically improved how I felt about the controls, and I still hoped to see touch support added on Switch. It never arrived. On iPad and iPhone, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story plays great, but I wish it ran at a higher frame rate in these parts. Granted, I don’t have the newest devices, but I would’ve liked a performance mode for the Reasoning Phase at least. The controls during the actual FMV sequences are perfect on a touchscreen.

I was curious about how The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story would handle the install size on mobile given it is over 15GB even on Switch. On iOS, you need to download an additional 1.53GB in-game just to start the prologue after the initial App Store version is installed. Beyond that, the remaining chapters can be downloaded on demand when you reach them in-game or from the title screen. The total remaining download size is 13.68GB for the full game.

My issues with The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story on iOS specifically are the lack of iCloud save syncing, no controller support (minor issue), and some interface elements not being high resolution. Having 4K video support for the in-game FMV sequences is not feasible given the file size of those videos on PC and PS5, but Square Enix should’ve made sure the game’s interface looks crisp on all devices. Controller support isn’t needed, but I don’t get why they didn’t leave it in since this game is available on consoles with controller support already. The lack of iCloud sync is annoying. It would’ve been great to play this like watching something on Netflix by resuming across devices. I am pleased that The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story does not have online DRM for launching the game like Square Enix’s Voice of Cards trilogy on mobile.

The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story – PS5, Switch, Steam Deck, PC, and iOS compared

The best way to experience The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story right now is on a 4K display on PS5. it has the best visuals, DualSense features, and more. The PC version with the 4K DLC pack is a close second, but the PC version has no Steam Cloud support in its current state. Following those two, I’d go with a newer iPad as the best way to experience The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story on the go. It has great visuals and plays brilliantly. It isn’t as intuitive on a smaller screen so I would go iPad over iPhone unless you have an iPhone 14 Plus or similar sized screen. The Switch version has the slowest loading, some performance issues, and the lowest quality for the videos compared to other platforms. Steam Deck can offer a better experience thanks to 1080p videos downsampled on the system, but the screen isn’t as good as an OLED Switch or any recent iOS device I have access to.

My recommendations, assuming you have access to the systems, are PS5 if you don’t care about portability and iPad if you want the best portable experience. You can try out the free demo for The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story on PS5, PS4, Switch, or a Windows PC right now to get an idea of how it looks and controls on your platform of choice.

While I hope it gets a demo at some point on mobile like on other platforms, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is a gem of an FMV game, and one of my favorite Square Enix games in over a decade. The story is fantastic and the actors were amazing across the board. All of this was elevated by its magnificent soundtrack. Having hit mobile with all updates included and controls well, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story on iOS is the best portable version of the game. My favorite version is still the PS5 release, but I’m very pleased with how The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story turned out in its mobile debut. Hopefully the few issues I have can be sorted in updates.

Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden, like Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, is a very straightforward turn-based RPG mechanically that is elevated by its tabletop and card game aesthetic. This entry is set on islands in an ocean with ancient spirits, and the structure sees you rotating some party members and visiting said islands. The narrative is definitely darker than the first game as well as you try and save one specific island from destruction. You also get more freedom than the first game here, though it takes a bit to open up.

Barring the setting, story, and music, Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden is pretty similar to the first game. There are some additions to combat, but nothing that will change your mind if you didn’t enjoy the first game of the prologue. One other notable aspect is the difficulty. The first Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars was quite easy, but Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden is more challenging. It isn’t too difficult, but it feels like it respects the player’s skill level more. While it was obviously in development before, it is good to see some player complaints get addressed in this second game.

If you’re completely new to the series and want to start with the best game, Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden is my favorite by far, but I would still recommend getting the free prologue to see how you feel about the port quality, controls, and aesthetic. Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars Chapter 0 Demo is available on iOS and Android for free. This is a demo and a prologue to the trilogy. Keep in mind that the high speed option that dramatically improved my feeling on the games is not present in this demo / Chapter 0 release.

Just like Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden has no controller support. I tried my DualSense and 8bitDo and also my Kishi V2. A controller isn’t the best way to play it anyway, but considering Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden has ports to PS4 and Nintendo Switch alongside controller support on PC, it should’ve been added for those who do want the option. Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden also unfortunately does not include iCloud save support.

Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden also includes optional paid DLC through in-app purchases. This DLC is similar to the first game, but the contents are different. The optional cosmetics and background music DLC here is themed around NieR: Automata so it includes a 2B avatar, Copied City board, Resistance Jukebox, and more with a pixel art set. I don’t think the DLC is worth it right now unless you already played Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden on another platform and are replaying it on mobile, in which case it might be a nice change.

Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden on my iPhone 11 and iPad Pro looks good, but it runs similar to the first game, which is not as smooth as the PC and PS4 versions. I hope Square Enix can address this for newer devices at least because modern mobile hardware should be able to do this and also not have load times that are this long just like the first game. The aesthetic still looks great, and Kimihiko Fujisaka’s art shines once again with the main and side characters. The use of color in particular is very good in this game compared to the The Isle Dragon Roars.

My main complaint with Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden is still the online check on launch. This is a paid premium game on iOS and there is no need to punish players with online DRM like this. I hope an update in the future can remove this.

While I like the story and structure of Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden a lot, the music is just sublime. I regularly listen to songs from the soundtrack I bought on iTunes while working, and it definitely is one of Square Enix’s better soundtracks. Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden also includes dual audio, and I’d recommend trying out both options for a bit if you aren’t sure what narration language to go with. There are subtitles so you can still play with Japanese voices if you prefer that.

I played Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden on PC, Steam Deck, iPhone, iPad, and Nintendo Switch (docked and handheld). As of this writing, my favorite ways to play it are iPad and Switch as long as you’re ok with the online check in the mobile version. Both of these versions don’t run as smoothly as the PS4 and PC versions, but iPad and Switch are a lot more convenient for a game like this compared to something like Steam Deck, especially with great touch controls.

As a tabletop or game book aesthetic, I’m going to keep playing games like this on a portable as long as the conversion is good. It is playable on everything it released on, but I’d go iPad over iPhone for sure here if you have the option. The lack of iCloud syncing makes this decision harder as you can’t play on both if you have them.

Despite it having the same port issues as the first game, Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden is a more-polished entry and my favorite in the Voice of Cards trilogy. I liked the structure and story a lot more, and the music is sublime. It is a shame that Square Enix has still not patched out the online DRM and added cloud save support to these releases. If you’re new to Voice of Cards, I’d recommend playing Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden above the other main games. I hope we see more like this series in the future from Square Enix.

If you’ve never heard of Super Meat Boy or Super Meat Boy Forever, the original Super Meat Boy is one of the best and hardest platformers ever. It felt like the start of us getting super hard platformers that we saw with the recent and beyond amazing Celeste. I love the original Super Meat Boy and have enjoyed playing it on every platform. When Super Meat Boy Forever was announced for mobile back in 2014, I was curious, but skeptical of how it would play out. Having avoided every release until recently playing it on Steam Deck, I get what Super Meat Boy Forever was aiming to do, and like it.

Super Meat Boy Forever includes levels that are algorithmically generated using smaller chunks. These smaller chunks, of which Super Meat Boy Forever includes thousands, are hand-crafted. So while it isn’t fully procedurally generated or not fully hand-crafted like the original, Super Meat Boy Forever tried to do something different, and it seems to have not hit for some. I somehow avoided the response to Super Meat Boy Forever when it hit other platforms, and have seen a lot of disappointment.

Having spent too much time in Super Meat Boy, recognizing mechanics like the fans or specific biomes and such in Super Meat Boy Forever never got old. I adored the changes to specific bosses and all the new content Super Meat Boy Forever features that make it refreshing for longtime fans and also a great way to get into Super Meat Boy for newcomers with its absolutely rock bottom asking price on mobile now.

As an endless runner, Super Meat Boy Forever controls perfectly on mobile. There are tutorials when new mechanics are introduced, and multiple level segments that let you get used to said mechanic before you’re thrown into levels that assume you know how things work. I tested Super Meat Boy Forever with touch controls, a controller on iPad, and both the Razer Kishi V2 and Backbone One PlayStation Edition on my iPhone 11. Super Meat Boy Forever is the first game where I vastly preferred using the Backbone One for its face buttons compared to the smaller ones on the Kishi V2. I initially hoped for a single-handed mode with portrait support given this is an auto-runner, but it wouldn’t work out practically given the levels and chunks of levels included.

Beyond the levels in the worlds and the bosses, the collectibles and challenges included for dark world and unlocking characters add a ton of replay value to what is already a game that will keep you busy for a long time with how it presents levels to you across runs. I’ve said it before, but it feels like an absolute steal at just $0.99 offering all of this.

In most situations, mobile games are priced lower than the PC and console versions. There are some instances of mobile games costing more, but usually they cost a fraction of what they do on other platforms. Super Meat Boy Forever is priced at $19.99 on other platforms, which some think is a bit too expensive. I expected it to eventually cost $5 or $10 on mobile and thought the former might go down better with the platform audience. A $0.99 price point isn’t something I expected. In a lot of ways, those who are remotely interested in Super Meat Boy Forever likely don’t even need a review because it is priced at only $0.99. I still thought this disparity in pricing is rare today, and feels like the team is undervaluing this game.

Super Meat Boy Forever on iOS has 30fps and 60fps modes. The default mode on my iPhone 11, iPhone 14 Plus, iPad Pro (2020), and iPhone 13 Mini was 60fps. I didn’t bother turning it down. I had no major performance hiccups, but did run into the game displaying some visual artifacts in some levels. This didn’t happen every time, and wasn’t on all devices.

The original Super Meat Boy soundtrack is as legendary as the game, and even though the newer ports feature an alternate soundtrack that I’ve slowly gotten used to, I initially wished Super Meat Boy Forever had a soundtrack like the original because the opening level music didn’t fit for me. The music got better further into the game though, but I still think this is one of Ridiculon’s weaker albums while their other work on The End is Nigh and The Binding of Isaac (Rebirth onwards) is great.

If you already own and enjoyed Super Meat Boy Forever on PC or console, the mobile version is still absolutely worth it at the low asking price. If you don’t, and are wondering where to get it, there isn’t anything that would warrant buying it on a non mobile platform right now based on the time I’ve put into Super Meat Boy Forever on Steam Deck, my laptop, iPhone, and iPad.

Super Meat Boy Forever is a 16:9 game so it doesn’t use the full display real estate on taller phones, and has black bars on those and iPads. I hope a future update can add some border options to avoid black bars, but the visuals and performance are good overall. In potential future updates, I’d also love to see proper iCloud save syncing. It would not work for me across any of the five devices I used with two different iCloud accounts set up. Barring that, the bugs like the visual glitches or some level-related issues that others have run into need to be addressed so Super Meat Boy Forever can reach its full potential on mobile.

In its current state, Super Meat Boy Forever is best on mobile, but the iOS version at least needs a bit more work. Despite the issues, I’ve loved most of what Super Meat Boy Forever has to offer, and it is hard to argue against it being worth the very low asking price right now. It took nearly a decade to hit the platform following its original announcement, but Super Meat Boy Forever for mobile is here, and the wait has been worth it.

Sid Meier’s Railroads is a business simulation and tycoon classic from Firaxis that debuted in 2006 on PC. Since then, it was released on macOS through Feral Interactive, but the current PC version is quite dated compared to the mobile release. As with Company of Heroes, Feral Interactive’s mobile version of Sid Meier’s Railroads basically feels like a remaster with how much has improved in bringing it to mobile. In this iOS review, I’ll cover Sid Meier’s Railroads itself, the iOS version, how it plays compared to the game on Steam Deck, and more.

In terms of contents, Sid Meier’s Railroads on mobile from Feral Interactive includes all single player content from the original PC game. This means the 16 scenarios and 40 real world engines are included. Multiplayer is not included, but the developers went and added new objectives for eight of the 16 scenarios specifically for mobile. The mobile version also lets you pick the Baron, company color, and starting city unlike the desktop version. Barring these changes, the new interface on both iPhone and iPad is amazing.

Initially, I thought Sid Meier’s Railroads would be more hardcore simulation, but I was surprised at how much it satiated my desire for a model train game as well, while allowing for multiple difficulty tweaks. It feels like the perfect game if you’ve ever wanted the model train experience of laying tracks, buying trains, and more with objectives to work towards. When you start with a small track and your city, your adventure or run begins for this playthrough. The tycoon simulation aspect comes into the picture with supplies, strategic planning, passengers, and upgrades. The core gameplay loop is a lot better than I expected, and this is definitely a genre that we don’t see too much of in the premium gaming space on mobile.

For accessibility, you can change the difficulty when starting a new scenario, and even use “Train Table Mode" that is perfect for those who just want a model train simulation game without worrying about events, money, and other in-game modifiers. All of this is elevated by a lovely in-game tutorial system that you can use to guide yourself when you find yourself stuck. As usual, Feral Interactive also included some tutorial videos through an external YouTube playlist.

Visually, Sid Meier’s Railroads on mobile is dramatically better than the PC version. It uses the PC version’s structure, but everything looks nicer from the cities to the tracks and also the redesigned interface. It also looks excellent on iPad Pro and iPhone screens. The audio design in Sid Meier’s Railroads deserves a special mention. The music is superb and I love how it changes depending on what you focus on.

I tried Sid Meier’s Railroads on my windows laptop and MacBook Air. The experience isn’t as good as the iOS version with how dated the interface is. Playing with keyboard and mouse on a tablet is a much better experience right now if you do want that control method. When comparing the iPhone and iPad versions, I was very impressed with how playable Sid Meier’s Railroads is on my iPhone 11. I vastly prefer playing it on iPad Pro, but it is very good on the smaller screen.

In terms of mobile-specific features barring the redesigned interface, Sid Meier’s Railroads has full iCloud save support. As with the developer’s prior releases, this works flawlessly, and I’ve had no trouble swapping between my iOS and iPadOS devices in Sid Meier’s Railroads. I really wish other developers managed getting iCloud save syncing working this well.

The iPad version has support for keyboard and mouse controls in addition to touch controls. I tried these with the Apple Magic Keyboard I use on iPad and my Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse. They work well, but I enjoyed using the touch controls more overall. The keyboard and mouse support will be great for those who played Sid Meier’s Railroads back in the day on PC or those who prefer playing these kinds of games with that input method.

Performance has been good on my iPhone 11, but it runs a lot better on the iPhone 14 Plus I used to test as expected. I imagine the best version is a modern iPad Pro. While the game is capped to 60fps right now, I hope a potential update can allow uncapping the frame rate at the cost of battery drain for those who want to experience even smoother performance.

The only aspect that might put some off, is in how Sid Meier’s Railroads isn’t as deep as many other games in the genre. Barring that, Sid Meier’s Railroads is an easy recommendation for everyone even remotely interested in train management and simulation games.

While the asking price is higher than most expected given it is more than the current Steam version of the game, the quality of this conversion and the game itself more than justify the asking price. I don’t even feel the need to own the Steam version anymore with how much better this mobile release is despite the lack of multiplayer. If you’ve ever been interested in this game, the mobile version is the one to get. I really hope 2K hires Feral Interactive to do a full remaster for this on PC like Sega did with Rome Total War Remastered.

Developer Saurus was founded in 1994 and was largely made up of former SNK employees who didn’t feel like moving to Osaka after SNK closed its Tokyo offices. It worked on several NEOGEO games along with a variety of console ports and is probably best known in the West as the team behind the Shock Troopers top-down run-and-guns. Like a lot of the developers working on NEOGEO games in the later years of the console’s life, Saurus was really good at flexing the aging system’s strong points to make attractive, detailed visuals for its games. Anyway, off to the horse races.

Horse racing is still somewhat popular in Japan to this day, but in the 1990s it was going through an especially big boom. In typical fashion, everyone and their uncle was soon making a horse racing game for the various consoles of the era. The junk bins at second hand game shops in Japan are positively drowning in horse racing games for the Super Famicom, PlayStation, and SEGA Saturn. Some of those games took a heavy sim approach to raising and racing your steeds, while others were little more than gambling games. Stakes Winner does what many other NEOGEO sports games did so well: it takes a sport with a lot of nuances and complicated aspects and compacts it into a fun, approachable arcade game.

The first thing you’ll do when you start the game is name your jockey. Four letters ought to be enough for anyone, right? You then get to choose your horse from a group of several colorful characters. They all have their own stats, racing style, and appearance, along with a fancy name. With that done, you’re ready to race. There are twelve races in total in the game, and you need to rank in the top three if you want to win any money. As an added incentive, failing to rank in the top three means you’ll have to drop another coin in. That doesn’t matter much for us here in the current year with our fancy unlimited credits, though. Neigh, it’s all about that cash prize total, which works as an ersatz score. You’ll want to do your best to earn the top prize in every race.

The racing itself is fairly simple. You can move your horse around with the stick, with a double-tap forward making it jostle any horses in front of it and a double-tap back slowing you right down. You have one button that flicks the reins a little and speeds up your horse at the cost of a little stamina, and another button that whips the horse for a big speed burst at the cost of a lot of stamina. That’s all there is to it. The first couple of races are so short that you can pretty much fly through them at top speed without fear of running out of stamina, but after that you’re going to have to be very careful about when and where you apply that whip.

Throwing a wrench into the racing is the presence of pick-ups along the track. Some of these are good, offering you a speed burst or extra stamina, while others are bad, slowing you down for varying lengths of time. In case you were wondering why you would ever use the move to slow down, avoiding those bad items is one great reason. The only other wrinkle to the game comes from the training segments, where you can earn permanent upgrades for your horse. You’ll need to get good at these as the later races are almost impossible if your stats aren’t up to where they should be.

While it’s far from conventional, especially if you’re unfamiliar with horse racing, Stakes Winner offers all the fun of a good racing game. The core stamina management aspect forces you to consider the track you’re on, and the pick-ups and other horses add in that vital element of chaos that keeps things spicy. You can even play this with another player, and it’s an amazingly good time. Of course, that’s pretty hard to do with this mobile version. You have to play locally and you’ll need some external controllers. I’m just going to assume you’ll mainly be playing alone. Still, even taken in that context, Stakes Winner is really enjoyable.

Hamster has done its usual work with this, and I could almost copy and paste this paragraph in these reviews at this point. You get a wide range of options to tweak, and you can choose between the Japanese and overseas version of the game. The usual extra modes are here, though they’re not quite as fun as they are in something like a shooting game. You can use an external controller to play, though the touch controls are mainly adequate. The double-taps are a little annoying to do on a virtual stick, but you can get the hang of it with a bit of practice.

Stakes Winner gets some extra credit just for being something a little off the beaten track, but it is a genuinely excellent arcade game all on its own. SNK had a knack for this sort of thing, and the end result is a horse racing game that I think anyone can enjoy even if they have zero prior interest in the sport. I hope we eventually see the sequel, Stakes Winner 2, but until then there’s plenty of fun to be had with this fine version of the original.

Punch Kick Duck is another action game, but this time instead of taking on the shoot-em-up genre, the developer has offered his take on another popular genre from the good old days of the arcades: the single-plane beat-em-up. Think Irem’s Kung Fu Master, and you’ll be on the right page. You guide your duck (or other character, more on that later) across each stage, fighting off the various enemies that assail you. You have but three moves in your arsenal. Well, you’ve read the title so you can probably take a guess which moves they are. You’ve got a high punch, a mid-level kick, and a ducking sweep.

It’s all rather simple at first. A bunny approaches and you give it a punch. A pig rolls up and you give it a kick. A lanky weasel approaches and you give it a sweep. They show up in groups, but as long as you keep your wits about you it isn’t too much to manage. Oh, and there’s a bear chasing you. You can’t do much with him, so best to pick up your feet when you aren’t fighting so that you can stay ahead of him. Reach the stairs and you’re home free to move on to the next floor. Don’t forget to pick up the coins the enemies drop while you’re at it. More on those later, too.

As you move up the floors, things get more complicated. Some of the enemies are pushing carts at you. Others toss bottles. You can deal with all of these things using your same set of moves, but you’ll have to learn which ones are best for which situation and when to use them. It’s such a simple system at its core, but thanks to the variety of enemies and interactions it always feels fresh. You’ll get a different arrangement of enemies each time you play, and there are multiple difficulty settings that mix things up even more. The challenge never feels unfair, and if you learn how to play well enough you can easily get through floors unscathed.

Okay, let’s talk about coins and characters. The coins enemies drop can be used for a few different things, but the most fun you can have with them is in using them to unlock new characters. There aren’t a ton of characters here, and that makes sense. Each one is carefully created and looks as natural in-game as the titular duck. It will take a lot of playing to unlock them all, so you’ll have something to aim at for quite a while. Each time you unlock one, you get a little animation of the character coming out of a package. Very satisfying stuff. The gameplay doesn’t change, but it’s fun to change things up visually. You can also use coins to continue if you’re defeated mid-stage. That’s less fun, but you can do it if you like.

So how does it monetize? The base game is free, and you’ll have to watch some ads now and then if you want to keep things that way. If you’re tired of the mandatory ads, you can drop a sweet two bucks on an IAP to remove them. If you want to spend more money, you can buy a couple of extra characters a la carte for a few bucks apiece. There are also voluntary ads that will earn you some extra coins, and that’s not a bad idea if you want to speed up the character unlocks and don’t mind watching them. All pretty reasonable stuff, particularly by modern standards.

Let’s talk about the presentation, because it’s absolutely dynamite. The game looks and sounds fantastic, and it’s appealing both in terms of art style and technical prowess. Shaun Coleman’s panache for pleasing, personable character designs helped make Shoot the Moon stand out and it’s on even greater display here. You could mistake it for a cartoon, and I love it. Oh, and you can play in portrait or landscape orientation, and the game is just as viable to play either way.

The only downside to the game is a usual one for beat-em-ups. If you really hunker down and settle in for a long-term session, you might find it getting a little repetitive after a while. As someone who loves the genre, it’s rarely an issue for me with good ones, and I do think Punch Kick Duck is one of the good ones. But I do know some people aren’t as keen on the constant slugfests with enemies and their endless twin brothers and sisters, and if that’s you then you might end up bouncing off of this game. The good news is that it is free to try in any case, so… you know, give it a try.

Punch Kick Duck is a blast to play, and a wonderful treat for the eyes and ears. It’s great to see Shaun Coleman take on another genre and put his unique spin on it, and the results are as good as I could have hoped. I hope our paths intertwine again in another ten years so I can see what he does with the single-screen platformer genre or something. For now, I’ll just keep enjoying this great slice of beat-em-up action. Perhaps you should, too.

Despite many attempts, the NEOGEO was never quite able to deliver a beat-em-up on the level of efforts from the likes of Capcom and Konami while the genre was still somewhat hot. It made a few good stabs, but truthfully once SNK caught the fighting game genre by the tail it simply made more sense to focus efforts there. I’m not sure what possessed SNK to want to create another one in 2001, but I suppose it was a strange time for the company on the whole. The company had been acquired by pachinko company Aruze the year before, had shut down its American offices not long after, and was about to run into one of the more bizarre bankruptcies and resurrections you can find in the video game business.

Amidst all of this chaos, game production marched on. SNK, such as it was, was working with a number of developers to continue producing games for the NEOGEO hardware. One of its more recent partners was Noise Factory, a local developer founded by ex-Atlus members who had worked on games like Princess Crown. Its debut title, Gaia Crusaders, was a beat-em-up. Perhaps that’s the reason why SNK ended up having the developer work on a further follow-up to the one NEOGEO brawler that managed to become a series: Sengoku.

It had been eight years since the 1993 release of Sengoku 2, and the whole business had changed dramatically. People weren’t playing Super NES and SEGA Genesis games at home; they were playing PlayStation 2 games. The arcades weren’t all about Mortal Kombat II and Super Street Fighter II anymore. Indeed, they were barely alive at all outside of Japan. As for the beat-em-up genre, it was a virtual corpse at this point. To the extent that it did exist, it was mostly through ill-fated efforts at bringing polygonal graphics to the genre. It was into this climate that Sengoku 3 arrived, and it’s little wonder that it mostly ended up flying under the radar as a result. Its home version sold in such low numbers that it fetches a couple thousand dollars in the collectors’ market these days.

A genuine shame it is. Sengoku 3 is easily the best beat-em-up on the NEOGEO. It’s also a rare example of its era, a time when games in the genre really had to be slick and have a strong hook to catch any attention at all. By this stage even Capcom was getting extremely experimental with its attempts. Sengoku 3‘s pitch wasn’t too wild. Four initial characters to choose from, as slick of a presentation as the NEOGEO could muster, some fairly involved combos, a few fighting game-style special moves, recruitable boss characters, and the ability to pick up a variety of projectiles and toss them at your foes. The game even had the audacity to ditch the character summoning from the first two games. Indeed, it’s almost a fully clean break from the previous games in all but name.

Perhaps the biggest improvements come in the general feel of playing the game, though. NEOGEO brawlers always felt a little odd when compared to the more popular titles in the genre. Sometimes it was the jumping. Other times it was the way hits landed on enemies. Sengoku 3 doesn’t feel weird to play. Quite the opposite. It’s as smooth as the best in the genre, and its wide variety of attack options mean you’re never lacking in new techniques to try on your foes. Hits land in a satisfying way, and the overall movement of your character feels right. You can do honest-to-goodness combos with juggles that go up into the double-digits of hits once you get good at the game.

So yes, Sengoku 3 is a spectacular effort. The best in its genre on the hardware by some measure, one of the finer games on the system full-stop, and a beat-em-up the system can finally put up against its competitors with pride. It plays really well with touch controls, and you can always make use of an external controller if you prefer. As usual, you’ll need external controllers to enjoy the game’s multiplayer features in this ACA NEOGEO form, but it’s a lot of fun to play even if you’re going solo. The usual wide array of options are present here including the now-standard extra modes Hamster packs into every ACA NEOGEO mobile release. It’s a good way to play the game, and is a great choice for fans of this genre who want to crack some heads on their mobile device.

Sengoku 3 was a little late to the party on the NEOGEO, but I’m glad it’s here in a somewhat more timely fashion for the ACA NEOGEO line-up. This is one of the shining jewels of SNK’s long-lived console, and it plays great on mobile whether you’re using touch controls or a controller. My gripes are the usual ones about not being able to play multiplayer online and the lack of AES options, but those are minor compared to the positive aspects of this game. You won’t find many better ways to deliver a beat-down on your device of choice.

Before getting to what makes Marvel’s Midnight Suns a great game, it has been an interesting journey with it on Steam Deck from day one. When I first tried it during launch week, I was shocked at how it was running a lot better than I expected. I played it for a few days, and even gifted it to a friend on Steam. Each update that arrived since, made it a worse experience for me, and I even had trouble loading my save for about two or three weeks. I gave up on playing it on Steam Deck and decided to focus on it on my laptop. Fast forward to last week, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is now Steam Deck Verified, and a recent update even fixed the Steam Cloud issues and made it a much better experience on Steam Deck. It isn’t perfect right now, but I can safely recommend it to any Steam Deck owner interested in it with a few caveats.

If you’ve not played Marvel’s Midnight Suns yet, it blends in Firaxis’ turn-based tactical RPG combat, card-based battles, and some elements of games like Fire Emblem Three Houses in the downtime between battles. You have excellent tactical battles that I enjoyed throughout the game, a lovely upgrade system, and light social elements as you interact with other superheroes in the Abbey which acts as not only your hub, but also a massive area full of secrets and more. The gameplay style perfectly suits the pickup and play nature of the Steam Deck, but it hasn’t been fun to play on Deck until now.

Since Marvel’s Midnight Suns only launched on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S alongside PC, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it on Steam Deck at launch. My launch setup is not really relevant anymore, but I’m very impressed at how well Marvel’s Midnight Suns plays on Steam Deck right now. I set it to the medium preset and tried the dynamic resolution and FSR options for a better frame rate. Right now, the tactical battles can hit 60fps relatively well with some drops during big skill animations, but the Abbey (your hub) is where performance drops to the 30s from 60. The best current setup would be turning a few things down to maintain 40fps in the Abbey and during battles. This will save you battery life as well as giving you a more consistent experience overall. With that setup, Marvel’s Midnight Suns looks very good on the Steam Deck’s screen, and it plays brilliantly in combat.

Ideally, I’d be able to set it to 60fps for battles and 30fps for the Abbey. Even at the lowest preset, running around in the Abbey can see it drop below 30fps for a bit, but it usually hovers around 40fps at the low preset. This doesn’t surprise me, because even the PS5 version doesn’t hold a stable frame rate in the Abbey, while my Xbox Series X’s support for FreeSync helped make things feel better here. Speaking of the other versions, I wish Marvel’s Midnight Suns had cross progression so I could take my progress across platforms.

My only issues with Marvel’s Midnight Suns right now, have to do with how the graphics settings sometimes didn’t save as I was checking different configurations to see how the Steam Deck handles the game in different scenarios, and in how the hub itself still isn’t optimized too well. The battles were a joy to play with great performance. I only had some drops during the special skill animations that had a lot of particle effects, but no issues during actual movement or gameplay where you have control of a character.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns itself is a bit too bloated, but I had similar issues with Fire Emblem Three Houses‘ downtime sections in between battles. I would’ve preferred if it was a bit shorter, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this much more than I expected. I even started the new Deadpool DLC which has been fun to play on Steam Deck so far.

While I wasn’t really sold on Marvel’s Midnight Suns pre-release, it has continued to impress me more as I played through the story, and it is chock full of a ton of optional content that will keep you busy for a very long time. It wasn’t a great experience around launch on PC, but Marvel’s Midnight Suns is well worth your time right now, and a joy to play on Steam Deck. It already felt like a perfect fit for Steam Deck from the start, and it has finally been fixed for Valve’s portable system with a recent update.

Interested in more lists? Check out our other Steam Deck recommendations!

• The Best Upcoming PC Games We Want to Play on Steam Deck in 2023
• The Best New PC-Only Games
• The Best New Games
• The Best Indie Games
• The Best JRPGs
• The Best Accessories
• The Best Fighting Games
• The Best Games to Play on Steam Deck
• The Best Steam Deck Games You Can’t Play on Consoles

Happy Game is a psychedelic horror experience that involves all sorts of disturbing and creepy characters in addition to blood, flashing lights, and puzzles. Just like Amanita Design’s Botanicula and Chuchel, the puzzles in Happy Game will either instantly click and pull you in further, or involve tapping all over the screen to try and progress. The way the developer’s design the puzzles, even the latter gives you good visual and audio feedback in most situations. Playing Happy Game like that makes it feel like a very horrific toy you’re playing with instead of you trying to make a little boy happy again while going through nightmares.

Expect to be tapping to move the little boy, dragging different things to complete puzzles, and more here. Once you finish a specific level, you can come back to it through the level select in the title screen. Each level has its own icon that is a nice throwback to either a character or a puzzle from that stage.

Visually, before watching any footage of the game, I was hoping that the signature Amanita Design charm would still be present despite the disturbing aesthetic. Thankfully, Happy Game feels like one of the best implementations of the developer’s take on interactions. This is elevated by the amazing audio design that carries through the music and sound effects. I wouldn’t listen to this score outside the game like I do with Machinarium or Botanicula, but it perfectly suits the visuals.

Having now played Happy Game on iPhone 11, iPad Pro (2020), and Nintendo Switch, all three versions are great visually and when it comes to feel. Amanita Design has implemented controller support for Switch, but it isn’t as nice as playing with touch controls. There is no controller support if you were curious about that on iOS, but having played Happy Game on Switch and iOS, it plays a lot better with touch controls. I would’ve liked to see some proper haptic feedback implemented though on supported iOS devices.

In my testing, I didn’t find iCloud save syncing supported in Happy Game. I’m not sure if this is not included or just an iCloud related issue that happens once in a while. Happy Game took me about an hour and a half to complete. Despite being a short game, I hope this can either be fixed or implemented in a future update.

Over the last few months, a lot of the ports of older games I thought would see premium releases on mobile have been launching on Netflix Games. Other original games that hit mobile are also launching either on Apple Arcade or Netflix Games. Happy Game is a rare premium standalone release from a developer that has games in subscription services on mobile being sold for a fraction of the cost on Switch and PC. This is the kind of game worth supporting if you enjoy horror experiences on mobile.

Happy Game is an essential for fans of Amanita Design’s games as long as you’re ok with disturbing and creepy images and characters. It has all the polish of the developer’s prior releases, but a completely new style that showcases how talented the developer is. Even with its short runtime, I have no regrets recommending Happy Game to any fans of horror and puzzle games who are up for trying something different.

I wanted to approach this Dead Space Steam Deck review a bit differently. I hadn’t actually played the original game until I decided I wanted to cover this new release, and it led to me trying the original out on Steam Deck alongside Dead Space. I also wanted to see how the Steam Deck would hold up compared to the PS5 version of Dead Space.

Dead Space itself is a game I wish I had played before. Experiencing it through this new remake reminded me of my time with Capcom’s amazing Resident Evil 2 remake from a few years ago. Playing it with a good pair of headphones has been excellent, but the real shocker has been how good it looks on Steam Deck.

As of this writing, Dead Space has been Steam Deck Verified by Valve, and it shows. The only changes I’ve made are forcing the game to display PlayStation button prompts in the settings, and also playing around with the graphics and display options for testing how much I can push the hardware. Rest assured, Dead Space is an excellent experience on Steam Deck now out of the box and I’m shocked that a current generation exclusive runs and looks this well on the hardware.

Dead Space has quite a few visual options to improve and adjust the image quality. I left the film grain and motion blur on for my first playthrough. It has dynamic resolution scaling options and support for AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0. I enabled both of them and used FSR 2.0’s performance mode with the automatic preset for most of my time with Dead Space. You can push some settings higher if you’d like and are ok playing with a 30fps cap (which you need to do on the Steam Deck’s own settings). I tested uncapped frame rate at the default settings and was surprised to even see it running at 60fps in parts with v-sync off.

On the performance side, there are a few things you can work with to improve the frame rate like a lower internal resolution (not 800p like I used), opting for a different FSR 2.0 mode, and even the Steam Deck’s own “allow tearing" option in the menu. The only issue with changing a lot of settings is you will need to wait for a few seconds or even 20 seconds sometimes for performance to stabilize after making big changes to the game’s setting. The major issues I ran into with my setup were in rooms with multiple enemies where the performance drops noticeably.

On the control side, I mapped any analog stick presses to the Steam Deck paddles as I don’t like pressing into the sticks. The remaining control options are fine as is. You can change to a control preset faithful to the original Dead Space or Dead Space 2 as well here.

While Dead Space is a fantastic game and a brilliant remake, it really needs commendation for its accessibility options. These aren’t as good as recent Naughty Dog games, but there is a lot you can adjust to make the experience more suited to your playstyle including the option to hide certain disturbing scenes and display more content warnings and colorblind options.

Despite being portable and having pretty good speakers, I’d recommend playing Dead Space with a good pair of headphones. The audio design is amazing, and an important part of the gameplay, so using the Deck’s speakers would mean missing out on the complete immersive experience.

Compared to the original game which also is Steam Deck Verified, Dead Space is a massive upgrade and improvement in just about every way. Hopefully EA gives Dead Space 2 the same treatment in the future, it would be great if Valve could work with EA to have its other AAA releases in such a nice state on Steam Deck from the start. If you’re curious how one of the last areas in the game looks, click here. I’m not embedding this specific image to keep this spoiler free.

Having also played Dead Space on PS5, the DualSense features like haptic feedback are not present in the PC version of the game even when using a DualSense controller wired. Barring that, Dead Space scales down very well for Steam Deck, but it really shines at higher fidelity and is brilliant on PS5 after the most-recent update. I haven’t tested the Xbox Series X version, but Dead Space is an easy recommendation on PC and PS5 in its current state.

I enjoyed swapping between my old laptop and Steam Deck while playing Dead Space without any issues. Despite a slightly rough launch day, Valve’s Proton fixes have made Dead Space a survival horror essential for Steam Deck owners, and a true tech showcase for the platform. 2023 is already starting out brilliantly for Steam Deck owners with Dead Space, Hi Fi Rush, and more playing great on the system.

Dead Space is available for PC on Steam here.

Interested in more lists? Check out our other Steam Deck recommendations!

• The Best Upcoming PC Games We Want to Play on Steam Deck in 2023
• The Best New PC-Only Games
• The Best New Games
• The Best Indie Games
• The Best JRPGs
• The Best Accessories
• The Best Fighting Games
• The Best Games to Play on Steam Deck
• The Best Steam Deck Games You Can’t Play on Consoles

Earlier today, Game Freak launched Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! () for Apple Arcade devices as the newest game on the service. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is a blend of a remake and a port of the Nintendo 3DS game for modern devices. I’ve been playing a pre-release build of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! on my iPhone and iPad for review, but wanted to also try the macOS and tvOS versions for this review, since this is the first time we have a Pocket Card Jockey game on non-portable platforms as well.

Since I didn’t put in as much time into the 3DS version as I had liked over the years, I can only comment on the similarities or differences in the early parts of the game. This Apple Arcade review will also focus mostly on the ports rather than the game itself, which is very similar to what I played on 3DS albeit with a few changes and one new feature.

If you aren’t familiar with Pocket Card Jockey at all, it is a card game that blends in simulation, solitaire, horse racing, strategy, and more. Initially, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! might seem a bit complex with its mechanics, but its gameplay loop is sublime once it clicks. If you don’t enjoy solitaire at all though, this isn’t for you. I enjoy seeing new takes on tried and tested gameplay, and Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! feels like a game that was always designed for mobile, rather than an enhanced version of a portable console release.

In Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, you spend time in races or in the simulation aspects. The former involves different phases. These include the solitaire, strategy, and resource management. The simulation aspects are quite deep, and you will see them continue to expand the more you play. Having played some Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! daily for about a week on different devices, I’m very pleased by the newest addition to Apple Arcade. The structure of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! allows for seemingly infinite replay value.

When it comes to the controls, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is very much a touch-focused game. While it does have macOS and tvOS versions since it is an Apple Arcade Original, those feel like afterthoughts. They even say “tap" instead of “click" for macOS. The tvOS version on Apple TV forces you to pair a controller to play Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, but you use it to simulate a touch cursor with the left stick and press the confirm button to click. The interface here also mentions tapping instead of clicking or pressing a button. There is no controller support on iOS and iPadOS as of this writing. I tried three different controllers on my iPad Pro with no luck. The interface feels great on touch, but this is worth noting as some people who subscribe to Apple Arcade enjoy using controllers to play games.

Barring the change to 3D for the racing, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! also has a new daily login system. This is something I expected given how the aim of this release is also to keep people playing the game and remaining subscribed to Apple Arcade. It isn’t a dealbreaker by any means, but something to keep in mind. I haven’t played the free-to-play iOS version of the game in Japan from years ago, so I’m not sure if this is a remnant of that release. There have also been a few changes to some aspects of the game from the 3DS version which you can read in my interview with Game Freak here.

I’ve praised Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! quite a bit, and while I love the transition the game has made from 3DS to modern iOS devices, I hope a future update can add a higher frame rate option. The races would be a lot nicer at 60fps or 120fps. I can’t imagine that is too much for modern iOS devices given the visuals on display. Barring that, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! looks great and seamlessly syncs across devices.

While some of the technical issues are disappointing, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! is an easy recommendation if you have an Apple Arcade subscription. The structure of the game perfectly suits the service, and I hope it gets updated over time to bring in new content and fix some of the issues. If you don’t have an Apple Arcade subscription yet but enjoyed Pocket Card Jockey on 3DS, this is the best reason to check the service out.

Given how Vampire Survivors remains a killer app for the Steam Deck and how amazing the game is on iOS, I wanted to make sure we cover the first ever paid DLC on Steam Deck. Having now spent over 12 hours with the DLC across Steam Deck and Xbox, I can safely say that Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell offers superlative value, but there is one annoyance with the game on Steam Deck in its current state.

Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell adds new characters, weapons, secrets, achievements, and a massive new map. Mt.Moonspell, the new map, has different biomes with unique monsters. This map feels multiple times larger than the other ones in the game, but the focus on exploration here makes a huge difference. In the base game core stages, I didn’t really bother doing much exploration barring looking for the stage power-ups or initially going towards the question marks to unlock something. With Mt.Moonspell, every run so far has felt like a breath of fresh, and confusing, air.

Early on when I was still getting used to the map, the late-game portions with tons of enemies made exploration borderline impossible. Imagine being stuck in a narrow corridor in a labyrinth-like zone but with tons of enemies covering the screen throughout. That is just one of the situations I had in the early hours of this DLC. I almost want every new DLC to have a large map like this with a different theme because of how good it is.

I’ve not seen every combination or all the synergies possible with weapons and characters in the time I’ve spent across platforms, but I’m more than pleased with everything I’ve experienced so far in Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell. A few of my friends have worked towards unlocking everything much quicker, but I’ve been slowly savoring the new content. The weapons in particular are fantastic additions. We usually see DLC that brings a lot less to a game sell for 10 or 20 times this price. Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell is absolutely underpriced for what it brings to the base game, but it has one flaw.

Right now, the only thing holding Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell back is the fact that the PC version still seemingly hasn’t moved over to the new engine port like the Xbox and mobile versions. This means performance in later parts of a run drop to sub 15fps on Steam Deck as shown in a screenshot here. This is my only complaint with the game and the DLC on Steam Deck right now. Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell elevates one of the best games of the year to a whole other level for a fraction of the already low asking price of the base game.

In the time I’ve spent with the DLC on Xbox Series X, the major frame drops only happened with damage numbers enabled. I usually disable them, but left them on to test. Things still get really bad, but the performance is much better than the game on Steam Deck right now. While not a complaint about the DLC specifically, I really hope that we get cross platform progression with Steam, Xbox, and mobile in the near future. Unlocking everything on multiple platforms isn’t going to be fun for most people.

In a lot of ways, Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell reminds me of the Dead Cells paid DLC where each pack offers a ton of value, but a lot of the players are just happy to throw more support to the developers for more free and paid content. If you enjoyed Vampire Survivors, the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC is an essential. The new map is massively awesome, and I can’t wait for the superb new songs to be added to the soundtrack. If this is the direction poncle takes with future paid content, I’m ready to keep gifting friends the game and its DLC across platforms.

Despite Vampire Survivors exploding in popularity on Steam, it only got its hooks in me on Steam Deck. I kept hoping for a mobile version with portrait support, and that has now happened. Vampire Survivors on iOS and Android is a free game with no in app purchases. It is ad-supported, and there is currently no way to pay to not have any prompts to watch ads. This isn’t like most free to play games where you forcibly see junk while playing, but a very unobtrusive button to watch an ad if you want. I hope there’s a way to pay to disable this permanently.

Now, the actual mobile conversion plays great on my iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020). When you initially boot up the game, it loads in portrait, but you can change this from the second screen in the options menu. This cannot be done while on a run though so keep that in mind. The options also let you adjust the sound effects, disable flashing, adjust the volume, hide damage numbers, and more. There are no control options or anything, but given the gameplay, those aren’t needed.

When it comes to the controls, Vampire Survivors is still a single stick game where you move and shoot at the same time. It is perfect for portable and portrait play with your thumb. While you can play it in landscape mode on iPhone, I’d only recommend doing so if you are using a Razer Kishi or Backbone One controller on your phone. I found those setups the comfiest so far.

Despite Vampire Survivors officially being announced during The Game Awards, it actually went live on the App Store and Google Play quite a few hours prior. Having played it a lot before the announcement and during The Game Awards, I’m ecstatic with how good most aspects of this conversion are. I just hope a future update can let us pay to completely disable ads and tracking with a one time in app purchase. I’m looking forward to trying out the DLC when it launches next week on Steam and eventually on iOS.

As for what I’d like addressed in future updates, some of the touch targets, while similar to the scaling on PC, are a bit small on iPhone. I hope these can be improved over time. The other issue is the game currently does not seem to have iCloud save syncing. If it does have it, I’ll update this, but I didn’t manage getting it working across four devices and two different iCloud accounts. The developers are working on letting players bring progress across mobile and PC/Xbox, so maybe that is when cloud saves will be sorted, but this is worth keeping in mind if you play on multiple devices like I do. Having the game suspend your run when you leave it and it closes in the background would also be a nice addition in a patch.

If you’re curious about where to play it right now, I’d say the best option is iPhone in portrait or landscape with a controller attached. I didn’t care much for it with touch controls on iPad, but using an external controller is great. Note that there are black bars in landscape mode depending on your device. I hope a future update can add ultrawide screen support, but that might not be feasible with how the game is designed.

It feels surreal to see Vampire Survivors have such a great version on iOS and Android already. I kept thinking it might release on Nintendo Switch and eventually PlayStation following the Xbox and PC versions before coming to mobile. Not only is it worth downloading, but it is completely free. Hopefully the mobile version eventually catches up with the PC and Xbox versions so we get DLC and updates at the same time. Until then, I’m getting back to trying to reach where I am on Steam Deck on my iPhone from the start, and having an absolute blast with Vampire Survivors again.

Pulstar is technically the predecessor to Blazing Star, even if the naming doesn’t make that connection perfectly clear. Developer Aicom changed its name and ownership between the two games, but there were several shared staff members and Blazing Star did indeed start life as a follow-up to Pulstar. Like Blazing Star, this is a side-scrolling shoot-em-up. It’s a very different animal, however, and I think it’s safe to say that a lot of things about that game were informed by reactions to this one. Don’t assume you’ll enjoy one because you like the other, in other words.

There’s an elephant in this room, so let’s name it first. This game is pretty obviously inspired by R-Type, and not by a little. I’ve heard some people whisper legends that Pulstar was developed by ex-Irem people who were dissatisfied with R-Type II‘s direction, but I can’t find anything to support that. Aicom was kicking around at least as far back as 1987, the year R-Type released. There’s no shared staff at all as far as I can tell. No, I think the simplest answer here is probably the true one: the folks at Aicom were as impressed by R-Type as the rest of us, and wanted to take a crack at making their own spin on it.

Thus, we end up with a relatively slow-paced shooter with a heavy emphasis on memorization for survival, biomechanical organisms everywhere, a chargeable shot, and a protective bit power-up that can block shots and damage enemies. Some parts of stages and bosses pay heavy homage to R-Type, too. It’s also difficult in the same way as R-Type, with a checkpoint-based respawn system that means you’ll have to practice, practice, and practice some more if you want to make any progress at all. The margin of error for much of the game is razor-thin, and completion is certainly not for the faint of heart. There are eight lengthy stages to play through in order to reach the ending, and I’d be awfully surprised if most people made it even halfway through.

It’s probably no surprise, but I don’t think Pulstar is as good as R-Type in almost any respect. I don’t even think it’s as good as R-Type II, though it’s closer. I could try to really break it down into granular detail, but it really does come down to two main points. First, the level designs and enemy patterns are pretty obnoxious. R-Type needed a fair bit of accumulated knowledge to survive, but those with quick reflexes would spend far fewer coins to make it through than those who brute-forced it. Reflexes won’t really help you much in Pulstar. It throws things at you that you can’t possibly avoid without knowing about them ahead of time, and it does it a lot.

The other thing that hurts it by comparison is how its power-up bit works. Unlike in R-Type, you can’t launch or move the bit. It attaches to the front of your ship and that’s that. It’s very useful, necessary even, for blocking enemy shots, and it makes a nice cow-catcher for weaker enemies. But a lot of the fun of the bit in R-Type came from its versatility. You could fling it and have it act as an independent unit. You could attach it to the rear of your ship to guard your backside. And yes, you could park it on the front much like how Pulstar‘s bit works. Without those extra actions, the bit in this game feels like a slightly glorified shield and little more.

There are a couple of abilities you have access to in Pulstar that you wouldn’t see in R-Type. For the bit’s part, you can launch it as a screen-clearing bomb in a pinch. It can be handy to save your skin, but your chances of surviving bit-less in the aftermath aren’t great. You’ll have to memorize when power-ups are coming up if you want to get the most use out of this ability. While you can charge your shot (again this is necessary for survival a lot of the time), the meter goes both ways in this game. Tap the button rapidly (or use the rapid-fire ability that comes stock in Hamster’s Arcade Archives) and you’ll eventually get a different sort of powered-up shot. You can also find various power-ups, but again many of them mirror the ones seen in R-Type, all the way down to the bouncy lasers.

This is all probably making me sound like I’m really down on Pulstar. I think it’s pretty good, actually. I don’t like it as much as R-Type or Blazing Star, but a game can fall short of those and still be really great. Pulstar has some really great qualities to it. The presentation is outstanding, among the very best on the NEOGEO hardware. It uses pre-rendered graphics, which is usually a kiss of death as far as aging well, the usage here surprisingly holds up. There are many moments in the game that really struck me with how nice they looked, and not just by the standards of 1995. The soundtrack, by the talented Harumi Fujita (Bionic Commando, Mega Man 3) and Yasuaki Fujita (Final Fight, Breath of Fire), is fantastic. A good shooter needs a great soundtrack, and Pulstar fortunately has one.

The controls are solid, and there are certainly worse games to bite from than R-Type in general. Some of the bosses are incredible to behold, with multiple stages to deal with that keep upping the ante every time you think you have things in hand. Pulstar‘s take on the battleship stage from R-Type is quite a behemoth to wrestle with. A fully powered-up ship feels empowering in the way you want to see in a shooter like this, and even if you die and lose all your power-ups you generally still have a chance to recover. As teeth-shatteringly hard as the game is, it never feels impossible. Often highly improbable, but it’s that slim chance you can make it this time that fuels games like this.

And now we’ve reached the portion of the review where I repeat most of the things I’ve said in other ACA NEOGEO reviews. You can play with touch controls or use an external controller, and it controls well enough either way. You get the same extra modes as usual, with a Score Attack and Caravan Mode available. You can also choose between the Japanese and Overseas version of the game. There are tons of options here, and the ability to save and load your state will certainly be of use. The emulation is on-point, but you probably don’t need me to tell you that. It’s a good way to enjoy this game, though serious players will want to make sure they have a good controller to help them go the distance.

While I still prefer Blazing Star and Aero Fighters 2, Pulstar is probably my third-favorite conventional shoot-em-up in the NEOGEO library. It was one I was hoping would hit mobile back in the day when its follow-up made the hop, and so I am very happy to see it here now. As long as you don’t mind your shooters being hard as nails, you’ll likely get plenty of value out of this release.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong debuted on PC before seeing an enhanced release on Nintendo Switch that brought in Chinese and Japanese voice acting support. Following that being patched into the PC version, OPUS: Echo of Starsong arrived on Xbox platforms including Xbox Game Pass. Usually, a game would then hit PlayStation platforms and find its way to mobile much later, but OPUS: Echo of Starsong finally arrived on iOS this week at a fraction of its cost on other platforms bringing the complete experience with all updates and voice acting to mobile.

Despite all being a part of the same universe, OPUS: Echo of Starsong can be played standalone if you don’t want to experience the first two games. OPUS: Echo of Starsong is very much a story focused experience with some point and click adventure-style gameplay, light puzzles, and decisions you need to make that involve some RNG like with Disco Elysium. I’m not going to spoil the story, but this is Sigono’s best one yet and I cannot imagine anyone playing this will not be moved by the narrative by the end of the dozen or so hours you will spend here depending on whether you focus on the main story or more.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong is the most ambitious game Sigono has released yet. It is a huge improvement in just about every way, and the Japanese voice acting I’ve used across my playthroughs is very well done. Not only is this the best Sigono game, but one of my favorite games of the year on iOS and Nintendo Switch. I just hope the few issues I have with the iOS version can be fixed in future updates.

Given the gameplay style, I imagine most people wouldn’t care about controller support, but there is some form of controller support. You can use a controller to move and to progress dialogue, but not to make decisions. You will need to use touch controls for that. I also couldn’t get my progress synced across my iPhone and iPad. I’m not sure if iCloud save sync is included, but if it is, it didn’t work for me. I hope this can be implemented in the future.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong is great on PC and Steam Deck. The Switch version has performance issues that have been addressed to some degree in updates. On iOS, OPUS: Echo of Starsong targets 30fps even on newer devices like the iPhone 14 Plus I played it on. Sigono told me there are no plans to add support for 60fps to the game right now. Visually, it is cleaner than the Switch version though in parts. It doesn’t look as good as I had hoped on my iPad Pro (2020) though. The definitive portable experience right now is on Steam Deck for sure if you have that option, but if you don’t, I would recommend it on iOS over Switch.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong is an essential for iOS owners. I already thought it was underpriced on consoles and PC given the quality of the game, but the iOS version is an even better deal with it costing less than half. This is Sigono’s best work and I can’t wait to see what the studio releases next. I just hope iOS and Switch owners will not be waiting too long for Sigono’s next game. OPUS: Echo of Starsong is a game you need to experience if you enjoy memorable stories, well written characters, and excellent music. Having done nearly three full playthroughs across platforms, I still can’t get over how good OPUS: Echo of Starsong is.

Before I played Sackboy: A Big Adventure on PS5, a few friends of mine compared it to Super Mario 3D World which is one of the best Mario games, so I was intrigued. Having finally played it on PS5, it blew me away. Not only was it well-designed, but it also had great audio design and one of the best blends of licensed and original music.

For this Sackboy: A Big Adventure Steam Deck review, I’ve only played it on my Steam Deck and not tried it on my laptop at all. After a bit of tweaking, Sackboy: A Big Adventure runs at 60fps with very good visuals on Steam Deck. It lacks the amazing DualSense haptics, but is a perfectly fine way to experience Sumo Digital’s lovely platformer on the go.

While I love Sackboy: A Big Adventure on Steam Deck, the conversion has a few issues that also affect how it is on Steam Deck. If the game runs below 60fps, it causes some camera issues. When you go into the settings, there are many graphics options you can use to tweak the experience to your liking. These include shadows, textures, anti-aliasing, render quality (up to 100%), enhancements over the PlayStation version, frame rate limits, and more. The medium or high presets with some tweaking work well and give you 60fps.

One other issue I have is the lack of support for Steam’s Remote Play Together. I was going to invite a friend who doesn’t own the game to play it with me, but that option isn’t available here like it is in other games with local co-op support. Hopefully it can be added in the future.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is verified on Steam Deck by Valve, and it is absolutely worth your time if you’ve never played it before. If you have, I wouldn’t recommend it at full price. You’re better off waiting for a sale and a few patches (if you play on Windows).

The biggest downside to Sackboy: A Big Adventure on Steam is the price point. While $59.99 is fair for the game, I don’t think charging full price for a 2 year old game brought to PC will work out well in a crowded release season and with bigger Sony games coming to PC soon. It is disappointing that this release didn’t get the push it deserves, but I’m glad to have such an excellent portable version of Sackboy: A Big Adventure on Steam Deck and hope it gives the game more attention following its launch on PS5 and PS4 about two years ago. It deserves to be played by way more people.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is out now on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Interested in more Steam Deck features? Check out our other Steam Deck recommendations!

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• The Best Steam Deck Games You Can’t Play on Consoles

If you own a Steam Deck or have played anything on Steam over the last year, you likely have heard of or seen Vampire Survivors. When it had just hit Steam Early Access, I had a few friends try to get me to play it, but I didn’t bother because I rarely play games until they do their proper 1.0 launch. Vampire Survivors on Steam Deck made me break that rule after I saw a few GIFs of the gameplay. The blend of survival, rogue-lite, bullet hell, avoidance, and more with the aesthetic from developer poncle has been a joy to play for the most part, and it has been mindblowing seeing how much is included in this game at its low price point.

At its core, Vampire Survivors is a one input game that has you moving and shooting or attacking at the same time. As you take down the many enemies trying to kill you, you earn experience and level up. On leveling up, you choose new skills, weapons, or buff existing ones. Initially, I spent more time trying out the various unlocks than working towards actually surviving a full run. Once I got used to the flow of a run, I was a near-godlike player with garlic, lightning, pentagrams, fireballs, and much more with a blend of particle effects and enemies making things almost too overwhelming visually.

On paper, Vampire Survivors is a simple casual game about surviving, leveling up, growing more powerful, and carefully working towards different parts of a specific map to unlock secrets or just use the environment to your advantage. The one button control scheme makes it a perfect pickup and play casual game, but there’s a ton of depth here. While you initially will just work on surviving runs or getting as far as possible, you soon will look into unlocking characters, new abilities, stages, and even game modes with version 1.0.

With how you only move as your interaction with the character, there’s quite a bit of strategy involved. The weapons all have their own timers or cooldowns, and you are basically moving and aiming. Picking the right combination of buffs or upgrading a specific weapon instead of adding another one is likely going to make or break your run in the late-game.

Barring the regular runs you can do, there are unlockables like Hyper and Hurry mode. The former speeds you, enemies, spawn rate, and projectile speed while the latter has the clock running at twice the speed. Both of those can be combined for a complete chaotic run as well. You also end up unlocking arcanas that are modifiers for runs. One aspect that I hope future updates can work on is making it more obvious how to unlock specific things in-game. The new interface helps, but it still needs some work.

I’m going to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but I can safely say that Vampire Survivors isn’t a game you just buy to unlock everything quickly and move on. You’re here for multiple runs, experimentation, tons of deaths, slaying thousands of enemies, and more. This is more true with version 1.0 and the plethora of new content added. Even as someone who didn’t unlock everything in the early access version, I saw a steady flow of improvements and enhancements in 1.0 right from the menus and with the added options. The interface improvements and options are welcome, but I’m surprised at how much I like the new sounds added given how much I got used to how things sounded before.

Having now seen how much Vampire Survivors has improved and added in the last few months leading up to 1.0, I really hope poncle can license or release an official guide and lore book for the game. There is so much I’ve enjoyed unlocking, and I’d love to have a nice physical book like with the Stardew Valley guidebook. Even before it hit 1.0, Vampire Survivors had almost infinite replay value, and it is even better now.

The one aspect of Vampire Survivors I’m not happy with, is the performance on Steam Deck. I know the late-game even on more powerful systems has performance issues, but I was hoping 1.0 would mean the performance was sorted in those situations on Steam Deck. Even with performance mode and disabling damage numbers, it doesn’t run great in later parts of stages with tons of enemies. I’m curious to see how the new engine port aiming for release by the end of the year will fare on Steam Deck, but right now don’t get your hopes up for big performance improvements in 1.0 compared to the early access version.

In the beginning of this review, I mentioned that this was our first ever Steam Deck game review. Going forward, we might do full reviews of games that we enjoy enough, or launches of games we are excited to play. Half a year later, the Steam Deck is in a much better place when it comes to software and compatibility. While there is still work to be done, games like Vampire Survivors and others make it worth owning a Steam Deck more and more each day.

If you haven’t gotten Vampire Survivors yet, it is easily one of the best PC-only games you can buy in 2022. Having played more than 50 hours of it over the last few months, it really feels like a steal at even its newly increased price point of $4.99. It has remained in the most-played games on Steam Deck for months now, and Valve should just pay to have it pre-installed on every Steam Deck at this point. It is that good. If you do end up getting it, don’t blame me if you spend hours on it daily like I did when I got addicted to it. The soundtrack is absolutely worth grabbing as well. I’ve not grown remotely tired of it after all these dozens of hours with the game.

Interested in more Steam Deck features? Check out our other Steam Deck recommendations!

• The Best Indie Games
• The Best JRPGs
• The Best Accessories
• The Best Fighting Games
• The Best Games to Play on Steam Deck
• The Best Steam Deck Games You Can’t Play on Consoles

The story is as simple as it gets. Well before the events of the original game, Shovel Knight is chilling out at his campsite. As he does. Suddenly, Drill Knight and his crew come crashing through and abscond with Shovel Knight’s loot, retreating underground. The absolute fools. Shovel Knight’s name has shovel in it, so he grabs his trusty weapon and digs after them. Will this prove to be a good idea, or will Shovel Knight regret it somewhere around his hundredth horrifying death? That, my friends, is up to you.

It’s an interesting game in a lot of ways. Sure, it’s basically Shovel Knight crossed with Downwell. I can describe it that way and I would hope that would be enough to catch the interest of many of you. You aren’t falling down a purely vertical shaft but rather digging down through one that is mostly vertical with the occasional kink. Since gravity isn’t pulling down on you as much, you’re given incentive to keep moving by a nasty machine that will catch up to you if you dawdle too long. Like in Downwell, there are rooms that branch off the shaft where you can get extra loot, items, or meet a variety of helpful characters. Just make sure you have the money, honey, because these characters give nothing for free.

There are actually a few different kinds of goodies to manage. You’ll collect gems that act as your main currency. They can be exchanged for goods and services. If you die, you’ll lose some of them but the rest will be funneled into a more permanent pile you can use for equally permanent upgrades. There are also Golden Gears scattered about, and you’ll want to make sure you grab them in each stage. When you reach the end of a stage, a machine appears and if you have enough Golden Gears for it you’ll be entitled to a very useful healing item or random goodie. Your choice.

There are various items you can find and use at your leisure, often taking the form of a helpful weapon that you can use a few times before exhausting its charges. Finally, there are keys and other assorted things that follow behind you. You’ll lose them if you get hit too often, so… try not to get hit. You’ll need those to open doors and receive various other rewards. At the start you can only have one of each of these at any given moment, but you’ll be able to expand your abilities as you go.

At the end of each set of stages, you’ll face off against a boss. These rejects may not have been fit for The Order of No Quarter, but they’ll give you a good run for your money. It’s in these fights where the game feels the most like the main Shovel Knight game. They’re refreshing and fun, and are one of the main ways the game digs out its own identity versus Downwell and its ilk. This is a game that can be completed, and while you’ll probably need a little luck for a winning run, it’s not as tough as it may initially seem. Don’t put down the shovel just because you’ve reached an ending, though. There’s more to dig up, and it’s going to take a lot more effort to conquer.

Shovel Knight is rather capable as heroes go. His shovel makes a handy weapon at enemies coming from any direction except above, and it’s particularly good at taking care of anything below our hero via his signature Shovel Drop. You can bounce from enemy to enemy with ease, and you’ll have to master this move to maximize your loot grabbing and navigate the many hazards you’ll find along the way. Shovel Knight can also jump, and it’s safe to say that in any situation where he isn’t being overwhelmed he can dispose of most enemies with that approach. Well hey, I’m sure the bad guys won’t think of ganging up on him.

How the heck did I get this far without saying the word ‘rogue’? Well, I’ve gone and done it now. This is a roguelite, in case you couldn’t figure it out from all those mechanics I’ve mentioned. That means you’re getting somewhat procedurally generated stages, though the chunks are obviously hand-designed and become very familiar after a few runs. As such affairs go, it’s a pretty good one. I think it has that problem a lot of games like this have where once you’ve got a few particular permanent upgrades there isn’t a lot of incentive to change things up, but what can you do? It’s a tough problem to get around. Humans: we find a pair of comfy shoes and we are very reluctant to give them up.

Anyway, sometimes this isn’t the best roguelite. There aren’t a ton of agonizing choices to make, and your skill as a player can make easier work of the bad bounces than we often see in this genre. It’s a lucky thing that this is also a Shovel Knight game through and through. In those moments where the roguelite part of the deal isn’t coming together as well as you might hope, the essential Shovel Knight-ness of the game keeps things fun. Digging up gems, hitting things with a shovel, and pogo bouncing off enemies again and again like Uncle Scrooge taught you to do as a wee bairn are things that are just fundamentally enjoyable, and they serve Shovel Knight Dig well in times of happiness and sadness.

I see I have also failed to mention that Nitrome developed this one. Nitrome has had considerable experience making mobile games, and you and I both know they make some really good ones. Shovel Knight Dig is clearly designed around normal controllers and you can use one of those if you are that-way inclined. There are two different options for touch controls, however, and I found both of them did a smart job of filling in for those who don’t have a controller handy or simply want to use their mobile device in a more mobile fashion. You can go with swipe controls or virtual buttons, and they both have their merits. I suggest forcing yourself to get used to the swipes as they are ultimately a bit more accurate in the heat of things. But I’m not the control police, so you use whichever one you find most comfortable.

One thing I doubt there will be any disagreement or discomfort with is this game’s presentation. The visuals free themselves of having to adhere to “NES as you remember it" standards and it’s great to see just how animated and detailed Shovel Knight and his world can be without those limitations. The always-welcome Jake “Virt" Kaufman has returned to do his magical music thing for this game and you know that means the audio is pure velvety gold for your head-holes. How can I not dig when you’re providing such wonderful marching tunes?

I don’t love everything about Shovel Knight Dig. I mentioned how sometimes the roguelite bits don’t click, and how some of the upgrades can seem utterly superfluous. I also feel that shoveling in your desired direction can get a little vexing when you’re getting bum rushed by enemies or traps. Sometimes the game seems to struggle a little with its pacing, not quite sure if it wants you to slow down or hurry the heck up. On the whole I’m not sure how much of this game is great because of Shovel Knight Dig versus the Shovel Knight bits carrying over. Is this a problem? I don’t know. Probably not a big one.

Really and truly, the moments where I’m having less than optimal fun with Shovel Knight Dig are heavily outweighed by the good times. Like, it’s not even worth comparing. Especially given the nature of how this game is delivered on mobile, I can’t even imagine not giving this game some of your time if you have Apple Arcade. Why wouldn’t you? It’s very fun, will keep you busy for hours, and if it’s not quite as replayable as the likes of Dead Cells or Downwell, who really cares? If you don’t like roguelites this game probably won’t change your mind unless you really, really like Shovel Knight, but otherwise I’d say all systems are go here.

In the end, Shovel Knight Dig checks off two boxes for me: the desire for a Shovel Knight-ish experience on my iPhone, and the desire for more games like Downwell. It’s not flawless by any means, but it’s a great game with a lot of things going for it. I’m truly impressed with how well Nitrome was able to adapt the essence of Shovel Knight into such a different format without losing the satisfying elements of the pineapple and pen it was trying to smash together.

Yes, that was a Pikotaro reference in 2022. I regret nothing. I especially do not regret playing Shovel Knight Dig. And you, my dearest of readers? I suspect you will not either.

Hindsight is a short narrative-driven experience that involves interacting with various objects and locations to experience memories. It focuses on a specific woman’s life from birth until the present day. It involves a lot of grief and emotion. It is always hard to talk about a story in a game like this without getting into spoilers, but I will say that it is one of the best stories in a game this year. It excels in how it takes you through different stages while giving you a glimmer of hope.

The actual game involves light puzzles that involve moving the camera or objects in a specific way to head to the next location or story beat. I love how this keeps you interacting every now and then while listening to the narration and experiencing the story. I also liked almost every location and interaction a lot in Hindsight. I wanted to be as spoiler-free as possible in this review, but the ethereal feel some of the movement and sequences here are amazing. I don’t know how it would remain fresh, but I’d love to see more stories told like this from the same team.

While the story and art in Hindsight are great, it is elevated by the music and narration. Having played Hindsight a few days before release, I was waiting for it to release on Steam so I could buy the game and soundtrack bundle. The music from Kyle Preston is excellent.

When it comes to control options, Hindsight is best played with a touchscreen even if you play on Nintendo Switch. It feels perfect with touch controls. If you do want to play with a controller, the developers have done a good job translating this game to a controller. The iOS version also has full controller support with rumble support and other controller options. The screenshot below is from when you have a controller paired. I used my PS5 DualSense controller.

My only complaint with Hindsight on iOS is with how it doesn’t have proper save states. I’ve lost progress when swapping to another app and coming back later. This isn’t a dealbreaker given the short runtime of about 2 hours, but I’d recommend playing Hindsight in a single sitting if you can to get the most out of it. The short runtime might put some off though.

Having played Hindsight on both iOS and Switch, the iOS version is definitely the way to go. It has the same features including controller support, but runs at a higher resolution and is a third of the price. I didn’t know how much Hindsight was going to cost when I played it on iOS, but knew the Switch version’s price point. The game itself is definitely worth the asking price, but if you have the option, the mobile version is better. If you do want to get it on Switch, that version also has full touch support, which is always good to see in Switch versions.

Despite the minor issues I have with the game’s iOS version, Hindsight is an essential if you enjoy emotional narratives. I love how it constantly has you interacting even with simple swipes as you experience great narration, music, and a memorable story. If you enjoy short stories, Hindsight is absolutely worth your time and one of my favorite stories in gaming this year. This is also my favorite game from Joel McDonald now, above Prune.

I’ve talked a bit before about how SNK did a bit of hunting around to try to find a popular beat-em-up brand to call their own on the NEOGEO before hitting it big with fighting games, after which point it didn’t really matter anymore. Mutation Nation may not have been its most successful attempt (the Sengoku trilogy would probably take that title), but it turned out better than most. Review scores were friendly back in the day and it still tends to be well thought of even now, and it certainly pulled in its share of coins for a while. And rightfully so, in my opinion. It’s a well-made example of the genre with a couple of solid hooks.

The story isn’t terribly clear, as in most arcade games of the era. Some mad scientist did some genetic experiments that went out of control and ended up mutating normal citizens, turning them into bloodthirsty monsters. A couple of young men named Ricky and Johnny come back to town after a long absence and take it on themselves to stop the mutant menace with their hands and feet. While they aren’t mutants, they both know how to carry themselves in a fight. They can also make use of a range of special attacks by collecting power-ups along the way. Their journey will take them through six decent-sized stages filled with some truly wild creatures, with boss fights in particular going way over the top. That’s really it. Even the ending doesn’t offer much in the way of details.

But hey, it’s an arcade beat-em-up from 1992. You’re not here expecting Chaucer. You’re looking to bash some heads in, and that’s what Mutation Nation is good at offering. You might have to search around a bit to find the head, but that’s another matter. Strangely, what makes this game work so well is that it plays things relatively straight. You’ve got an attack button and a jump button. The attack button busts out strings of attacks, the jump button sends you a sensible distance into the air, and pressing the two together does a special move. No energy cost there, but it’s also not as powerful as similar special attacks in other brawlers.

You have some cooler tricks up your sleeves (metaphorically that is; Johnny doesn’t believe in sleeves) however. Pick up the items strewn about the streets and you’ll see a letter and some numbers appear in the status area. Simply hold the attack button until your POW meter fills and release to launch one of a few different super moves (the letter determines which), dealing some serious damage across a wide area. And that’s your arsenal, apart from a simple grapple attack that I forgot to mention before. Just pretend I told you that in the last paragraph where it would have fit better thematically.

The small list of moves ends up working quite well for the game, largely coming down to the fact that the basic attack combo is both effective and enjoyable to unleash. It sure doesn’t hurt that jump kicks work better here than in most SNK beat-em-ups. The super moves add a pinch of variety, and the pick-ups needed to use them are plentiful enough that you can make fairly regular use of them without worrying that you’ve wasted them. Your hits connect with a nice solid feel, and I think I’ve mentioned before how instrumental I feel that is in making for a good game in this genre.

But what really makes Mutation Nation stand out from the pack, to the limited extent that it does, is its colorful cast of enemies. They’ll often mutate mid-fight, and the designs are creative and gnarly in all the right ways. It adds a great deal of variety to the game, avoiding the standard street brawler trope of your foes just being a series of different people in weird clothes. Part of the fun is in seeing what bizarre creations will crawl out in front of you next, and like I said earlier, the boss battles really show off some interesting ideas.

While the game is light on graphical gimmicks, Mutation Nation actually makes good use of the NEOGEO’s technical capabilities. The characters are large and detailed, and the backgrounds look great. The animations of the monsters, particularly when they mutate, are really cool. The main characters also animate well, and their now extremely dated 1990s designs carry a lot of charm. The music leans hard into rock, occasionally dipping into the zone I tend to refer to as butt-rock, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. For a beat-em-up released in 1992, the presentation is really quite good. It’s naturally been considerably surpassed by other games over the years, but it holds up well.

Now we head to the part of the review specific to this ACA NEOGEO version. To likely no one’s surprise, there’s little to talk about here that we haven’t talked about before. The touch controls work well with the simple two-button action, and you can use an external controller if you’ve got one and prefer to play it that way. If you have two (and only if you have two) controllers you can also indulge in the enjoyable two-player mode. You get the usual options here, including both Japanese and overseas versions of the game, a Caravan Mode and a Score Attack mode, and lots of settings to tweak. The usual visual, audio, control, and difficulty stuff. Hamster is nothing if not consistent in how it puts these things together.

So yes, the usual complaint about how I wish we could do some online multiplayer, but otherwise I don’t have a lot to complain about with Mutation Nation. It’s a really fun beat-em-up that holds up well and plays nicely on mobile. Perhaps not the most original of games in terms of mechanics, but it does what it does well and gives you a lot of entertaining sights and sounds along the way. Until Sengoku 3 is added to the ACA NEOGEO mobile line-up, I can’t imagine I’ll score another NEOGEO brawler higher than this one. Well worth the meager asking price, that’s for sure.

HOOK 2 ($1.99) is that long-awaited second course. The basic idea here is the same: remove the hooks in such a way that none of them pull on each other as they come out. As you play through the first several levels, it’s perhaps too familiar. Tug on the lines without any snags first, then the next ones, and so on until they’re all gone. They get more complicated, but nothing you can’t handle. Then you reach a puzzle that looks significantly simpler than the one that came before. What’s this? You tug on the obvious line, and… it snags on nothing?

And it’s here where the new dimension comes in. Quite literally, in fact. You slide your finger a little and suddenly, the hooks reveal their secret. The puzzles are three-dimensional this time, and that adds a delightful twist to the proceedings. Suddenly even the simplest things like track changes and layered hooks require a whole new way of thinking. Tracing those lines around to see what is going to pull when you yank on the line is a lot trickier, and takes a lot more spatial awareness.

It’s a wonderful new hook, if you’ll pardon the pun. And it’s more than enough to power the pile of new levels you’ve got to play through here. The nice thing is that just like in the original game, there’s no time limit or other form of pressure here. Yes, if you pull on the wrong line too many times, you’ll have to restart the puzzle. That’s not really much of a setback, though. And sure, if you’re inclined to, you can brute force your way through a lot of the levels. To a point. As things get more complicated, the number of variables become a little bit too much to randomly fumble your way through. So you’ll have to do it at a proper pace, patiently unraveling the serpentine threads that make up these lovely three-dimensional art pieces.

There’s a zen-like quality to it all, aided by the chill presentation. With no particularly stressful elements, you’re free to nibble on each puzzle as you like, unraveling a bunch at once or slowly yanking on the pieces of a single one over the course of your coffee break. Regrettably, HOOK 2 doesn’t seem to save your progress in a puzzle if the games closes out completely, so you’ll have to at least finish the current one you’re working on before getting on with your day. Even the more challenging puzzles don’t take more than a few minutes if you set your mind to it, so it’s not a serious flaw. But it is something to consider.

While it was perhaps a bit too long in coming, HOOK 2 is a great sequel to the original. It keeps the same feel and essential mechanics, but builds on both in an enjoyable way with just the single addition of making the puzzles three-dimensional. The main problem with the game is the same issue the first one had: the puzzles run dry a little sooner than you might like. You’ll whip through the initial 80 levels quickly once you get into the groove of things, leaving you once again waiting for more.

Don’t take this as too much of a complaint; 80 puzzles is, after all, a rather large amount in an objective sense. But I really do want more, and that is perhaps the biggest testament to how well HOOK 2 works. It’s one of those puzzlers that you can just get cozy with in those spare pockets of time that crop up each day, and a good follow-up to Maciej Targoni’s other well-designed games. Now, how long until the next bunch of levels drop?

There’s an interesting history behind the Aero Fighters series, also known under the title Sonic Wings in some countries. The first game, released in 1992, was a vertically-scrolling shooter built on dedicated arcade hardware with the usual tate screen orientation. The main designer on the game was Shin Nakamura, and he put together a rather orthodox Toaplan-style game whose main distinguishing feature was its large cast of eight unique playable characters. The game was a success for Video System, but the company had decided to move all of its arcade game development to SNK’s NEOGEO platform. This was likely a financial decision, as it mitigated some of the considerable risk of making arcade games.

This choice didn’t sit well with everyone at the company, however. Shin Nakamura was interested in following up Aero Fighters with more games like it, but the NEOGEO’s use of a horizontally-aligned monitor ran somewhat at odds with the conventional set-up for vertical shooters. Nakamura, along with several others, felt so strongly about this that he decided to leave Video System and found a new company. That company, Psikyo, would go on to carve its own legend in the shoot-em-up genre with games like Strikers 1945, Samurai Aces, Gunbird 2, and many more.

Whither Aero Fighters and Video System, then? While the loss of those key staff members no doubt hurt, the show had to go on. The remaining members of the Aero Fighters team, with the support of other Video System employees, got to work on a sequel for SNK’s NEOGEO hardware. Releasing in 1994, Aero Fighters 2 turned out to be a pretty solid success. More sequels would follow until the brand ended in a somewhat tepid fashion with 1999’s AeroFighters Assault for the Nintendo 64. Video System itself would close its doors just two years later.

Back to the happier days of 1994, however. In terms of mechanics, Aero Fighters 2 plays things pretty safe. Understandable, given the circumstances. You once again choose your favorite pilot and take to the skies in ten stages of vertically-scrolling action. Each character has their own main weapon and special move, with power-ups to boost the main guns and extra pick-ups increasing your stock of specials dropping from certain enemies. You can play this game with another player, and part of the fun comes from finding effective combinations of skills. There are some secrets to find, but for the most part this is a straightforward, well-made shooter.

The novelty in the game is not found in its mechanics, but rather in its tone and story. The characters are absolutely ridiculous, and include a dolphin, a baby, and a head in a jar. They all have things to say between stages, and different teams will produce different dialogues and endings. Aero Fighters 2 is unique in the series for allowing you to partner any two characters together, which leads to this game having more interactions and endings than any other Aero Fighters game. Some of them are poorly translated, but many of them are just intentionally bizarre. You’ve probably seen memes cut from this game at some point in your life.

Aero Fighters 2 probably isn’t going to be at the top of the list for score attack fans, but there are enough variables here that it’s not a bad game for that purpose. While there are many endings to uncover, the game itself is a little on the shorter side due to the brisk pace of each stage. The difficulty is also rather moderate by the standards of the genre, so just about anyone can make their way through it and probably even take a solid run at score attacking. Very fundamental stuff, but the sense of humor and constant action make Aero Fighters 2 a crowd-pleaser.

Hamster has done its usual job in bringing this game to the Arcade Archives initiative. It’s well-emulated, offers up plenty of options, has support for external controllers (indeed this is the only way to play multiplayer), and has online leaderboards for all four of its main modes. You can play the game in both its Japanese and overseas version, and you can also tackle the High Score and Caravan modes that Hamster always includes. Those modes are both enjoyable to play in this game. It’s hard to find much to fault here in terms of Hamster’s part in the process.

While the NEOGEO wasn’t exactly known for wall-to-wall bangers in the shoot-em-up category, it did have some very good ones. Among those, the Aero Fighters games were consistently the most popular and arguably the best. I’m sure we’ll be seeing Aero Fighters 3 roll in sooner or later, but Aero Fighters 2 is an excellent game all on its own. It also takes very well to touch controls, making it well-suited to mobile play. Another win for the mobile ACA NEOGEO series.

Total War: MEDIEVAL II features a blend of turn-based moments and real-time tactical battles. In its current state, Total War: MEDIEVAL II on iOS includes everything from the base game barring the multiplayer. The ability to unlock factions, use cheats, and more is all available here in the base game. Total War: MEDIEVAL II is set across three continents during the Middle Ages with 17 factions, various units, strategy, diplomacy, combat, and more all available for you to experiment with across the hundreds of hours you can get out of this release.

Before I got into the Total War games, every fan of the series I know recommended Total War: MEDIEVAL II as the best game even above Rome: Total War. The latter has gotten a brilliant conversion for mobile and a remaster from Feral Interactive for PC, but what about Total War: MEDIEVAL II? Until this release, it was only available on PC platforms. Having played Feral Interactive’s conversion for mobile for little under two weeks now across iPad Pro (2020) and iPhone 11, I’m very impressed with most aspects of it, but hope some can be improved through patches.

Before getting into the touch controls, interface changes, visuals, and performance, this release of Total War: MEDIEVAL II includes the base game with the Kingdoms expansion coming at a later date as paid DLC. Feral Interactive confirmed to me that the studio will reveal more about the DLC including price and release date later this year. This will likely be similar to the Opposing Fronts for Company of Heroes. Until then, you have access to the full Total War: MEDIEVAL II featuring huge battles through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and more.

Total War: MEDIEVAL II includes the grand campaign with factions, a tutorial option with two scenarios to learn the basics of Total War: MEDIEVAL II with, custom battle where you can adjust settings like game type and settlement, quick battle, and historical battle. The historical battles let you relive famous battles like the Battle of Hastings, Siege of Setenil, and more. Multiplayer isn’t included on iOS or Android as of this release. I’d definitely recommend doing the tutorial even if you played Rome: Total War because of the interface changes here. The grand campaign has you starting out with a few factions while you unlock the others through capturing the settlements or by using the settings app on your device to unlock all factions under Total War: MEDIEVAL II.

Visually, I’m mostly happy with how Total War: MEDIEVAL II turned out on my devices. The iPad version at its high resolution on my iPad Pro (2020) has a few areas that could use some improvements though. The biggest being the draw distance for certain 3D elements which seems similar to the original PC version. This is a bit distracting for trees and certain units, but otherwise the iPad version looks excellent. On my iPhone 11 with its lower resolution screen, everything looks and runs great. The interface being so high resolution almost across the board is a huge improvement over the original PC version even when played through the current Steam release today. The interface works very well after doing the tutorial with all the responsive pinching and panning for camera, tapping and holding for interactions, and more.

In its current state, Total War: MEDIEVAL II has a battery saver option as the only graphics option for the game. There are no frame rate or resolution settings with Feral Interactive likely tweaking these on a per device basis as with other releases from the studio. One other thing to note is that you don’t have an additional download here like you do with some other big games. Everything is included in the initial download which is great to see. You will need to do an additional download within Total War: MEDIEVAL II if you change the language though.

While the load times have been great, the one area of the performance that needs a bit of work is how the game suddenly seems to freeze for a second or two when you press the end turn button. I noticed this on both my devices. I would prefer if there was a better transition into the game taking control away from you at this point than it just freezing for a few seconds. Barring that, performance has been very good and I’m more than impressed with this conversion.

Rome: Total War showed me how amazing Jeff van Dyck’s music is, but I think Total War: MEDIEVAL II is a lot better overall. I haven’t heard the music from the Kingdoms expansion yet, but right now I’d say this music is top tier. I’ve been listening to it even when I’m not playing the game. It is a shame that this music seemingly isn’t available for purchase outside the long out of print limited edition for the original PC release.

In future updates, we will likely be getting a fix for the orientation trouble thanks to notch devices, but I’d also like to see some interface improvements for the unit formation which is a bit hard to do on an iPhone given how much you cover the screen when you do it. I know this was likely very tricky to adapt, but it is the only aspect of the touch controls that doesn’t feel as natural. If you aren’t a fan of touch controls and still want a modern version of Total War: MEDIEVAL II, the iPad version has full support for keyboard and mouse controls. I haven’t been able to test those yet, but it is worth keeping in mind if you’d like to play like you did before or want more precision.

Having played Total War: MEDIEVAL II through Feral Interactive’s mobile release and then playing the early parts of the campaign through Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition on Steam, I feel like all the work done for improving the interface and assets with a few new features have to go into a potential remaster of Total War: MEDIEVAL II for PC like we had Rome: Total War Remastered, but I don’t want to digress too much. It just feels like Feral Interactive’s awesome work in modernizing these PC classics should be brought to the original platform as well in some form. I know I will definitely buy a remaster for PC.

As with other Feral Interactive releases, Total War: MEDIEVAL II has robust iCloud save support. I’ve been able to move over without issues from iPad to iPhone. You are prompted when changing devices to select local or cloud save to prevent any potential issues as well. Including different turns across different save files being detected and you being able to review issues individually. I wish other developers of premium iOS releases could implement as robust save syncing over iCloud as Feral Interactive have done over the years.

Feral Interactive have done a brilliant job here in bringing another true PC classic game to mobile devices. If you enjoy strategy games and don’t mind spending a bit of time adjusting to the interface, I can’t imagine anything better for you than Total War: MEDIEVAL II. I enjoyed my time with Total War: MEDIEVAL II on iPad a lot more than iPhone though. If I had a bigger screen on my iPhone, I might’ve enjoyed it more, but the iPad Pro version looks and feels amazing. I hope some of the draw distance / pop in issues can be addressed on my iPad model in potential future updates, but barring that, this is basically exactly what you should expect from a masterclass conversion from Feral Interactive for tablets. Total War: MEDIEVAL II is absolutely worth the asking price (and a lot more) if you have a modern iOS device to play it on.

Is Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster ($17.99) the best version of the game, then? That’s a very difficult question to answer but if I really look deep into my heart, I have to just barely lean towards the negative. It’s very close, and this Pixel Remaster does score a couple of minor wins in some categories, but I still think the original Super NES version is the best official means of playing this all-time classic. This is a close second though, and for mobile players it’s certainly a substantial improvement over the previous version in most regards.

Let’s talk about the misses first. The new visuals feel like a wash, in my opinion. The original game’s level of detail is pretty much the same as this new version, so it doesn’t feel particularly valuable or necessary to have remade them. The new soundtrack also doesn’t feel entirely needed, but it’s generally quite good. The risky move to switch to full vocals on some tracks, particularly the famous opera scene, doesn’t fully pay off. I’m not sure the new UI, which resembles that of the other Pixel Remasters, is quite as functional for touch controls as the one in the previous mobile version.

As with the other Pixel Remasters, there is no external controller support. We’re also still stuck with a terrible, hard-to-read font. Back when this all started, I gave Square Enix the benefit of the doubt and hoped they would fix the font. I’m giving up on that foolish naivety now. I still don’t really care for the eight-directional walk, and there are definitely some brand-new bugs to be found. The extra content added in the Advance version isn’t here, but I don’t feel that is much of a loss. The extra Espers, dungeons, equipment, and bosses were nice little bonuses, but I can’t say I’ll miss them terribly. It all felt a little out of place to begin with.

As for the wins, the biggest is simply that this is a rather fine version of one of Square Enix’s best. People will find nits to pick; I just did myself. But I firmly believe that nits are all that can be found. The frankly hideous graphical clash in the old mobile remake isn’t an issue here. The new soundtrack keeps up its end far better than that of the compromised Game Boy Advance soundtrack. When the biggest issue you can scare up is the lousy font, things are going pretty well. And hey, sometimes it does look better than the original. Sometimes it sounds better. It generally reads better, using the improved script from the last remake. This is a good way to play Final Fantasy VI, and only a hair’s breadth away from being the best way.

I’ve focused mainly on how the game compares to other versions mostly because you probably don’t need me to talk too much about the game itself. Many, many words have been written about Final Fantasy VI. Even on this very site, my old pal Eric “Mystery" Ford spun out a full review and yours truly did an RPG Reload look back on the game. We even recorded a whole episode of the RPG Reload Podcast about it, back when that was a thing. There are a million reviews of Final Fantasy VI on the internet. I won’t ask you to sit through another full one, especially from a guy who would just be repeating himself. Let’s do a quick one instead.

You’ve got an excellent story with a memorable cast of characters, one of the best RPG soundtracks ever, some surprisingly complex and gorgeous visuals for a JRPG of its era, a rather smooth difficulty curve, varied gameplay, and an overall level of ambition that you can’t help but admire. Yes, it can come off as melodramatic at times. When the game opens up in its second half, the pacing slows down considerably. It’s a bit too easy to break the game’s challenge, and it’s easy to lose the differentiating factors between the characters once the magic system comes fully into play. But even its flaws aren’t enough to bring down the overall experience all that much. This is on the short list of absolute must-play JRPGs. If you somehow haven’t played Final Fantasy VI before, you should.

So let’s leave it at that. While this may not be the definitive version of Final Fantasy VI, it’s close enough to the best to be worth it. It handily replaces the previous version we had on mobile, and some of its improvements make it worth another trip for those who have already played it in any of its other forms. Some of the lingering faults found in previous Pixel Remasters frustratingly reoccur here, and the whole exercise does have a vague sense of pointlessness about it in light of just how little it improves on the original. Still a great version of an all-timer, and that’s more than enough.

Let’s go over those details again though, just in case. You get the original game nicely emulated with a wide variety of options and features. Both Japanese and overseas versions are available to play with a selection of difficulty options, video options and filters, control layouts and button remappings, sound settings, and more. You can play with virtual controls or external controllers, and if you have multiple controllers and a friend who wants to join in, you can play local multiplayer. There are also online leaderboards and a couple of extra modes in the form of a score attack and a time-limited Caravan mode. You really can’t ask for much more.

That leaves us with the game itself, then. Shock Troopers came a year after the highly successful debut of Metal Slug, and in a sense follows a somewhat similar outline. It takes a well-established genre that had seen better days and throws some NEOGEO muscle at it to see what happens. Rather than the side-scrolling run-and-gun, however, it sought to revitalize a genre that SNK had plenty of past experience with: the top-down shooter. With major hits like Ikari Warriors under the company’s belt, you can’t blame SNK for wanting to give it another try.

Well, Shock Troopers didn’t go over quite as well as Metal Slug, but it didn’t go over badly either. With impressive 2D graphics, amazing set pieces, an assortment of characters to choose from, multiple routes that encourage replays, and solid action, Shock Troopers gave arcade-goers a real thrill in its day. It was popular enough to earn a sequel, though the series didn’t go much farther than that. We should see that follow-up sooner or later, but this first game is well worth enjoying on its own.

While the core gameplay isn’t too different from classic overhead shooters, Shock Troopers has a few twists that make it a step above earlier examples. You can play the game in two different modes. One sees you picking a single character to take through the game, getting a stat boost to help you out. The other has you picking a team of three, which gives you the advantage of using their various talents as needed. There are eight distinct characters, each with different stats and their own special bomb. Regardless of who you pick, you can make use of a basic machine gun weapon and a melee attack that will earn you some bonus points for your daredevil attitude. You can also perform a useful roll to get out of the way of… whatever.

Each playthrough will take you through six stages, but it’s not as simple as that. You get to choose your route at various points throughout the game, and it will take you at least a few playthroughs to see them all. They’re sprawling affairs that take you in various directions and throw in lots of fun elements to mix things up. You can pick up new weapons that will give you a temporary boost and allow you to create some real carnage. While the game doesn’t offer twin-stick controls, you can lock your firing direction by holding down the shoot button. The controls work well whether you’re playing with the virtual buttons or an external controller, with the speed and responsiveness you would want for a game like this.

Shock Troopers is another great pick from the NEOGEO library for a mobile conversion. This kind of game plays well with touch controls, and Hamster has packed it full of features and options that allow you to fully appreciate the game on your own terms. It’s an excellent action romp that frankly goes harder than it probably needed to, and if for some reason you never saw fit to drop a coin in its slot back in the day, this is a great chance to give it some of your attention.

There is no real goal in Townscaper. You “play" or interact with it to express your creativity. What immediately made me fall in love with Townscaper on iOS, are the interactions and feedback. Every little thing you tap on is accompanied by a lovely pop and click. It is one of the most elegant interactive toys you will have used for sure. Townscaper has you tapping anywhere to spawn colored blocks, paths, roads, roofs, arches, stairways, and more. The game has its own rules for what spawns when you click a specific thing. I love how everything reacts to what you do from the ripples in the water to archways forming when you tap randomly around a tall tower.

There are many color options and lighting options here as well. Oskar even added a lovely animation for the lights coming on when you change the lighting to reflect darkness or night time. If you’re in the mood for precision, you can even enable a grid or just go free form like I’ve been doing so far. If you make a mistake, there are undo and redo options as well. You are also able to share your creations through long text that you can copy to load on another device. This is basically the workaround for seemingly no iCloud save support. If it is in, I haven’t been able to get it to work so keep that in mind.

On the iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020), the only in-game options I see are toggling a 30fps frame rate cap and anti-aliasing. When a console or PC game comes to mobile, I always hope for additional control options. Townscaper has full controller support. I used my PS5 DualSense controller and it felt great. Touchscreen controls are the way to go here for sure, but the controller option is nice to have and well implemented. You can also play in any orientation on iOS.

Townscaper on iOS looks fantastic and feels great to play, but I was a bit confused by the lack of a full soundtrack. I then discovered that Oskar meant for this to be an accompaniment to listening to music or a podcast. It makes sense on that front, but some relaxing music would’ve been nice to have. I’ve been using the newly released Forza Horizon 5 Pulse radio station playlist while playing Townscaper.

One thing I’d love to see is having small people walk around or inside your creations. Right now, there are things that give you the feeling that there are people like the lights or even birds flying around, but it would be great to have more than that. This is possibly beyond the scope given that Townscaper is meant to be a relaxing interactive toy and not a full-fledged game.

Townscaper isn’t going to be for everyone though. I can see some people getting bored of this very quickly considering there isn’t any in-game goal or progression barring what you build and want to see yourself. After seeing so many screenshots of gorgeous things my friends made, I’m glad to finally have a perfect version of Townscaper on my iPhone and iPad. While iCloud sync would’ve been great to have, there is a workaround and everything else in this conversion is exactly what I wanted. If you held off on getting Townscaper on PC or Nintendo Switch, the iOS version is definitely worth it. If you already own it elsewhere, you will likely enjoy it a lot more on iOS thanks to the added control options and ease of access.

There’s a lot of talk about the legal status of Quintet’s library among fans of that developer that burned so brightly and briefly. Is it the case that Square Enix doesn’t want to rerelease the games? Or is it the case that Square Enix can’t? At least as it pertains to the original ActRaiser, that question was answered rather decisively a week ago. During one of Nintendo’s Direct presentations, some familiar music began to play. Wow, a remake of the original ActRaiser, and it’s out today? And not just on Nintendo Switch, but on pretty much everything including iOS? Neat. Very, very neat.

That was just the start of the Actraiser Renaissance ($9.99) roller coaster ride. Almost immediately after the initial excitement, people began to criticize its visuals. It has the look of a 2.5D PlayStation Portable game, nowhere near fully modern but also a far cry from the original game’s attractive pixel art. Ah, but Yuzo Koshiro was brought back to make new arrangements of the soundtrack, and they are as incredible as you would expect. But wait, who’s the developer? Sonic Powered? The airport and rail sim people? And wait, they changed some things? Why? Add in some slightly choppy scrolling in the action stages and some mixed feelings about the expanded simulation segments, and the first reports about this remake weren’t great. More bad luck, it seemed.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you Actraiser Renaissance is perfect. That choppy scrolling is certainly there, though better in the mobile version than in some others. I don’t think the game looks terrible, but it certainly isn’t going to impress many with its chosen art style. It’s certainly a much longer game, with some extensive changes to many of its systems, and for those who liked the snappy pace and simplicity of the original ActRaiser those could be deal-breaking. Specific to the mobile version, those playing without a controller are likely going to find the action stages a bit less enjoyable than they are with button controls. At least we have controller support in this release. Thank you for that, Square Enix.

So yes, not perfect. But I will say this, having played through the entire game two times on two different platforms in the last week: it’s a lot better than I would have expected. If you can set aside your ideas of how a remake of ActRaiser ought to be, I think you’ll find Actraiser Renaissance to be a bold, excellent take on the original game’s concept. This is a remake, but it’s not trying to be strictly faithful to every aspect of the original. It feels like the halfway point between a remake and a sequel, and in the latter respect I think it’s considerably more fascinating than the actual sequel.

ActRaiser was always an odd duck. You play as The Master, who is essentially the deity of the world. You’ve been asleep for a long time, and an evil force named Tanzra has taken hold of the world in that period. Humanity barely clings on against the monsters that roam the land. Now that you’re awake, you need to give the people a helping hand. Although you spend most of the game up in your Sky Palace, you can send your angel assistant to act as a liaison between you and your followers to help guide them and answer their prayers. You can also use your powers to generate miracles like rain, thunder, and more. And when it’s time to get a bit more hands-on with Tanzra’s legions, you can send your consciousness to a warrior statue that is quite capable of taking down even the biggest of beasts.

You could either consider it a side-scrolling action game with simulation segments between the stages, or a simulation game with side-scrolling action segments that pop up now and then. I wouldn’t argue much with either interpretation. That unique blend made the game stand out in a big way, even if neither side of the equation was best-in-class. It did both things well enough, and stylishly enough, that the game sat a brilliant, singular whole. But putting on the critical specs, you could say that the action scenes were a bit stiff and featured bosses that were too easy to cheese with magic. You could say that the simulation segments were a little too simplified for their own good. There was room to build on this game.

Actraiser Renaissance takes advantage of that space to grow. The action scenes have a better flow to them and are more exciting to play thanks to improved enemy behaviors and an expanded set of moves for The Master. Boss battles in particular are far more interesting. The stages are redesigned and expanded, and you’ll be engaging in brief action bits during the simulation segments as well when sealing enemy lairs. I don’t dislike the chunky and deliberate nature of the original game, and it can be fun to obliterate bosses with ease by spamming magic, but I’m also a big fan of the approach Renaissance has taken.

The simulation segments see far more extensive changes. There’s a lot more story, for one thing. They’re a lot longer as well. While the broad strokes are the same, one major new system has been added in that completely changes the nature of these portions of the game. You’ll still get occasional attacks from monsters spawning from the lairs that you’ll have to shoot down with your angelic assistant. But on top of that, you will sometimes have to defend from full-on invasions. During these segments, your angel can’t use its weapon. Instead, you have to build defenses as best as you can beforehand, direct the town’s hero character to fend off foes, and use your miracles when and where you can to help turn the tides. Oh yes, it’s tower defense, friends. And there’s a lot of it.

Most of the other changes in the simulation sections feed into that new system. Certain buildings will generate certain resources, and you’ll need them to build and upgrade towers, keep your heroes healed, regenerate SP so you can use more miracles, and place palisades. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about all of this. I’m not a huge fan of tower defense games, so seeing this kind of gameplay take such a prominent stage in a remake of a game that had nothing of the sort felt odd. But in the end, I think it works. Thematically it makes sense that these towns would be getting attacked by Tanzra’s hordes. From a story standpoint, it helps weave the new heroes into the fleshed out tale. And in terms of gameplay, it’s a solid way to expand the complexity and value of the simulation segments. It now matters what and where your followers build. There are benefits to rebuilding with newer structures beyond simply raising the population. These are all good things, in my opinion.

I certainly can’t deny that it makes for a very different game, however. This is not the kind of remake most video game fans will be accustomed to, I think. And when such radical remakes have happened, they’ve gone wrong often enough to have people suspicious of the whole idea. But I look at what we have here in Actraiser Renaissance and I not only appreciate its value as a game, but also as an idea for how this series could move forward. I will always enjoy the original game, but I can’t imagine a brand-new, full-priced game that adheres to its specifics. I can easily imagine one that follows on from Actraiser Renaissance. One that improves on its new ideas, builds on them, and keeps on growing. The key to an ActRaiser sequel was never to subtract, but to add. And that’s what this game does, even if it’s not strictly speaking a sequel.

If you’re looking for a carbon copy of the original game with an improved presentation and nothing else of significance added, I’m afraid you may not like Actraiser Renaissance. This isn’t that kind of remake, and I personally don’t think it should have been. But if you’re fine with something with the flavor of ActRaiser, with the essence of the original but also a personality of its own, I think you will like this game. It has its flaws, particularly in its visual presentation, and some of its new ideas could use a bit more hammering out. But it, like the game it is based on, is a rather unique game that pulls you in powerfully the more time you spend with it. There isn’t a whole lot like this out there, and it’s handily better than other homages like SolSeraph. And hey, that incredible music sure doesn’t hurt.

Originally released in the West on the Super NES under the title of Final Fantasy II for reasons that feel sillier all the time when explained, Final Fantasy IV had the unique pleasure of presenting three sequels’ worth of improvements as a single game’s jump for English players of the era. It follows the story of a Dark Knight named Cecil as everything he once trusted and believed in starts to crash down around him. It’s a rather linear affair as Final Fantasy games go, and your party make-up at any given time will always be determined by where you are in the story. There’s a rather large cast of characters who rotate in and out as the story demands, each representing a Final Fantasy job class archetype of one sort or another.

In the early months of the Super NES’s life, this strong emphasis on dramatic storytelling and a relatively rich cast of characters was quite impressive. There were abilities and spells we had never seen before, and the twists and turns in the storyline made for a highly compelling RPG. Hindsight tells us many of the things that seemed to originate with Final Fantasy IV had actually appeared in prior games that didn’t make it to the West, but you really can’t argue with how nicely polished all of those bits are in this fourth game. Indeed, this game is incredibly accommodating as far as giving the player a fairly smooth ride. There are some tricky bits, but it wants anyone to be able to see its tale through to the end.

I was obsessed with this game when it first came out. I had a solid fling with the original game, enough that I took a punt on this one with my hard-earned newspaper delivery money. I had no idea what I was in for, but it didn’t take long for it to grab me. The opening scene with that amazing Red Wing theme playing as the crew of an airship reflect on their dubious actions. A conflicted man expressing doubts to his king, only to be cast away along with his best friend. A late-night talk with his girlfriend, who believes in him more than he believes in himself. The two friends embark on a journey to redeem themselves to the king, stepping onto that bridge at the front of the castle as the music swells. The Prelude, now generally viewed as the main theme of Final Fantasy, heard through that outstanding Super NES sound ship. What is this? What did I get myself into?

For just about that entire year, Final Fantasy IV was on my mind. The music was seared into my brain. I was sketching the characters on the back of every school worksheet and in the margins of every notebook. My friends and I would discuss potential secrets. I worked through the game, getting pulled around emotionally by every goofy bit of melodrama. Final Fantasy IV has melodrama to burn. I got to the final dungeon and, feeling unprepared, stopped and spent some time grinding. One of my friends in the neighborhood stopped by, and I thought I would just show him the final boss even if I couldn’t defeat him. And then, somehow, I did. And gosh, what a boss. Final Fantasy always brings the heat with those final boss battles, even if the set-up is a bit rocky at times. When I landed that final attack and the familiar crack of sound and rumbling of a dead Final Fantasy boss hit, my friend and I cheered. I had dinner late that night, insisting to my parents that I had to watch the whole ending. What a game.

Indeed, it made such an impact on me that when the next Final Fantasy installment was released, I was extremely skeptical of it because it had the audacity to not continue the story of the characters I loved so much. Who are these new chumps? Well, I’ll buy it, but don’t expect me to like this as much as Final Fantasy IV. Life is funny. We’ll get to that story in a couple of months, I imagine. Suffice it to say that this game absolutely knocked my socks off when I was twelve.

Gosh, but that’s the key, isn’t it? I was twelve. And games like this were a lot rarer back then, especially in the West. I probably can’t separate my nostalgia for this game from this review. Not completely. I’ve tried many times, and you may have read some of those attempts. I know this game’s faults very well. The story is so melodramatic and relies on so many cheap emotional pops that it borders on parody at times. There aren’t a whole lot of options in terms of character customization. You go through so many underground caves, friends. That’s the one piece of music you might be tired of by the end. It’s a very linear game, with only the barest of opportunities to venture off the path for some extra rewards. I know all of this. I still love it. I was twelve, and to some extent when I fire this game up I am still twelve.

Stepping past the fuzzy feelings of youth long past, I do think Final Fantasy IV has a lot going for it even now. For all of its twists and turns, this is a very earnest and easy to follow story, which isn’t something we can always say about Final Fantasy games anymore. The emphasis on a fixed party means the developers know exactly what the player has in their toolbox at any given moment, and that allowed them to put together some very interesting boss encounters that force you to actually think a little. That soundtrack is still incredible. And by design, this game is a nice introduction to Final Fantasy as a brand. Maybe not quite as representative as it once was, but it’s one of my top choices if someone new to the series wants to get into it. There are better Final Fantasy games, but this is certainly one of the more agreeable ones.

Now, I mentioned at the beginning of this review that there have been several versions of this game. Some are easier, some are harder. Some are more straightforward, others surprisingly complicated. Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster leans more towards the soft and friendly end of those spectrums. In most ways, it takes after Final Fantasy IV Advance. It has all of the extra items and abilities that were cut out of the original Western SNES version and the Japanese Easy Type version, and the difficulty of enemies and bosses falls largely in line with Advance. Quite a different experience from the rather challenging and complex 3D remake that mobile players have had access to up until now. Assuredly a better place to experience the game for the first time.

There are some modest graphical improvements, but the game largely preserves the original look of the game, and I’m kind of here for that. I liked the ultra-clean and detailed PSP sprites in that system’s version of the game, and I even like the SD low-poly designs of the 3D remake. But the story was originally built around these rather simple sprites, and I think they do an able job of expressing themselves for all their simplicity. You get a few more details here and there in this pixel remaster, but given its original roots on a rather color-rich 16-bit platform it’s obviously not the big step we saw in the first three Pixel Remaster games.

What is a big step is the soundtrack. As with the other Pixel Remaster games, the soundtrack has been replaced with luxurious fancy-pants orchestral arrangements. This game already had a wonderful soundtrack, and hearing it like this is an absolute revelation. I’m getting shivers thinking about Final Fantasy VI already, friends. Tracks like the Red Wing theme, the Theme of Love, the Prelude, the Final Boss music, and the Battle with the Four Fiends are stone-cold video game classics and I’m simply in awe of how they come off here. If there is a reason to rate this particular version of the game above any of the others, it is on this point.

The biggest bit of bad news is a familiar tune for those who have been paying attention to these Pixel Remasters. The game content here is as it was in the original version of the game. None of the content added from the Advance version onward is included here, nor are any of the features from the 3D remake. They’ve even gone and cut the secret Developer Room for whatever reason. It’s unfortunate as the new additions in Final Fantasy IV Advance helped address some of the more obvious criticisms of this game, notably by allowing you to change your party make-up near the end of the game. For better or worse, this is pretty much the original Final Fantasy IV in terms of content and mechanics. Well, I suppose the 3D remake is still there for those who want more crunchy RPG mechanics.

So, is Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster the definitive version of Final Fantasy IV we’ve been wanting? Unfortunately, no. It’s just another very good version of the game, but it’s one I would wholeheartedly recommend for the new player over its 3D counterpart. Its biggest crime isn’t a grand one; it merely leaves out some valuable extra content that enriched some earlier remakes. It also doesn’t have controller support, and the English font is still tiny and narrow. I don’t expect the extra content thing to be addressed, but I sure hope those other bits are at some point.

If you’re just playing Final Fantasy IV for the first time now, I wouldn’t expect it to be as special to you as it was to me thirty years ago. But you know, it’s still rather playable and enjoyable for a game of its vintage, especially within the RPG genre. There’s a reason Square Enix keeps coming back to this one, I think. It’s a welcoming entry point into the series, an exciting if often cheesy roller coaster ride, and on the whole a game that somehow makes you fail to notice its flaws because its strong points are so strong. Moreover, it’s different enough that I think even owners of the existing mobile version of Final Fantasy IV will find it worth grabbing.

Given that What Remains of Edith Finch is all about the narrative, I won’t be spoiling anything here. The narrative here is told through a series of short stories that have you exploring and experiencing different emotions and points of view of people who all lived or have visited a specific house. This involves finding trap doors, hidden passages, and going through personal belongings to learn more about various people. While the initial portions feel a bit disjointed, the conclusion makes it all worth it and What Remains of Edith Finch is a great example of mature storytelling.

I’ve played and enjoyed many games like What Remains of Edith Finch before and enjoyed most of them quite a bit with Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture being a current favourite. What sets What Remains of Edith Finch apart from other walking simulator games, is in how it blends in a good amount of interactivity with its exploration portions. Not only do you have the illusion of freedom and decision making in the game which both help keeps things a bit fresh, but it does a great job of being perfectly paced with how it introduces new stories and characters to you as you explore in and around the house. These involve basic things like swiping in a specific direction (or using your analog stick on the controller) to open a specific lock, or things like flying a kite, taking photographs, and more. I won’t get into more details to avoid any spoilers, but Giant Sparrow nailed the structure in What Remains of Edith Finch.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the visuals in What Remains of Edith Finch on iOS because of the performance issues on consoles. Overall, the developers of this port have done a fantastic job in translating the gorgeous locations to modern iPhone and iPads. I played What Remains of Edith Finch on iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPad Pro (2020) and enjoyed it the most on the iPad. It looks great and the only real visual issue I ran into barring one glitch towards the end, was visual pop-in being very noticeable in a few areas. I also took full advantage of the iCloud save syncing to switch devices in my playthroughs.

What Remains of Edith Finch targets 30fps (barring it running higher in one specific portion weirdly) on all three devices I tried it on. I had almost no major frame rate issues with it with some frame pacing holding it back from feeling smooth enough overall. Coming from the console versions to this, the iOS version felt better overall and is the version I’d recommend after PC for the best experience. Load times are also very good in the iOS conversion. Hopefully a future update can add an uncapped frame rate option for newer devices though. Overall, the performance and visuals in What Remains of Edith Finch’s iOS conversion are very good on the devices I played it on.

Barring the visuals, the audio is easily the highlight of the experience in What Remains of Edith Finch. This is a combination of Jeff Russo’s superb score and the voice acting. Just listening to the soundtrack right now while writing this review has me picturing the exact moments from the game again. The cast did a great job with each character as well. If you do plan on playing What Remains of Edith Finch, you definitely should use a good pair of headphones to get the most out of the audio design and the experience here.

I wasn’t too worried about the touch controls given Annapurna Interactive’s other ports, and they are well implemented. The only instance I felt things got a bit unwieldy was in one portion that required both analog sticks on a controller. This didn’t feel bad, but the way that specific gameplay segment progresses made it a bit annoying to play with touch controls on iPad. If you use a controller, What Remains of Edith Finch has no issues. I am disappointed with the lack of rumble because the console versions had nice responsive rumble for many interactions. I couldn’t test full keyboard and mouse controls but the game does have keyboard support.

After three prior attempts and not finishing it for whatever reason, I’m glad I finally properly experienced What Remains of Edith Finch’s full story. My only complaints with the game itself is in how the opening moments felt a little disjointed in how I wasn’t really feeling any need to care about the people being introduced until a bit later in the game. The payoff and final moments were absolutely worth it, but I feel like some people might be turned off by the opening. It took me just under 3 hours for a single playthrough. I explored and walked around a lot. If you just try and go for the critical path without looking for extras or just soaking in the atmosphere, expect to take about 2 hours to see the story through.

I’m hoping potential future updates can improve the controller support and add some graphics options for newer devices because those are my only complaints with this port other than one instance where it had to prepare assets in the middle of a story. Barring that, I’m very impressed with this conversion, especially after playing through the first hour again on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One X to compare with the iOS version. I also ran into a glitch I couldn’t reproduce where I had to force quit the game and launch it again to continue that segment. Thankfully, I had no other problems in my playthroughs across devices.

If you enjoy games like Dear Esther or Gone Home, you will love What Remains of Edith Finch. If you’ve never played a walking simulator before, What Remains of Edith Finch is the best one to try out as your first experience. With The Unfinished Swan and now What Remains of Edith Finch, I will play anything Giant Sparrow releases going forward without thinking twice. Both of these are fantastic games and What Remains of Edith Finch is a must play for everyone who enjoys great storytelling and beautiful experiences.

What makes Wingspan stand out, barring the focus on birds and how relaxing things are, is its gorgeous art. Wingspan’s digital version expands on the board game with sublime animations and music to make a laid-back game even better. Your aim here is to build up your nature preserve by adding more birds and raising your own score. You do this by focussing on different areas of growth and by strategizing on the fly with what birds to summon, when to focus on food versus eggs, specific in-game goals, and more. I’m not even going to bother trying to go over the basic controls, because it is pretty complex initially. There is a lot to keep in mind as you try to draw more birds and the requirements to get them revolve around the food you get from the bird feeder dice tower needing to match the bird’s requirements. I did the tutorial twice and tried playing on my own before Wingspan finally clicked and I understood the game flow against others.

In its current state, you can play in a custom game solo with AI or alongside friends, play a game with the automa ruleset, view the tutorial, or head over online to play real-time or asynchronous multiplayer. Real-time multiplayer allows for up to 5 minutes per turn in a 3 player setting. Asynchronous has up to 72 hours per turn in a 3 player setting. There is also the Champ of the Birds challenge mode which changes each week.

Digital adaptations of board games should be best on iPad because of the screen real estate and flexibility of control options available on iPadOS. Wingspan’s touch controls are very good but they could be a lot better in the tutorial. Sometimes, things aren’t clear enough and you might miss the small touch target arrow to progress. The in-game controls in an actual round are good on iPad. On iPhone, Monster Couch has adapted the controls really well but the text will be a bit too small for some people. On iPhone 11, I found it very good overall despite the few tiny button touch targets.

The highlight of Wingspan and one of the reasons I want to get the physical board game is the art. Instead of just having some basic card animation, this digital adaptation has gorgeous transitions in between areas, lovely subtle card animations, and feels super polished both with visuals and performance on the devices I tried it on. The visuals are complemented by the relaxing score by Paweł Górniak and the environmental and bird sounds.

I’m not sure how or if this is even possible in a Nintendo Switch or Xbox game, but Wingspan on iOS notifies you for in-progress games. I tried this on both iPhone and iPad with different progress on both. This adaptation of Wingspan gets a lot right in general as a way to experience Wingspan without any prior experience or knowledge which is very important, but it isn’t a perfect conversion on iOS and iPadOS.

Despite the few UI-related bugs that will likely be fixed in an update, there are a few areas Wingspan falls short. The lack of iCloud save sync between devices is baffling for a game like this. Being able to start on one device and continue playing or doing the next turn on another is something I basically assumed would be in, but there is no save syncing right now. In an ideal world, you’d be able to take your Steam progress to iOS and back but there isn’t any cross progression. Cross platform online is available though. The final bummer is the lack of controller support despite Wingspan being available on both Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms. For most people, the superb touchscreen controls will be enough, but it is disappointing not having controller support when the platform supports it and ports with controller support exist.

It is interesting that Wingspan can detect a controller and it notified me when my controller was disconnected, but will not actually let me use the controller in-game. There is partial keyboard support with WASD and enter/escape working for some things in-game. Hopefully future updates add proper support for not just controller gameplay, but also keyboard and mouse support for iPad players.

When I first discovered Wingspan, I wasn’t sure it would click with me but wanted to check it out for its art. Having now played it over the last two weeks almost daily, it is a superlative experience on iPad and a very good one on iPhone. The asking price being half of what it costs on console also helps given how good this feels on a touchscreen. The lack of cross platform progression and iCloud save sync are the biggest downsides here. Barring those issues, Wingspan looks gorgeous and it is one of the most relaxing games you can play right now on iOS. I’m definitely going to get the physical board game soon and cannot wait to play more Wingspan with friends online and when the expansions eventually arrive.

If you’re familiar with the 3D remake, you’ll find a lot of differences here. First of all, Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ingus are nowhere to be found. They were creations for the remake to try to give the main party members more distinctive personalities. The heroes here are a pack of virtually identical Onion Knights, all four of them ready to go at the start of the adventure. The rotating support members retain their familiar names, though you may find their characterizations less rounded out compared to the 3D remake. Wow, this sounds like a bad deal already, Shaun. Why do you like this version better?

It’s the gameplay, friends. The 3D remake of Final Fantasy III was a polygonal game designed around the limitations of the Nintendo DS hardware. And those were some considerable limitations. While the original Famicom game had battles against as many as nine enemies at a time, the 3D remake topped out at three enemies. In an attempt to maintain the balance, those three enemies tended to have three times as many hit points as their predecessors, among other tweaks. I won’t say the result was poor, but I don’t think they struck quite the same level. Some dungeons were really hurt by this change, and I feel the overall result was a more sluggish, less exciting experience. The job system had quite a few changes as well, again resulting in a game with a very different feel.

This Pixel Remaster brings things back to a feel more akin to the original, albeit with a number of sensible changes that don’t upset the balance nearly as much. We once again can have nine enemies on screen, the stats for said enemies are back to their normal non-sponge levels, and the overall pace of the game is much quicker and more enjoyable. The job system is different from both the original and the remake, removing the penalty for job changing entirely. Job classes have had their abilities shuffled around a bit, making for better balance overall. We’ve got the Vancian magic system back instead of MP as well. And of course, this remake gives us an outstanding new version of what was already an amazing soundtrack. By virtue of all of these changes, this is one of the better double-dips for those who own the existing mobile version. This really is a different experience.

The broad strokes remain similar, however. The plot covers mostly the same beats, just leaving out all of the added bits with the core party members. You’ll visit the same dungeons, though the layouts are quite different in most cases. At least in appearance, you’ll battle the same bosses. Their behavior and the necessary strategies to beat them differ in many ways. The jobs are also by and large the same in name and in terms of when you will unlock them, but the nitty-gritty of how they function is different from the 3D remake. More involved than the original, but better balanced and more appropriate to each job than the first remake. Don’t worry, ninjas and sages still slap.

Enough with the comparisons, though. How is the game itself? This was the Final Fantasy series’ swan song on the hardware that birthed it, and Square really went all-out here. While the main characters are a step back from the distinct personalities seen in Final Fantasy II, the plot itself is bigger and more epic than anything seen in the series before this point. From a gameplay point of view, the new job system gave players an incredible amount of customization options for their parties. Yes, Final Fantasy V went well past this, but for its time and place the Final Fantasy III job system really is impressive. I also appreciate how the game incorporates status ailments as required elements of your strategy, even if it does lead to some forced party compositions at certain points. Indeed, it’s important to be flexible about your job choices. Thankfully, that’s easier to do in this remake.

It’s a bit weird to talk about this game in the same way that I’ll be discussing the others, because most of the people reading this likely aren’t familiar with the original game. What I can say is that the quality of the remake here matches that of the other Famicom-era Final Fantasy games, with improved visuals, a lovely new version of the soundtrack, and a few other goodies. None of the extra content added in the 3D remake is here, but I also imagine there is less expectation of that with this installment. A far more faithful remake of a game that most Western players only know through another, considerably looser, remake. Which oddly makes this the freshest and perhaps most alien of these releases, and potentially the most appealing. The big flaws here are the ones shared with the other Pixel Remaster games so far. The font is awful, being both too small and too narrow. There’s no support for external controllers, either.

Now, I don’t want to sugar-coat things too much. This is still a JRPG from the 8-bit era, and in staying somewhat faithful to those roots this game does have a lot of friction that may not sit well with fans who came into the series later. For example, the final dungeon is an absolutely brutal test of endurance, among the longest and most challenging in the series. Even with the new helpful save options, it’s a tough haul. Some bosses essentially require certain party builds, so you’d better get comfortable with the job system quickly and pay attention when the game warns you. The balance has been adjusted such that you probably won’t need to do much grinding, but you are going to be getting into a lot of fights. That’s how things were, and that’s how things are here.

You may like the Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster, or you may not. You may find it more fun than the 3D remake, or you may not. But this is certainly closer to the original game and no matter how you fall on it personally, we can surely agree that it’s fantastic to finally have this option available to Western players. You can get a more proper appreciation of the progression of the series in terms of its storytelling and character building ambitions through this game, and more clearly see the line between the 8-bit and 16-bit eras of the franchise. That alone gives this some value, I think. Personally, I think this is the game where the series really started to show its ambitions and break away from most of the pack. It’s excellent, and fans of the series would do well to check out this treasure.

I discovered Taiko no Tatsujin through an import release on PS Vita because of how colourful the gameplay looked and how varied the song selection was. Prior to that, there had been some Taiko games on mobile but they were all region locked or had something putting me off trying them. The PS Vita having a lot of rhythm games I enjoyed definitely got me trying more in the genre on the platform. Taiko no Tatsujin V Version featured loads of music from games, anime, and even some pop songs like Gimme Chocolate! from Babymetal. I played a ton of it but was completely obsessed with the franchise from the PS4 and Nintendo Switch releases for which I even bought the drum controller bundle for Nintendo Switch.

Alongside Sega’s Project Diva Hatsune Miku games, Taiko no Tatsujin was easily my favourite rhythm game series, so I was very happy to see a new entry arrive on Apple Arcade in the form of Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat.

If you’ve never played a game in the series before, Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat follows a similar structure as past games where you have to hit (or tap) a drum in sync with the notes. There are different note types that require either hitting a different part of the drum (main drum or outside) or rapid presses and more.

As the song progresses and you manage larger combos, the animations, characters, and overall visuals keep ramping up in the background. You are scored by each tap that can vary from Good to Bad depending on how correctly you time your tap. For the online mode, you can either matchmake with anyone searching or enter a code using symbols to match with a friend. It is only one versus one right now.

Rhythm games live and die by their song selection and that’s my only real complaint with Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat right now. It has already seen one big update that added 10 new songs and there will likely be more coming soon. This was clearly done to ensure people remain subscribed to Apple Arcade as we have seen with many games either shipping in parts or getting updates to keep people coming back.

On the one hand, I love having a Taiko no Tatsujin game on my iPhone and iPad with perfect cloud sync that doesn’t require me to keep paying for new songs, but Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat has less than half of what you’d normally see in a Taiko no Tatsujin game on console. Hopefully in a few months, the game has a much bigger song list.

Speaking of the songs, the pop section includes the Zenzenzense from the excellent movie Your Name and Babymetal’s Gimme Chocolate. The opening for Dragon Ball Z, Neon Genesis Evangelion, are also here alongside one song from Pac-Man, Ace Combat, Tekken 7, Ridge Racer each as the ones that I enjoyed from the anime and game music sections. Music from Digimon Adventure, Captain Tsubasa, and One Piece is also included in the current song list.

These songs all have easy, normal, hard, and extreme difficulty settings. The last two will definitely destroy you, at least initially. As you complete more songs both online and offline, you can unlock cosmetics for Don Chan (the main character you play). These range from full costumes to different parts you can mix and match with the colors available.

Visually, Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat is superb. It looks gorgeous and runs perfectly on both my iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020). If you’re on an older device, you can turn down some of the visuals to maintain a rock solid frame rate. I had no issues in the time I’ve spent over the months on both devices. In fact the load times make it hard to play the PS4 and Nintendo Switch versions if I just want to quickly play a song like I can do on iOS.

When it comes to controls, you can use full touch controls that work well or use a controller. I played with my PS5 DualSense controller and touch controls. The touch controls will feel at home to anyone who played the Nintendo Switch game with touch controls. If you play with touch controls, you can play with a semi-transparent or solid drum on the bottom or a split drum with the same options.

In its current state, Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat is a great addition to Apple Arcade. Hopefully it gets more songs and even modes through big updates like many of the games on the service have been getting in recent months. If you’ve never played a game in the series before, Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat is a super polished entry that is light on content right now but is still a joy to play and a great rhythm game to just pickup and play.

You see, in this particular story, you are the murderer. Veronica Villensey has had enough of her loveless marriage. She helps her husband get a closer look at the waves, and he must have enjoyed it because he didn’t return. With eight hours remaining before the ship reaches New York, Veronica needs to make sure she not only gets away with her crime but is also able to cash in on her husband’s generous life insurance policy. It’s not the biggest of ships, but there are enough people about that you’re going to need to be very careful how you go about things. You have to use the limited time available to you to cover your tracks.

You’re free to move about the ship, talk to anyone you can find, and take various actions depending on your location. Everything costs some time, and everyone else on the ship will follow their own schedules and routines. Some events can only be triggered by being in the right location at the right time, and sometimes only if you’ve done certain things in advance. It makes the whole thing feel quite organic, especially on your first couple of runs through. It’s impossible to be everywhere at once, so you need to figure out who knows what and how you can deal with it. When the time comes, everyone will gather and you’ll find out how well you’ve done.

In the likely event that you don’t reach the best possible outcome on your first try, you’ll automatically head into your next run. Veronica will have something on her mind that will give you a hint about what to do this time, and the game will offer a few handy points to investigate. It never tells you exactly what to do, but the hints will at least put you on the trail so that you don’t just keep repeating your mistakes. It’s one of those little inkle touches that makes it easy to keep playing again and again, part of an excellent UI that is both functional and stylish.

That’s all backed up with some fantastic writing that brings this motley cast of characters to life in spectacular fashion. Veronica is the star of the show, of course. She’s a devilish woman who somehow manages to charm. You have a lot of control over the general flow of her conversations, but her words are definitely her own most of the time, particularly on the subject of dolphins. You won’t get as much time with the rest of the characters, but they shine in their own ways. The gossipy, conspiracy-prone Lady Armstrong. The honorable, savvy Major Singh. The dashing Officer Anders. God. Yeah, you can talk to God. Although the Almighty doesn’t care much for Veronica, you can get some hints and laughs by visiting the ship’s chapel.

The thing is, the more you dig into any of these characters, the more you discover. You can easily miss the presence of entire characters depending on what you do. You certainly won’t find out all of their secrets unless you find the right way to pry. But do you need to find out all of their dirt? Well, it might not hurt to have some aces up your sleeves. Sometimes it’s just interesting to see where things go, though. After all, it doesn’t take that much time to do a single run. Surely you can dedicate a few to getting to know everyone a little better? You’ll need to gather a lot of information to find your way to the best possible ending, so consider it work in the service of the greater good.

Overboard!, like some of the best adventure games, makes a complicated world out of what initially seems to be a very compact space. A puzzle box that gives back as much as you’re willing to put in. That it’s all handled with inkle’s usual flourish only makes it all the better. Do you think you have what it takes to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes and get away with murder? Pick this game up and give it your best shot.

Although incredibly hard to find a physical edition, Fury of Dracula has neverthless made its way into the hands of some remarkable entertainers, who first brought it to my attention. At the time, I was interested only in playing it physically at some point in the future. I have but little space for a collection, you see, and even a game as interesting as one about hunting vampires and subjugating Europe as Dracula just doesn’t make the cut. Alas. Fortunately, it has debuted on iOS, a platform much more convenient for the casual board game collector. So, with collars high, and all mirrors safely stowed, I embark on a ride to 19th century Europe.

Playable by two to five people (or even just one, if you don’t mind playing against AI), four players will be vampire hunters, and the fifth plays Dracula. Individually, hunters are far too weak to face Dracula directly; however, unlike Dracula, they can acquire an arsenal of weapons, tools for combatting the undead, and allies in pursuit of the monster… but they’re on a clock. If they don’t find what they need, and fast, Dracula’s shadow will have spread too far to stop. Dracula, on the other hand, has all the time in the world—literally. While Professor Van Helsing and his cohort must slay Dracula to win, Dracula need only evade his pursuers long enough for a handful of his many plots to flower.

Speaking of Europe, the gameboard encompasses England, as well as most of continental Europe from the English Channel to the Black Sea. Movement will be quite familiar to anyone who has played Scotland Yard (or perhaps even Ticket to Ride), and involves roads, railways, or sea. Hunters can travel by any of the three, requiring only a railway ticket to board a train. Dracula, on the other hand, can travel only by road or sea, with a hefty blood price to board a ship (trains, he says, are far too public). Additionally, while the human players may take action both during the day and at night (albeit with greater risk at night), Dracula may only conduct his affairs during the deepest depths of night.

Finally, should any hunters find Dracula or his spawn in a city, or should they find a hunter, they will immediately engage in combat. Combat plays out for up to six rounds, during which each participant selects a card to use and resolve. The more cards the hunters have available, the better their odds, as each of their cards can cancel a number of Dracula’s, in addition to having other special effects. However, should a hunter be reduced to zero health, they are defeated and moved to the nearest hospital. If instead they are bitten… well, better they be defeated.

While that’s a general look at the mechanics, to actually play it is something else. To play Fury of Dracula is to experience a delightful blend of RPG and social deduction, with a dash of strategy and gothic brooding. Players are invited to enter a world where there is a great evil, and they—and only they—can stop it. Must stop it, even, lest all they know succumb to it. Or they can be the great evil, and sow terror and evil across the land in pursuit of thralls and a wealth of food. Either way, the atmosphere—the feel of the game in progress, should the players deign to indulge it, is precisely that which one feels reading Dracula. It’s perfect.

As good of an experience as it is, though, it is not without flaws. Most notable to folks just picking it up, and not exactly unexpectedly, it isn’t a great game to play solo. The computer isn’t good for much beyond providing a patient opponent while you learn the general flow of the game, and maybe an occasional bout to fill some time. It’s really best played with couple friends at a coffee shop, or with family after dinner. Or, I suppose, you could hop into an online game, although I was never actually able to see that in action.

More material to gameplay, map movement is not only painful, it’s downright impossible. There are three (well, four, but functionally three) degrees of zoom, all focusing on whichever token is presently taking a turn. There is no way to get a look at other cities, or see where your allies are in relation to where you think Dracula may be, or even just pan around the map. It’s really quite a problem, at times, when a card tells you to choose where to put a blockade, or an obstacle, or where to send a hunter, and you can’t even see all your options.

Despite its shortcomings, iOS is probably the best place to play Fury of Dracula. Rather than being tethered to computer for game night, you can pass around the iPad, or play on phones. Everyone has those, right? What about playing it physically, you ask? Well, the less said about trying to hunt down a physical copy, the better. Finding a copy isn’t easy, and even if you can find one on Amazon or the like, it isn’t cheap (try finding a copy for under $200—I’ll wait), so $5 for the mobile port is an absolute steal.

As for whether or not it’s worth buying… for somone who enjoys board games, who has ample opportunity to play with friends or family who also enjoy board games, it’s a definite yes. You’ll get several hours of fun out of it at the very least. For someone looking for a game to pick up who may or may not be able to find two or three or four other players? Probably not. This isn’t a single player game, and while it can be played online, it is really best played in person. But hey, it’s $5. If you’re unsure, it’s an absolute bargain for a decent port of a classic game. Give it a shot!

SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech ($9.99) was one of the biggest surprises for me when I played it on Nintendo Switch. The game’s overall quality wasn’t surprising given Image & Form’s track record with the SteamWorld games but the sheer polish in the gameplay and visuals was above anything the team had done before and the studio’s first attempt at a card battler ended up being amazing. Fast forward to last month and the card battling RPG SteamWorld Quest has hit iOS as a universal premium game bringing the complete adventure to mobile for the first time.

SteamWorld Quest is Image & Form’s first major iOS game since the awesome SteamWorld Heist hit the platform back in 2016. Read Shaun’s review of that here. SteamWorld Heist felt like a perfect fit for touchscreens with its strategic turn based gameplay and I thought of the same thing when I played SteamWorld Quest on Nintendo Switch. I was actually surprised that SteamWorld Quest on Nintendo Switch had no touchscreen support given the simple movement across areas and card-based combat. Thankfully touchscreen support has been rectified now through the iOS version.

SteamWorld Quest has you taking on the role of Armilly alongside her friend Copernica. Armilly has ambitions to join the local guild but gets shut down at every instance. This continues until the village is attacked. This is where your journey begins spanning gorgeous locations, multiple grand boss battles, new and old friends, and more. SteamWorld Quest feels like a very simple and cliched story in the beginning but it has the signature humour and charm I love from the studio’s games.

Expect the main story in SteamWorld Quest to take you around 25 to 30 hours or so depending on the difficulty you choose. While some might expect an RPG to be longer, I love how this has almost no padding. The only time I felt a bit annoyed with the pacing was with one of the progression-halting mechanics in the middle and one of the later areas when there was teleportation involved.

The core gameplay involves traversing through hand-drawn locations while looking for secrets, fighting enemies, opening chests, and more. Going off the beaten track is often rewarding with new cards, items, or even currency which you can spend in the shops to buy, upgrade, craft, and more.

I’ve praised a lot about SteamWorld Quest so far but the main draw is definitely the combat. SteamWorld Quest‘s battles are called Punch Card Battles. Each turn, you draw multiple cards and can play up to three cards. Strike cards are basic attack cards while upgrade cards have boosts. Using strike or upgrade cards builds up steam pressure (shared among the party) which can be used to play more powerful skill cards and using combos later on. As you unlock more areas and defeat harder enemies, your repertoire of cards grows and you have a lot of freedom with approaching future battles.

Visually, SteamWorld Quest is gorgeous. The hand-drawn environments and steampunk designs are superb and already go above the high bar set with each new game from Image & Form. The only area the visuals disappointed me is in some of the mid-game areas. When played on iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020), SteamWorld Quest is fullscreen and smartly adapts the portions designed for a 16:9 aspect ratio to never feel out of place. The touch targets and interface elements scale well and this is easily one of the best conversions for a console to mobile release in terms of UI and menus.

A lot of people keep comparing Slay the Spire and SteamWorld Quest when they don’t have much in common barring involving cards. One thing I will say is I wish Slay the Spire would take cues from SteamWorld Quest for the card interface during combat. SteamWorld Quest absolutely nailed it. During combat, you can tap a card to have it zoomed into the middle of the screen and then select a target for its effect as one way to play SteamWorld Quest. The other option is tapping and holding a card and then moving it to the target. Both of these feel great and definitely make me think an iOS version was planned from the start with such a lovely card battling interface.

Erik Gudmundson’s score for SteamWorld Quest is perfect ranging from very mellow and atmospheric tunes to upbeat adrenaline pumping battle music. The highlights of the soundtrack are definitely the regular boss battle theme and one of the later boss themes. While I prefer SteamWorld Dig 2 overall, the SteamWorld Quest score is easily the best soundtrack a SteamWorld game has gotten for me.

SteamWorld Quest is a joy to play regardless of platform. The lower asking price definitely helps on mobile alongside the great touchscreen controls. If you’ve already played SteamWorld Quest on something else, there isn’t anything here that you haven’t already seen but newcomers will find this a brilliant conversion just like SteamWorld Heist. Hopefully Image & Form can bring over the SteamWorld Dig games now that controller support is built into iOS and iPadOS with support for the most popular controllers.

I love SteamWorld Quest but the iOS and iPadOS conversion has a few issues including one that surprised me. The lack of iCloud save sync or any sort of sync for progression between devices is baffling. You’re essentially forced to one device here. The other issues are minor because while controller support would’ve been nice to have (considering this is a console game ported to mobile), the touchscreen interface is perfect and a lot better than using a controller for this game. The final annoyance I have is with performance. On iPad Pro (2020), the performance isn’t as smooth as Nintendo Switch while it is fine on iPhone 11. Hopefully this can be fixed in a future update.

Overall, SteamWorld Quest is a must play for not just fans of Image & Form or SteamWorld, but a must play period. I loved it back when it hit Nintendo Switch and it was a blast revisiting it on iPhone and iPad over the last few weeks. Just don’t come into this expecting an infinitely replayable roguelite because it isn’t that. SteamWorld Quest is a single player card battling RPG and is instantly one of the best games you can play on mobile. It oozes charm and is super-polished.

Just like how SteamWorld Dig 2 absolutely blew me away with its improvements over the already amazing SteamWorld Dig, I cant wait to see Image & Form revisit SteamWorld Quest for a sequel because they definitely keep getting better with each new game. If you held off on playing SteamWorld Quest on other platforms for a potential mobile port, your wait has been more than worth it. Do yourself a favour and get it now.

While a shop simulator and a dungeon crawler are distinctly different, they are both RPGs, and it isn’t surprising that they blend together well. In a dungeon crawler you will frequently find junk items that serve no purpose other than to fill your all-too-limited inventory, forcing a decision between holding them until later for some coin or discarding them now in hopes of filling that space with something more useful. Some dungeon crawlers will allow you to turn those junk items into enchantments, or gems, or perhaps even crafting them into better equipment. Others try to limit or completely remove the trash with filters, or automatically smelting it down… but, inevitably, some gets through.

Shop management games, on the other hand, have to get their merchandise somewhere. Most of the time raw materials are simply… conjured up from the base code to be turned into useful items. Once in a while, though, you can buy rare or interesting components from adventurers for much more expensive products. The question, however, is what if you combined these two genres? What if you could crawl dungeons for materials to craft, and so have a bit of action; then, when you return to town, what if you could create the useful items—weapons, armour, potions, enchantments and such—and sell the junk? Well, then you would have Moonlighter.

While the game is named after the shop, the balance between managing the Moonlighter and trawling dungeons for loot and boss fights is quite reasonable. That said… it is easy to spend too much time doing one thing, focusing on one part of the game, which makes the inevitable return to doing whatever you were avoiding much more painful. Beating up monsters is fun, for example, but if you aren’t aware of which materials are worth selling later, which ones are needed for better equipment, and which ones can safely be consumed for gold to escape the dungeon, sorting everything later when customers are piling through your front door can be rather stressful. Alternatively, if all you want to do is sell loot, you’re going to run out pretty quickly. Balance is key.

Ignoring all that, though, the dungeon crawling is rather fun, if simple. There are only so many enemy types in each dungeon, and it doesn’t take a strategic genius to figure out how to safely clear a room without taking damage. Sure, there are weapons with unique status effects, but why would you use that when you could opt for a bigger stick instead? Death, after all, is the best status effect, and no amount of stun chance or burn chance or poison chance applies death faster than just having a bigger stick to clobber stuff with. Bosses (and by bosses, I mean the Guardians at the end of a dungeon, not the mini-bosses at the exit of each floor), on the other hand, are a different story. They have radically different attack patterns, significantly more health, and unique rewards. Taking them on isn’t easy, although making sure your equipment is up to snuff makes a big difference. Yet even against bosses, status effects are less effective than just having a bigger stick and better armour.

After you’ve tired of beating up on mobs, or after a guardian has tied your sword in knots and tossed you out, it’s time to sell all the stuff accumulating in your backpack. While any item can be listed for any price, each has an ideal price range, dependant on your reputation, at which people are happy to buy it. Below that, and you’re “losing" both money and reputation; just above it, people will buy it, but they won’t be happy. Too far above the ideal range, though, and not only will the item not sell, anyone who takes a look at the product will get angry, leave early, and significantly hurt the Moonlighter’s reputation. Unfortunately, figuring out what that price range is is rather tedious, and it isn’t unusual to slightly undervalue (by not more than about a hundred gold, usually) an item. Worse yet, that perfect range can change with your reputation. Meaning, eventually each and every item you sell will have to be revisted and have its price adjusted. Ugh. That said, after you nail the price, selling chest after chest of items for tens of thousands of gold pieces is incredibly satisfying.

While the story isn’t exactly a heartrending tale of loss and love, betrayal and found friendships… it isn’t boring either. The premise is short, and sweet: Will wants to be a hero, but he also has a business to run. Along the way, he learns more about the dungeons and why they are here. Other than a brief introduction and periodic chats with Zenon, your old mentor, narrative is delivered via notes found on dungeon floors and journal entries from Crazy Pete, an adventurer obsessed with finding a deeper meaning in the depths. There’s also flavour to be found by chatting with the villagers, and sometimes dead adventurers yield equipment and a little more background information, but… well, that’s about it.

Much more impressive is the art and music. Artistically, Moonlighter uses a blend of colourful pixel art for gameplay and something a little more stylish for cutscenes and such. Each dungeon delivers a distinct aesthetic, with a unique soundtrack for that little extra something. The combination is delightful, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I do, however, have but one complaint: The warning animation on enemies. You see, it isn’t consistent. Sometimes attacks trigger just before the yellow flash, other times during it, and still others immediately after. It doesn’t even necessarily seem to be consistent among enemies of the same type—I’ve been hit by attacks that I had just dodged because the timing had changed! It’s really quite annoying, and I can’t help but think it’s a bug.

Despite that, it is very fun to play. Controls are dead simple: Tap to move (although there is an option to use a virtual joystick instead), swipe to roll, and tap an enemy to designate it as a target to attack. In addition, there are buttons to swap weapons, a special attack, potions, inventory, a map, and a pendant to escape the dungeon scattered along the edges of the screen. They have really done a great job porting to mobile, and it could easily be mistaken as a mobile-first game. However… I can’t help but wish to play it with a controller. As of this writing, controller support isn’t available however, prior to release, the PS4 controller I tested was detected, and was not entirely nonfunctional, lacking only some rather important bindings (such as exiting the pause menu, and attacking). Hopefully this will be added in the future.

I said it before, and I meant it: Moonlighter is a great game. It feels good to play, the soundtrack is great, and all my complaints are really quite minor. It is an interesting blend of dungeon crawler and shopkeep simulator, something not really delivered by other games that I have found. As a mobile port, it is excellent. Recommending it is easy, however with a twelve dollar price tag, it isn’t something everyone can or should pick up without second thought. Nevertheless, if you’re on the fence and have previously enjoyed games from both of the genres it pulls from, it’s definitely worth a shot.

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When Feral Interactive usually announces a mobile release, I get curious to see how a game has been adapted for mobile devices when it comes to the interface. With the XCOM 2 Collection, I was more curious about how the team managed to not only bring a current generation console and PC game to mobile but also how the huge install size was brought down for iOS. Having played it over the last few weeks, I can see the concessions that have been made to bring XCOM 2 Collection to iOS but also I’ve grown to like the game itself more than when I first tried War of the Chosen.

The story in the XCOM 2 Collection is set 20 years after the original XCOM Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within where Earth is under alien rule. There are more threats in XCOM 2 and the game itself is more tense overall as you take command of the Avenger headquarters going across locations trying to take down the aliens once and for all. If you’ve not played the original game, you can still play this and have a blast. The base XCOM 2 and its DLC have been slowly releasing ever since the PC debut back in 2016. In 2020, the XCOM 2 Collection is still essential for any fan of strategy games and this port feels like a miracle for a few reasons.

The XCOM 2 Collection on iOS includes four DLC packs and XCOM 2 War of the Chosen. While you obviously need to download content once you finish the initial install from the App Store, there are no in app purchases in this release. The vanilla XCOM 2 game initially disappointed me on PC and PS4 but I had a much better time playing the XCOM 2 Collection on Xbox One a while later. On iOS, all the enhancements and improvements from the added content is available from the get go and Feral Interactive have ensured it runs very well on modern iOS devices.

War of the Chosen is important because that expansion brought with it multiple fixes and enhancements to the engine on PC that improved the game considerably compared to the vanilla experience, not just for features but also for stability and performance. Having everything available on iOS including the gameplay improvements right from the get go is awesome and it ensures players are getting the best possible XCOM 2 Collection experience when played on iOS (barring visuals of course).

After the original XCOM Enemy Unknown translated so well to iOS, I wasn’t too concerned about the UI in XCOM 2 Collection –– on iPad at least. I was a bit worried about how it will be on the iPhone though. I’ve played XCOM 2 Collection with cloud saves working flawlessly across iPhone 11 and iPad Pro 11 (2020). I also tested it on an iPhone 7 Plus. The UI on phones takes a bit of getting used to for touch targets but it translates well with the interface panels and looks excellent on iPad screens.

XCOM 2 isn’t an amazing looking game on any console and it has obviously had many things turned down from the PC version to run well on iOS. Thankfully, it still looks and feels like XCOM 2 across the board and retains the gameplay perfectly. The biggest noticeable downgrades for me are the cut-scene quality, textures in the environment, and the effects. The UI looks crisp on all three devices I tried the XCOM 2 Collection on but you will need to adjust to the lower quality textures and character models if you’re coming from other platforms. While no one really plays XCOM 2 for cutting edge graphics, this is still a noticeable downgrade.

Feral Interactive’s frame rate details say most devices target 30fps while lower devices run at 25fps and some of the highest devices run with a higher fps cap. Having played it on iPhone 11, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPad Pro 11" (2020), I’m very impressed with this release despite fluctuations in certain scenes even on the newest iPad Pro. Performance on the iPhone 11 has been mostly solid with some drops, with a responsive interface and camera controls. iPad Pro 11" (2020) feels excellent and has been much smoother in my testing. The iPhone 7 Plus on the other hand is a step below the iPhone 11 as expected, but it is still very playable. There are no graphics options on any device I tried XCOM 2 Collection on to be able to tune the experience further so keep that in mind.

Barring the initial download for XCOM 2 Collection from the App Store, you need to download about 6GB from within with 5.6GB being a required download. You can download this while playing the opening portions but it is recommended to get it downloaded before starting. While the in-game downloader for Civilization VI on iOS remains unreliable, I had no trouble with XCOM 2 Collection on three iOS devices. Even if you force close the app, it resumes properly. While I’m still annoyed by having to download a lot in-game, I hope Apple eventually raises this limit because 4GB is very restricting in 2020 for games.

Whenever a console or PC game gets ported to iOS, I like to try out the various control options. The XCOM 2 Collection doesn’t have controller support. In most cases, this would be a negative for me but with XCOM 2 Collection, the touch screen controls are way better than the controller options on consoles. Feral Interactive also confirmed that there is no official keyboard and mouse support right now. Hopefully they get added so that players of XCOM 2 Collection on PC can transition over better to iPad Pro in the future.

With every big port on mobile, the price is a big factor for many people. The XCOM 2 Collection on iOS is priced at $24.99 which is $5 more than the launch price for XCOM Enemy Unknown from back in the day. What blows my mind is that the price for XCOM 2 Collection also includes all DlC and the huge expansion. On PS4 and Xbox One, the XCOM 2 Collection (digitally) is priced at $99.99 usually. Just the War of the Chosen expansion is regularly priced at $39.99. In terms of value, the $24.99 for XCOM 2 Collection on iOS is more than worth it not just because it is a great conversion today but because Feral Interactive have earned players’ trust for post-launch support across iOS updates.

My biggest problems with this release are because of Apple’s size restrictions. Despite the initial App Store download being about 4GB and the overall size after the in-game download growing to over 8GB, a lot of textures and cutscenes are noticeably lower quality than on consoles. Keep in mind that XCOM 2 Collection is around 24GB on Nintendo Switch and it is much larger on PS4 and Xbox One. Despite the massive download on iOS, I hope Feral Interactive considers allowing newer iOS and iPadOS devices another optional download to improve the textures and cut-scenes if it is feasible.

Overall, this is by far the most impressive of all of Feral Interactive’s iOS conversions yet. Given how awful XCOM 2 was at launch on PS4 for me and how it runs on current consoles, I’m more than impressed with the iOS version and can safely recommend it above the consoles as an alternative to those who want the full XCOM 2 experience and don’t want to play on PC with the caveat about the visuals. The XCOM 2 Collection is a joy to play on iPad Pro and I can’t wait to see where the port goes over the next few months with potential updates and maybe even potential features brought in.

Much of the game feels rather similar to FTL, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing—what is good in FTL is also good in Crying Suns. That’s not to say it’s the same, though, because it’s not. This is most glaringly evident during combat, but also in other, relatively smaller, systems: Ground excursions, squadrons, and unlockable content.

Combat, rather than a high-seas exchange of broadsides between ships, is more akin to capital ships trading blows at range, deploying auxiliary fighters to counter and capitalise upon the enemy’s strategy. The result is a tactical experience, emphasising careful use of the resources at your disposal. Order your fighters too far forward and they may be destroyed, leaving you with a weaker force for the next fight. On the other hand, playing too passively may have the same result or, worse, end with permanent hull damage and a weakened fleet. Not an appealing prospect.

To aid in avoiding such an unfavourable outcome, each officer in your retinue comes with a specialty in squadrons, hulls, weapons, or a mix of all three. While it isn’t always necessary to fully capitalise on, say, a speed boost in two or three tiles, or a slightly decreased repair time, these small advantages can really add up. After all, sometimes the difference between a patched wreck and a fully operational cruiser is a fast disengaging action. Officer skills impact more than just combat, though. In addition to having ship specialities, each officer has a few areas of expertise which can reduce or entirely eliminate the dangers of ground excursions.

What are ground excursions, you ask? A grand treasure hunt virtually free of danger and rich with plunder and salvage—provided, of course, the necessary precautions are taken. First and foremost, having the maximum number of cannon fodder—I’m sorry, commandos—to deploy is essential; secondly, but equally important, is having a competent leader. You’ve gotta have grunts to do the heavy lifting, but determining what they’re lifting, how many of them make it back, and most important of all what they make it back with is entirely dependent upon who is leading your task force. If the assigned officer is well suited to the mission, the odds are in your favour. The officer will likely return intact with a majority of the potential goodies and few, if any, casualties. On the other hand, if they are particularly unsuited to the task at hand not only will they return with little to no goodies they may not, in fact, return at all. Put simply, a successful mission is determined by judicious risk management.

The idea of managing risk is a consistent thread throughout Crying Suns, although it would perhaps be better to call it opportunity cost in many situations. Upgrade your ship now and hope your ship and crew aren’t too badly damaged in the near future, or hold off and check out that station first… running the risk of a hard-fought battle that could put you at greater risk in future encounters. Investigate that system with the ground signal and a bunch of anomalies, or visit the system with a trade station and only a couple planets. Send commandos to board that mysterious and vaguely creepy wreck, or pass it by and hope there wasn’t anything good on board. These decisions, and many others, force you to choose between preserving your crew in the hopes of travelling farther, or potentially finding the solution to a roadblock just down the line.

This is juxtaposed, however, with the game’s overall narrative and the basic gameplay of a roguelike: Live, learn, die, repeat. No matter what happens in any given attempt, it’s okay. There are uncountable hordes of clones just like you back on the space station just itching to take your place, with all the knowledge you have accumulated so far. While it hurts to lose your ship, officers, and all the sweet toys you’ve picked up along the way, it ultimately has no impact on how the game develops. It’s just inconvenient. In other words there is no risk, and there is no cost to choosing, especially if the choice is wrong.

Despite that, you are incentivised to progress with the story not only with the promise of solving a mystery, but also with the promise of better ships and more options. Along the way, you’ll also unlock quite a number of specially grown clones of unique officers as you meet them. While I have not unlocked very much of anything as yet, none of the unlockables appear to be especially game-breaking, instead presenting new strategies, or more effective strategies, earlier.

On the whole, Crying Suns is a lot of fun to play, if you like more strategic games. Encounters force players to effectively use asteroid belts and other environmental factors, well as well-chosen targets for a cannon, rarely letting you win with brute force alone. NPC encounters, positive or negative, are interesting and tend to have lasting consequences (lasting, at least, for the duration of a run), although they can be a little repetitive if you don’t progress very far on any single attempt. Taking it all together, all these systems—finding new encounters, star systems you haven’t been to before, new solutions to old encounters, and all the rest—there’s a sense of exploration and discovery that is quite wonderful, although the pessimist in me says it will wear off soon enough.

Crying Suns is a tactical game. More than that, though, it is a game of exploration, of mystery, and of reclaiming what was lost. Even though some parts of it seem to clash, the overall experience is very good. For those coming from FTL, the sense of exploration, the wonder of meeting new people and finding new places, is very familiar. For those who simply find the idea of fighting to restore a crumbling empire, helping the people trying to survive the wreckage, bring a semblance of order to dangerous territories, you’re in for a treat. Either way, Crying Suns is an easy recommendation for those looking to experience tactical gameplay with a extra helping of dark scifi frosting and a glaze of mystery.

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If you’ve never heard of this series before, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is the first entry and this franchise blends exploration, mini games, puzzles, murders, mystery, and great music together with one of the most memorable casts you will interact with in adventure games. This series blends visual novel and adventure games together with a story that keeps you at the edge of your seat. Even though I’ve played Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on iOS for review, the story and cast have aged brilliantly and this cements the game and series as one of my favourites of all time.

The basic game flow here for those who haven’t played these releases before is visual novel storytelling with some exploration that leads into a murder mystery which then leads into a trial. The trial brings mini games and puzzles into the picture after you’ve gathered evidence and “truth bullets." The trials are great despite some mini games feeling a little tacked on.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has great touch controls. You use the left part of the screen to move and the right part to rotate the camera. Touch controls work very well even for exploration and free movement. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc was a joy to play on PS Vita years ago because you could tap at various things in locations to inspect and interact with them. Using an analog stick never felt as good. I did run into a bug once so far where the right side of the screen for camera movement wouldn’t work.

Barring exploration and interactions, mini games and puzzles in trials are the main gameplay in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. These control brilliantly with touch. Considering how well they worked on PS Vita, I’m not really surprised. Each trial has a few of these back and forth debates and mini games that finally see you try to piece things together like a comic panel. Once you place the various bits of evidence on the panel like a timeline, it plays out with some animation and is very stylish just like the rest of the game.

There is one portion at the end of the trial that might throw some people off since it is a rhythm mini game. Touch controls for this might be a problem for you but I got into the groove quite easily. Despite already knowing this stuff from the multiple times I’ve played this game, I can’t get over how great the story beats are and how well trials flow in the first game alongside Masafumi Takada’s music.

This release will appeal to two groups of people. The first is those who already played the game on a prior platform but want an excuse to replay the games, and the second is for those who have been waiting to play Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on a modern portable system. This port nails almost everything and it actually improves on both the PC and PS4 releases in some ways. I’ve been replaying the game on those two platforms alongside the iOS version on iPad Air 2 and iPhone 11 and the iOS version is fantastic with a few flaws.

When Spike Chunsoft and Abstraction Games brought Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc to PC on Steam, it had a performance boost over PS Vita and better visuals but a lot of the interface elements and even the text was lower quality than it should be. When this was brought to PS4 in a collection, the text was fixed and some elements were updated but it still wasn’t amazing. I was worried about the blurry text given how it still hasn’t been fixed on PC. On iOS, more of the UI has been touched up and almost everything looks great. Some of the art assets still look blurry as they do on every platform sadly.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc was originally designed for 16:9 displays so you should expect a lot of black bars if you play on iPhone X screen sizes or iPads. The segments of gameplay that don’t involve pre-rendered cutscenes or art display full screen and look fantastic. The exploration moments in particular feel excellent with a rock solid frame rate and high resolution visuals on modern devices.

On iPhone 11, I had no performance problems in the game and it ran at 60fps. Everything ran smoothly without a single hitch. iPad Air 2 on the other hand seems like it runs at an unlocked frame rate that adjusts on the fly depending on what is being displayed on the screen. Don’t expect a locked 60fps or anything on older devices like iPad Air 2. It also got very warm after a bit of playing Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Overall, this is a big step up over the PS Vita version and on par with the PC and PS4 versions. It also loads super fast on iOS.

In terms of contents, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has the complete experience in addition to a few gallery extras which serve as a nice bonus for longtime fans. Despite some claiming that the mobile version lacks English and Japanese voice acting, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc supports both and you can switch between them. There’s literally a language option on the main menu letting you switch between English or Japanese voices with English, Japanese, and Chinese text.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc was already one of the best adventure games in a long time when it released on PS Vita years ago. It is great to see it on iOS now in all its glory with a few extras. As an initial release, Spike Chunsoft nailed almost everything but there still are a few things that need to be fixed. The first is the lack of iCloud save support. A full high quality premium port on iOS really should have this basic feature. The next area the port is lacking is in controller support. While it plays and feels excellent with touch controls, the game already supports controllers on other platforms so this should’ve been available in the Anniversary Edition.

The final issue with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on iOS is in some interface elements. It looks like some menus were redone for higher resolution displays on mobile and they have some artifacts on the edges in some situations. This is a bit distracting in an otherwise great port. It would also be nice if the multitasking or home menu bar on modern iPhones would not be visible at all times.

Despite those minor blemishes, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition on iOS is now the version of the game I will recommend to newcomers to the series. It was already a must play for anyone looking for a good story and great music and it is more accessible than ever before thanks to iOS and Android releases of such a high quality. Even if you try and rush through it (which I wouldn’t recommend), you will find yourself enthralled for over 20 hours here. I can’t wait for Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair to arrive because it is my favourite of the trilogy. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition is well worth your time.

The way you interact with everything and progress the story in If Found… is erasing. Since a diary plays a huge part of the story, you experience Kasio’s story through her diary as you go into the depths and erase what you see. On paper (no pun intended), this interaction method would probably get old quick but the developers have tried to keep things fresh by making you do it differently as time progresses. There’s also the fact that the eraser slowly changes over time. Barring these, there are moments of the usual tapping to progress dialogue as well.

If Found… blends in a few narrative threads together and constantly throws you from one to the other while relaying its story to you. The way If Found… throws you between Kasio’s life as she experiences various things and meets more people, and the space exploration element is confusing at first but things eventually make sense. The story in If Found… is all about identity, acceptance, loss, and coming of age.

You experience Kasio’s ups and downs over a month as she goes to a concert, moves in with new people, meets old friends, and interacts with her family all through ramblings and scribbles in her diary. Some of the story beats hit hard as well but the overall tone manages to remain mature even when its showcasing the most basic things. Seeing people’s behaviour change in a short time is also showcased very well here.

While the story itself and the payoff are both amazing (barring one thing), the aspect that really stood out to me was how well the developers brought in various bits of Irish culture. There are various phrases sprinkled across dialogue and bits of the land showcased in the gorgeous art style. All of this comes together brilliantly to make the experience feel even more comfortable and homely despite how grim some things may appear as Kasio’s story progresses.

Ever since I saw the first trailer, If Found… has always looked gorgeous. The combination of a hand drawn aesthetic with excellent animations across the story make this a memorable experience. The use of colours as time passes in key moments is also brilliantly executed. If you’re on an older iOS device, just expect some transitions to not be as smooth as they should be. Everything else scales well.

I was already expecting a great soundtrack since 2 Mello (Read Only Memories) was involved but what I didn’t expect was one of the best blends of original and licensed music since the original Life is Strange. 2 Mello and Eli Rainsberry (Wilmot’s Warehouse) are a killer combination and I hope they work together on more music in the future. “Breakfast in the Squat" and “Before You’re Ready at All" are standout tracks in the soundtrack.

There are two aspects of the experience I feel could’ve been done better. The first is in how the game has been brought to iOS. I played If Found… on both iPad Air 2 and iPhone 11 and the core interactions feel perfect. There are some issues in overlays where the overlay seems to think the iPhone 11 is a smaller screen device. One other issue is that I often found myself swiping into multitasking while trying to erase things. Barring these issues, the iOS version of If Found… feels like the best way to play it.

The second is in the way the two big narrative threads intertwine. Without getting into spoilers, I feel like the ending could’ve been a bit better fleshed out. It is a great conclusion but the ending feels a bit rushed compared to how the plot was progressing in the latter half of the game.

If Found… is yet another winner from Annapurna Interactive. Dreamfeel’s story is important, touching, and brilliant. If you enjoy interactive visual novels with excellent stories, great music, and gorgeous visuals, If Found… is for you. It doesn’t overstay its welcome like many visual novels and the two to three hours you put in will just fly by. I can’t wait to see what Dreamfeel does next because this is top notch stuff. If Found… is now available on the App Store for iOS for $4.99.

You’ll travel across different destinations, some crazier than others, to stop the S.I.N. organization from destroying a lot of things. Each level has several tasks you need to do to complete the mission.

Sure, different objectives keep the game entertaining, but in reality, I think the little Agent 8 is terrible at its job. If you can’t stop a plane after you practically destroyed its engine, maybe you need to go back to training.

Still, the game is a joy to play. Each environment has different ways to test what you can do while being so tiny. You’ll explore a wide variety of areas within each level, and you’ll have to go through a lot of hurdles and puzzles to make progress.

Each mission is linear; you’ll have to go from point A to point B and then point C, solving light puzzles. That said, there are some collectibles in the form of stickers scattered throughout the level. Most of them are easy to come across, but sometimes you’ll have to go out of your way to find them.

Personally, I liked these collectibles. While they’re not that important for the game, having something to look for, or figuring out how to get a sticker makes your journeys that more enjoyable.

The puzzles are pretty straightforward. I get the feeling this is a game aimed mostly at children, but I would’ve loved to see what the team could do with some harder puzzles. On the other hand, having simpler puzzles to solve makes you enjoy such big environments while being this tiny.

Controlling little Agent 8 is really simple too. Despite being this small, it’s really fast to move around each area. Although, the controls switched when you are upside down, so it can get annoying to figure out which direction you need to go to. I did die because of this, but this also happens in other games like Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4. So it’s probably a spider-related issue.

Besides crawling and moving stuff around, you also have a bunch of different tools at your disposal. You can swing, pick items, hack computers, and other things. It does make everything easier, and it’s probably how James Bond feels when he’s on a mission.

Aesthetically, Spyder is a pretty game. All the visuals and sounds of the game work well together, and they make you feel the rush when disarming a bomb or when you’re sneaking around.

Also, the environments are different from each other, and they never get old. You can be in outer space in one mission and underwater in the next one. And everything in the game feels so big, which is a really cool and different way to play. Plus, Agent 8 is so darn cute. It’s probably the cutest spider/spy/robot in existence.

Although a bit easy, Spyder is really fun to play. In my opinion, this is one of those games where the journey is more important than the destination. If you’re looking for a casual game that you can enjoy without any issues, Spyder is a great game to try on Apple Arcade.

Roundguard is a dungeon crawler game developed by Wonderbelly Games. The Castle Springbottom is under attack, the king is missing, and his riches are in danger. It’s your job to fight your way through a bunch of dungeons to rescue the king and his gold.

While that sounds cool and all, Roundguard actually takes place inside a play. Each map you go through represents a different map. Of course, the dangers for you are real. Your goal is to go through as many dungeons and maps as possible before you die. Once you die, you’ll have to start over.

At the start of each game, you’ll have to choose your character. You can choose between the warrior, the rogue, and the wizard. Each character has a different set of skills, stats, and dialogue inside the game. Personally, I loved the rogue, but if you want to go far I had the most success with the warrior.

Like I said before, your goal is to go through as many maps as you can, collecting as much gold as possible. Every map has different routes for you to take, which is great. To progress through a map you’ll have to defeat every enemy in a dungeon.

Each dungeon is procedurally generated, which means every quest and monster is randomized every time you enter. I love games like this, and I believe Roundguard did a great job of balancing the enemies and the items in every dungeon.

If you’ve played games like Peggle, then you already know how to play Roundguard. All you need to do is throw your character with something that looks like a crossbow. Then, your character will bounce around hitting everything it touches.

When your guy is in the air, you can’t control where it goes, but you can use different abilities that you activate by touching the left or right side of the screen.

Personally I loved Roundguard’s gameplay, although, when using the rogue’s ability to redirect their attack while being in mid-flight, the controls weren’t that great, which led to me hitting the spikes on the ground for no reason. Other than that, I loved how easy it is to play but how focused you need to be if you want to get far.

Like I said, Roundguard does a great job giving you health and mana potions in every level, so you need to decide if you have to attack or heal yourself. Sure, it’s easier said than done, since there are many obstacles in each level, and the characters are really bouncy. You’ll need to be extra careful when aiming at your target if you actually want to hit it.

At the end of each level, you’ll have the chance to win a new piece of armor, a new weapon, and even a new ability. These are random and you never know what you’ll get, but once you do get something you’ll only have the chance to equip it, and lose your current item, or sell it and make extra gold.

On one side, it’s great to only have access to one weapon, two abilities and a piece of armor at the same time. It makes you pay attention to what you have while avoiding the hoarders that save an item just in case. On the other hand, I am one of those hoarders, and I’d love to have at least more room to store a couple more things and decide later.

Your characters are not the only ones with different skills and personalities. Every enemy in Roundguard is unique in its own way and some of them also have dialogues that give you an entertaining view of their world and even make you agree with them. Like, of course, he’s a bad guy. He’s surrounded by some unholy flames, and he can’t eat ice cream because of it. What would you do in their position?

Not only that, but every enemy also has status conditions as part of their powers. Some enemies can poison you, make you bleed and even turn you into a rock. These status conditions are bad, but they’re not game breaking, so you can get through them if you play carefully.

Besides the characters, the dungeons also have personality. You see a lot of details in every dungeon you’re in that match the personality of one of the bad guys. For instance, goblins are known for being greedy and not very smart, so you might see a dungeon with a “No gold here" sign which is exactly what a goblin might say.

Roundguard’s music, on the other hand, is not as great as the art style. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good music, and the sound effects are on point, but after a while, I got tired of listening to the same tunes over and over again.

Roundguard is a great game altogether. It’s got everything you’d want from a bouncy dungeon crawler/RPG. You’ve got unique characters and enemies that are beautifully designed, witty and smart dialogues with a small dose of easter eggs, and engaging gameplay that you can play both mindlessly or completely focused. If you haven’t already, Roundguard is a game you must try out as soon as possible.

Through all of this, I never really thought about having it on my iPhone. Why would Konami, a company that has traditionally been hot-and-cold with mobile, do something like that? Even when they were riding high on mobile, they mostly focused on new games rather than ports of classics. And would it even work? Symphony isn’t the most difficult of games, but it still requires quite a few buttons and some measure of dexterity in certain sections. We’ve all lived through Tomb Raider mapped to virtual buttons, and it wasn’t pretty. And how much would they charge for it, anyway? A bargain-bin buck like the aforementioned Tomb Raider, or a sassy twenty along the lines of Square Enix’s PlayStation RPG ports?

Well, here we are. Seemingly thanks to the third season of Netflix’s Castlevania animated series, Konami dropped a mobile port of the PSP/PS4 version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on us for the absurdly low price of three United States dollars. The porting duties were apparently handled by Dotemu, and while there are nits that I can (and will) pick, the game has come out of the process better than I would have expected. Better still, the very concept of having this game on my mobile device is something I am very much down with after spending the last few days playing through the whole thing. They say the best camera is the one you have with you. Perhaps the same could be said of all things.

I suspect most people reading this will be familiar with the game and just want the details on the port, so we’ll cover those right away. As mentioned, this version is based on the PSP/PS4 version. It keeps the newer English script and voice acting, which you may or may not be happy about. It has all of the extra content added to that version, including a playable Maria. You can now play as Richter or Maria right from the start by entering their names in the file entry screen, which is nice for those who just want to get right to those characters without going through Alucard’s quest. The menus have been redone and generally work quite well, and a continue option has been added that doesn’t work as reliably as one might hope.

The game runs like a dream, and it sounds amazing. Symphony has a great soundtrack, so I’m glad Konami and Dotemu didn’t skimp on the quality. The touch controls use an assortment of virtual buttons and are largely tolerable, if not ideal. The directional pad didn’t give me too much of a hassle outside of trying to chain gravity boot jumps, but it can be a bit fussy. The jump button is big and comfortable to hit, but action buttons are a bit small and hard to hit at times. You can’t move the virtual buttons around or adjust them in any way, which is frankly odd to see from an experienced mobile developer in 2020. While I’m picking that flavor of bone, there’s also no iCloud support, something that really should be a no-brainer.

The game does support controllers, so if you have one and don’t mind a wee bit of input lag, that’s definitely the way to go. And if you are playing with the virtual buttons, the developer has implemented a concession in the form of extra buttons for insta-casting Alucard’s magic spells. You only need to perform each one correctly once. After that, it will be added to your magic button menu and can be used with a single tap. Yes, you can use this to break the game in some interesting new ways. Have fun, speed-runners! There’s also a button for Alucard’s transformations, but that can get a bit sticky when you need to swap between forms in tight quarters, so be careful. Minor nitpicks aside, however, this is an excellent port that works a lot better (even with the virtual controls) than I would have guessed. Three bucks? Absurd.

For those not familiar with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, let me briefly talk about it. This is a metroidvania game, and indeed is the game that is responsible for the ‘-vania’ part of that particular portmanteau. It shifted the script on the straightforward action that the Castlevania series had largely been known for, adopting a Metroid-like open world and system of progression. You play as Alucard, the son of Dracula, who arrives to investigate the titular castle after it suddenly reappears unscheduled. You’ll have to explore the castle, earn new abilities and equipment, battle massive bosses, and sniff out plenty of secrets if you want to see the adventure through to its true conclusion.

Alucard is considerably more agile than most of the Belmonts that had taken point in the series up until this point. He’s a very responsive and comfortable character to control. Combined with an experience-based leveling system, a wide assortment of useful gear and power-ups, and an overall lower level of difficulty, this makes Symphony of the Night one of the more accessible entries in the series. There are a couple of bosses with some teeth, and some of the lengthier sections between save points can be a bit dangerous if you’re careless, but there are about a thousand ways to break this game and you really only need one. The new continue feature helps mitigate the difficulty of some of those lengthier travels, allowing you to pick up from the last room you entered. Just be careful, as it doesn’t seem to stick if you close out the app completely. Use the save coffins if you’re going to be away for a while.

The castle itself is a lot of fun to explore, with quite a bit of variety and personality built into it. There are little details that serve no purpose except to make the setting feel more immersive, and the game isn’t afraid to make stupid jokes here and there to let you know that you shouldn’t take things too seriously. The delivery of the story is dead serious, however, and even if the newer English script has cleaned things up it still comes off as being quite cheesy. Part of the charm, I assure you. And charm is a big part of this game’s quality. There have been Castlevania games with better-designed gameplay systems and maps. Some with better stories, and more interesting extras. But there’s just something about Symphony of the Night that gives it that extra edge and keeps it in place as the peak of this particular brand of Castlevania for so many.

While there are some improvements that can be made here, particularly with regards to features like iCloud support and control placement options, it’s really hard to think of many compelling reasons why a person shouldn’t buy Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for their mobile device. It’s three measly dollars for a solid port of one of the finest games of all-time, one that even allows you to use a controller if you really can’t get on with the manageable virtual buttons. I really hope this isn’t just a one-off for Konami as I’d love to see more of the Castlevania games or the company’s PlayStation library make the jump, but we all know how this usually goes. For now, let’s just enjoy what we’ve got here: a wonderful pile of secrets.

Enter No Way Home, a fun shoot’em up game brought by SMG Studio, the team behind games like Death Squared and One More Line.

In No Way Home, you play as Cho, the former Dutchess Start Captain. After the ship freezes for millions of years and is going to be wrecked by a bunch of meteors, her assistant Matey saves your life by ejecting both of them into space. What happened to the other dozens of lives in the ship, you’re wondering? Dead, they’re probably dead.

After you regain consciousness, you start looking for a way back to earth. You start exploring, one thing led to another, and now you’re part of space organized crime. It’s like Grand Theft Auto for kids and in space.

Every area you explore is vast and filled with enemies with different abilities. In some areas, you’ll end up finding giant head-shaped places called domes. These domes hide some sort of secret, and you believe they have the key to take you back home.

The story in No Way Home is entertaining and mysterious. While the missions are mostly going from point A to point B, the story makes you feel the need to keep going to find out the hidden secrets in this galaxy. That being said, going back and forth so much feels more like a chore.

If you’re not into the story, or you’re tired of so much exploring, No Way Home also has a Daily Challenge in which you get to shoot around for a chance to be at the leaderboard with other players around the world.

There are tons of enemies in each area you go through. No Way Home is an easy game to pick up, you just have to move, aim and shoot. However, it’s not an easy task to do when you have 10 different ships shooting at you or ramming against you.

Killing them is sometimes optional, though, as you can fly past them if you’re fast enough. However, you might want to spend some time killing some aliens, as some of them drop credits or items that help you create new equipment or upgrade the one you already have. Plus, it’s fun to kill enemies.

As I mentioned, the galaxy in No Way Home is big, and each area has a lot of space to explore. Not only that, but every galaxy is procedurally generated, so you literally have your own personal universe. Personally I enjoy exploring, but only when I get a reward for it. The biggest reward you get is killing more bad guys, which is good, but I would’ve loved more than just enemies and dead ends.

You sometimes get small rewards, like totem-like figures that give you items and credits, or a small portal that’ll take you back to the shop. However, that’s not good enough when you die 3 times to get to it.

You do have infinite lives, sort of. You’ll have to spend some credits to respawn. This comes in handy when you have to face a lot of enemies. Most of the enemy ships are easy, with the exception of some big red baddies you’ll see if you go too far.

For the most part, you’ll only die if you don’t pay attention to your ship. Although, this does happen. Your ship is rather small, and sometimes you’ll have indicators, smalls rocks and Matey around you, so you might lose yourself in the middle of a battle.

Fortunately, you’ll have some help with your battles. First, your ship has a shield that regenerates over time. Even if you’re running low on health, you can still pull through thanks to it. You’ll also have Matey with you at all times, tt shoots enemies and gets you items.

No Way Home reminded me of the Netflix show Final Space. You’re a human with an annoying, yet lovable robot companion that goes through space and everyone you meet is surprisingly friendly. That being said, both are completely different, and both are great. I encourage you to experience both.

Besides an interesting story and funny characters, the looks and overall feel of No Way Home is what keeps you playing. Everything is hand-drawn, which gives you a cartooney look that fits the game so well. Plus, the attention to detail to the background and your surroundings makes you feel tiny and lost. I mean, you are tiny and lost, but you actually get to feel it.

No Way Home is a must-play Apple Arcade game. While it sometimes might get repetitive by shooting your way through from point A to point B, the engaging story, funny characters, and different game modes make this game a great experience that’s completely worth playing.

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NOTE: No Way Home is available on mobile exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

SAAZ is a game entrenched in its ability to be calming and challenging in the same breath. As opposed to the pop, hip-hop, and uptempo songs featured in the Tap Tap series and games like it, SAAZ exclusively features classical or historic era musical renditions. This allows for almost subconscious gameplay as you press and subtly recall what each composition sounds like simply from hearing it in the background throughout the years. There’s no essential move to make when a beat drops or an intense and fast bass to follow; it’s just the instrumentation itself.

When first opened, the game showcases two of the many playable composers at the bottom of the screen with their musical compositions as the “level” to be played. The gameplay is par for the course of any rhythm based game – as the orbs slide down, you tap the circle as the orb fills it. Occasionally, orbs with lines extended through them will drop meaning you’re required to tap and hold for the duration of that line. If a similar one drops with an orb at the opposite end, it’s a hold then tap combination. The gameplay of this game is welcoming for anyone who has played any rhythm game before and easy to get the hang of in the off chance that every game before has flown under the radar.

As you progress through each level, you earn between 0 and 3 stars, 0 being horrible, 3 being nearly perfect the entire way through. To unlock the other 44 composers and genres, you have to accumulate an increasing amount of stars. To unlock every level available, a total of 106 stars are required. As the intensity of the levels increases, the music gets faster, but never unbearable. One of the later stages, Irish Jig, perfectly captures the maximum intensity expected throughout the game. An Irish jig is known for being fast, quick paced, with robust noises cascading through each instrument. Here, it’s no different and the game plays at its most complex.

Throughout the game, the intensity increases slightly with each new level unlocked. As each level is played and it’s naturally learnt what to expect to get a perfect score, the neighboring level throw a slightly harder rendition. When playing, the goal of an all-perfect score becomes attainable, but there are never any strange, ridiculously hard loops. It is a perfect parallel to learning to play an instrument, seeing someone play, attempting it yourself, and eventually becoming a master. It’s a process of rinse and repeat or simply following a rhythm within SAAZ, but the same principles apply.

Where the game sets itself apart is by pairing an oft-forgotten genre of music with a more modern game style. In essence, composed music lives in a realm wherein it can be followed with eyes closed; calm, relaxing. There are more intense levels with more instrumentation happening, but it’s almost as if the sounds themselves become an afterthought as you effortlessly tap the orbs as they fall. There’s no overarching vocals, random noises, or glaringly loud clashing noises to distract you. It follows sounds and rhythms perfectly. If by the end of one round it’s proving to be too challenging, it slowly begins to get easier and easier as moments are remembered, patterns are identified and followed, and locking into a motion of how to beat that particular level becomes subconscious.

SAAZ is a similar game, yet different and built for a niche. There are undoubtedly fans of classical music and legendary compositions. There are also fans of rhythm-based iOS games. However, the niche is the fans that inhabit the center of that Venn diagram. The game works itself into a form for that specific niche. It doesn’t have anything overbearing, too complicated, or odd to maneuver. It’s simplistic, it’s easy to play, and it’s perfect for those people looking for a game that can perfectly align itself with their musical tastes.

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If you’ve never played or heard of Company of Heroes, it is a real time strategy game developed by Relic Entertainment that is set in the Second World War period. It is widely considered one of the best real time strategy games of all time and after launching on PC platforms over a decade ago, it has arrived on iPad sporting multiple enhancements for touchscreen devices and an all new control option.

Unlike many other real time strategy games that involve gathering resources, Company of Heroes has a sector capturing system that has resources gathered through captured sectors. You need to keep an eye on your manpower, ammunition, and fuel. The game also has a dynamic cover system which works great.

When you launch Company of Heroes for the first time, you are presented with an option to download additional content for free. This includes skirmish maps, campaign missions, and high quality models. Once the core game is downloaded from the App Store, you need to download a little over 1 GB of data to have everything ready. These are delivered through free in app purchases.

In terms of core content, Company of Heroes includes multiple lengthy tutorial missions that have you being assisted all the way as you get your bearings in order in this all new interface. The tutorial supports both control options. Company of Heroes on iPad has a Command Panel option which is a control option meant to be for those who play real time strategy games on PC and a Command wheel option which is a control scheme designed for mobile players. I’d definitely recommend doing the tutorials properly before you jump into the campaign or skirmishes because there are some interactions you will probably not be used to.

The Command Wheel option has a radial menu or wheel that appears when you tap and hold the screen giving you various options. The Command Panel option is a more traditional control scheme that sits in the bottom right of the screen letting you tap tiles in panel to accomplish your tasks. The tutorial is tuned for both options and while the tutorial is great, it needs better touch targets and larger text sizes. On an iPad with a 9.7" screen, some of the touch targets like confirm/cancel are a bit smaller than I would’ve liked.

Company of Heroes‘s campaign begins at the Able Company’s assault at Omaha Beach during the Normandy landings. This campaign has great cutscenes and transitions into gameplay. The cutscenes are a combination of cinematic ones and those that look like they are in engine scenes that smoothly shift into player control. There’s also a good amount of voice acting and great audio design throughout. You start off with just one campaign mission that you can play on one of four difficulty options before you slowly start unlocking more campaign missions until you complete all 15.

Barring the campaign, Company of Heroes includes tons of skirmish maps supporting from two to even eight total players. The non human players on iPad right now can be setup as different skill level CPUs right now. As of now, this iPad version has no support for multiplayer. Hopefully it gets added in the future. This release supports cheats as well which is always a nice addition in PC games brought to console.

When it comes to visuals, I’m impressed and slightly disappointed with this release. The cutscenes haven’t aged well. On my iPad Pro, the overall visuals are inconsistent with some things like troops and vehicles looking good but buildings and flags blurry with some textures being very low resolution compared to others. In terms of performance, I had no real slowdown barring when an auto-save was happening. When auto-save is enabled, the game pauses for a second when it is saving. There are no graphics options in this release to prioritize frame rate or higher resolution. I mentioned the voice acting already but the combination of that with the audio and excellent music really elevated the overall experience in Company of Heroes to another level. I definitely recommend playing this with headphones.

In a lot of ways, Company of Heroes‘s Command Wheel option feels like a precursor to an iPhone version for me. It works very well but doesn’t feel really great to me on a big screen. The Command Panel control option feels like a much better fit on the iPad screen.

Overall, Company of Heroes on iPad is easily an essential purchase if you enjoy real time strategy games. While I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Rome: Total War because of the setting, there’s no denying the game quality and port quality here. Having played a lot with both interface options, I’m unsure if the non mobile focused control option will make it to iPhone. The command wheel definitely feels like a good fit for smaller screens. Feral Interactive have proved me wrong multiple times in the past so we will have to wait and see if it does show up on smaller screens in the future.

At the asking price, Company of Heroes is an easy recommendation. Unlike other publishers, at least you’re guaranteed peace of mind with Feral supporting older games with modern updates. Hopefully the game does well enough to get the additional expansions released after the base game on PC brought to mobile.

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Enter Return 2 Games, a series planning to pay homage to seven retro titles with seven modern interpretations. The first of these, Book of Demons ($9.99), channels the visual style of Paper Mario into a hack & slash dungeon crawler on rails. While it isn’t exactly Diablo, it is quite a bit of fun, and no slouch when it comes to replayability.

While it clearly uses Diablo as an inspiration, Book of Demons doesn’t actually play very much like Diablo at all. Sure, there are hordes of enemies to slaughter, tons of different equipment to collect, a handful of different classes, and a range of difficulties, but actual gameplay is pretty different. Levels, for example, are far less open. Players are restricted to following a track with enemies approaching from all sides, and they must occasionally backtrack or hurry forward to avoid abilities or ranged attacks.

Movement isn’t all that’s different, though. All characters are “ranged" characters, in the sense that they can attack just about anything on the screen, no matter where it is in relation to the character. The only condition to this is that the creature must be “visible", or within the character’s sight range. This applies not only to creatures, but also to the various props and fountains: If it’s lit up, you can hit it; otherwise, you’ll have to move closer.

In terms of enemies, almost every single one has something special about it. The only exception, as far as I have been able to tell, are the basic skeletons which are, no matter how you flavour them, just basic skeletons. Beyond them, however, there are ghosts (bothersome creatures that always spawn with icy hearts), goat-men (who have randomised health pools), spiders (spawn more spiders on death), zombies (poisonous cloud on death), and more. In addition to the basic types, elites will occasionally spawn. These bigger, meaner, and generally badder baddies have special, uninterruptible, abilities that trigger upon reaching certain health thresholds. While most of these abilities aren’t actually unique to elite monsters, the combination of them is.

Players begin the game as the Warrior, a burly fighter who specialises in getting up close and personal with his foes. While all classes specialise in one area or another, the cards available to the Warrior are such that he, unlike the Rogue or Mage, doesn’t have to choose between becoming a nigh indestructible tank or an unstoppable killing machine; instead, he can be both. On the other hand, while he is incredibly durable and a menace to skeletons and ghosts everywhere, he can’t reach the same heights as the Rogue or the Mage. So while he is an excellent introductory class, most players will probably find the other two more interesting.

The Rogue, on the other hand, prefers to remain just out of touch, showering the onrushing mob with arrows elemental and otherwise. Should they get too close, a hearty dose of terror or a savage slash of claws are a quick fix. Unlike the Warrior, however, the Rogue’s attacks can miss, as both obstacles and enemies will block her arrows, potentially costing valuable resources.

Last (but certainly not least), the Mage brings a compendium of spells both practical and flashy. From fireballs and ice bolts to teleportation and magical shielding, the Mage is a versatile class well equipped for clearing dungeons. Despite his strengths, however, he is especially dependent on his mana pool, and without it all that versatility and power is as dust in the wind.

Visually, Book of Demons is similar to Paper Mario, but not so similar as to be directly drawing inspiration from it. Rather, it is closer to a pop-up book in style, with landscapes folding out from the entryway, enemies and NPCs alike springing up from the ground, and character cutouts that look like, well, paper cutouts. It’s kind of charming, actually, in a rather dark and campy way.

The writing reinforces that feeling with depressing musings on the past from the Priest, snippy feuding between the Sage and the Fortune Teller, and endless optimism from the Barmaid. There’s more besides, of course (character comments on the dungeon, boss introductions & deaths, and more besides), but those are less avoidable. The interactions with town NPCs stays, for the most part, in the background and is wholly unnecessary to complete the game, but ignoring it also ignores a lot of what makes Book of Demons appealing: The atmosphere.

See, it is all intended to enhance the immediate, low-level impressions given by the art, by the enemies, and by the gameplay itself. This isn’t just a pop-out book with gameplay reminiscent of Diablo, it’s a Diablo parody. Where Diablo is dark, serious, and hardcore, Book of Demons is funny, light-hearted, and… mid-core. It’s a delicate balance, but executed quite well.

On the whole, Book of Demons is an easy recommendation, especially for iPad. With the Flexiscope, a feature that allows you to pick the amount of time you want to play and a dungeon based on that play time will be created for you, it is capable of delivering both a short romp and a longer dive. While it doesn’t have the near infinite replayability of Diablo, that doesn’t mean it isn’t replayable at all. It is, and it’s just as good the second, third, or even fourth time through as it is on the first.

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Enter Doomsday Vault, a game where you have to return the world’s most important seeds to the Vault to preserve them.

Doomsday Vault is a puzzle game in which your main objective is to go through different levels to retrieve a seed so you can start planting them in your Vault. Each seed is an important plant from our world, and you get useful real-life information every time you get one.

To get a seed, you’ll have to walk across a wide area solving puzzles, moving boxes, and using the tools from your special suit that runs on energy. If you run out of energy, you’re basically dead.

There are also other collectibles like Nutrients and Carbon Eaters. Nutrients are collectibles hidden across the area. Each level has a total of 100 Nutrients in different containers scattered across the area.

Carbon Eaters are machines that you need to restore to make the air more breathable, and you’ll find one or two on each level.

Both are easy to find, but skipping them doesn’t affect your progress. However, you do need nutrients to grow crops in the vault. That being said, you can also skip the vault entirely and you wouldn’t miss much.

The Vault doesn’t offer crazy gameplay, or gameplay at all. You just have to go to each room and press a button, wait a few minutes and do it again. Which kind of sucks, because that’s the main goal of this adventure.

Fortunately, the main campaign is where Doomsday Vault shines. Each level is filled with fun and rewarding puzzles. Plus, each level has areas to explore, and there’s usually a reward for your troubles.

That being said, Doomsday Vault is an easy game to beat. First, there are blue lights on the floor that tell you where you can and cannot go. They’re really helpful, but it makes hidden areas not so hidden. Also, for the most part, there are no enemies, or threats, so you won’t have to worry about dying in this game. That is, until you reach the last level.

The last level has harder puzzles, lasers and enemies that kill you in one shot. It’s by far the hardest and the most entertaining level of the game. I understand why they would go for an easier game, but I’d love to see more levels like the last one in the future.

As of right now, there are 3 worlds available in Doomsday Vault. Each with a different theme that turns this unique wasteland into a pretty environment filled with details, so you don’t get bored looking at the same background.

I only have one major issue with Doomsday Vault, and that’s its length. The game is only 10 levels long. The levels are lengthy enough, but they don’t take that much time, considering how easy the puzzles are.

If you’d really wanted to, you could beat Doomsday Vault in about two hours, which is probably what you’ll do because the game is hard to put down, although it can be a bit repetitive from time to time.

On the bright side, Doomsday Vault promises more content in the future, so we’ll have to be patient to see what else developer Flightless has in store for us.

Even though it’s a bit short, Doomsday Vault is a joy to play. Its easy puzzles and great environment lets you have a relaxing and fun experience that leaves you craving for more.

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Pascal’s Wager starts with a dream-like carriage ride to the domain of Heggem, a vast Colossus that emits a protective light to ward off the dark and its evils. This journey sets the tone for the game to come (dark, ominous, and just a little scary), and displays its graphical prowess—it also, quite unintentionally I’m sure, highlights its faults. It is without a doubt very pretty, but it is also flawed. The textures and character models are detailed, the environmental and particle effects are excellent, and colour, when used, stands out against the rather drab backgrounds. All that said, however, it is as though a film has been placed over every cutscene and most textures. They are blurry, indistinct and, compared to current-generation console games, frankly disappointing. If this were to be released on last-generation hardware, these faults would hardly be noticed.

Similarly, the voice acting is… acceptable. While it isn’t going to dampen an otherwise enjoyable experience, it doesn’t exactly help immersion either. It is frequently stiff, unpolished, and generally disruptive to the atmosphere as a whole. Music and sound effects are another matter entirely, however, and are in turn eerie and satisfying. The soundtrack conveys a sense of quiet horror, of something not quite understood but nonetheless of awful importance. The sound effects are satisfying, lending weight and flair in ample helpings to combat, as well as inviting the player to come a little closer, dig a little deeper, believe just a little bit more.

What, exactly, are players choosing to believe in? Simply put, the world and its atmosphere. Players are given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a land without a sun, evil lurks in the shadows, waiting to infect them, their children, their neighbours, and very well may have already. A land where the only protection from the night comes by way of towering Colossi that roam the land with orbs of unnatural light. A land of monsters both eldritch and human. Every aspect of this is reflected as players roam the world: The sky is overcast, the land is blighted, twisted and unhealthy, its denizens similarly twisted and changed. It is grim, foreboding, and quite hopeless.

While the graphics and voice acting disappoint, combat is nothing but impressive. Smooth animations, interesting opponents, and rewarding fights—especially boss fights. Each boss has its own unique set of attacks to learn, all of which are used to devastating effect. Failing to dodge or parry an attack is punished mightily with both health loss and sanity loss. Health is self explanatory, but sanity is unique to Pascal’s Wager, and represents a character’s mental state. It has three stages (sane, abnormal, and lunatic), introducing a penalty at abnormal and increasing it significantly at lunatic. The penalty includes a damage increase at the cost of less maximum health and another, character-specific, status effect. Entering a lunatic state is the equivalent of a boss entering a rage state and is incredibly risky but can, sometimes, pay off very nicely. Compared to boss fights, regular enemies are a walk in the park, although players still have to be mindful of their stamina. A poorly timed attack, roll, or parry can be a major problem fighting even one enemy, let alone several, as running out of stamina can leave characters unable to avoid enemy attacks.

Just in case I haven’t emphasised it enough, Pascal’s Wager is not an easy game. Players will die, probably a lot, and they are expected to learn, adapt, and overcome. When they die, or if they choose to rest a while and recover their health and health potions, they will find most enemies (bosses excluded) have also returned. While there is a way to activate an “easy mode" (Look for the Statue of the Bearer in Heggem, by the knight with the axe), it isn’t readily apparent, and it isn’t something most players will find unless they’re looking for it. Nevertheless, players who persist will find it to be a rewarding experience that includes numerous secrets, hidden areas, and side-quests, not just great combat.

Adding a little spice to the usual Dark Souls formula are the three other playable characters. Each character has their own unique skills, fighting style, and upgrade tree, although they share experience. Meaning all four characters have the same number of stat points to invest, but investing an immundus (a skill point) in one character means it cannot be invested in another. Characters can be swapped to at any point except during combat, although a new character will automatically enter the fight upon death, unless all characters are already dead. While each character plays similarly, they each have a very different feel. Terrance, for example, specialises in light attacks and dancing around enemies, whereas Norwood prefers to pummel them into submission, or bash them to pieces with his iron coffin.

Overall, Pascal’s Wager feels great to play despite its quirks. The combat is great and more than makes up for the graphical flaws and dubious voice acting, the character swapping mechanic is new and interesting, and it is delightfully dark. Despite its problems, I can’t wait to spend more time with it, and very much look forward to where it’s taken in the future. It has without a doubt exceeded my expectations and, with a little help, could readily meet my hopes. All it would take is a bit of polish, a few fixes, and a lot of editing.

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It’s that same feeling that seeps out of every pore of Monomals, and I couldn’t think of a better way for such an unusual game to present itself.

Monomals is a game where you play as a series of characters that hope to become the greatest musician by fishing. The fishing, which makes up the meat of the game, takes the form of a semi-aquatic puzzle platformer in which you control a fishing lure that’s also a headphone jack, trying to catch fish that are also music.

Okay, let me start over. Maybe it’ll make sense this time.

In the world of Monomals, there are special musical fish called “Monomals." These fish, when captured, give DJs new sound samples that they can use to create music.

To capture these fish, the player must navigate a sort of fishing lure/auxiliary cable hybrid called through a stage full of obstacles, puzzles and enemies, until you face off with your sought-after Monomal in an arena. Beat it, and it’s yours to make beautiful music with.

To make this music, you use the honest-to-god fully-fledged musical synthesizer that’s built into the game. The entire game is, in fact, centered around this synthesizer, which lets players compose songs using everything they’ve unlocked so far. You enter these creations to the “Hot 99" chart, with hopes of making it to the top.

The sheer depth of options for your musical creations hints at a true love of music composition by the developers. Of course, the only thing that really determines how well your songs do on the chart is how many monomals you use, so even if you’re completely without musical talent it’s possible to attain all the game’s achievements.

The game does, however, require plenty of platforming and puzzle-solving skill to make it all the way through.

The game starts out simply enough, forcing players to make their way through variations on crate-pushing puzzles, a concept that had already gotten tiresome about halfway through Chip’s Challenge back in 1989. But eventually you’ll start facing puzzles that aren’t cliche, such as knocking around puffer fish to use as trampolines, or catching yourself on wheels to swing through elaborate mixes of spiky death traps.

It helps that the control system is very simple – swipe a finger around the left side of the screen to move, and tap or hold the right side to do whatever action you’re allowed to do at the moment, whether it be dash, fire a jet pack, or spin in a headphone jack to open a door. These controls are admittedly just one step step removed from a virtual joystick and button, but it works well for what the game is, never getting too awkward to control.

It’s clear that there’s plenty of creativity to spare in the devs’ level design, though for some reason they didn’t want to put it all on display right out the gate. Perhaps they believed the concept of fishing for fresh beats was weird enough on its own, and they wanted to at least give players something familiar before they got too crazy on them. And things do get crazy.

As the game goes on, the initially-simple gameplay is constantly flipped on its head as the original swim-and-dash premise gives way to swinging, ground-pounding and jet packing, and toddering around in vehicle with suction cup feet.

At one point, while I was busy jumping out of the water to hit a gravity-flipping switch that the puddle of water would fall upwards and give me access to a springboard that could put me in reach of button I needed to press, it struck me that all of those mechanics were taught organically. There’s a somewhat annoying tutorial at the beginning, but after that point the game just lets the player learn by doing, and it all happens so seamlessly with the gameplay that you hardly notice it happening.

The arena challenges at the end of each level, however, are a bit uneven in quality. On one level, you’ll face a labyrinth that requires quick reflexes and well-honed problem-solving skills, while on the next level, the solution is so straightforward that it hardly even qualifies as a challenge. It’s a strange failing, considering how well-crafted the rest of the game’s difficulty curve is.

It’s worth noting that the game features the best sound design I’ve heard in a game on Apple Arcade. Every level feels like it’s grooving along to the beat of the electronic soundtrack, which fades and changes based on what happens to the players. If you’re the type of player who plays mobile games with the sound off, do yourself a favor and try turning up the volume.

The equally-sleek character design complements this, absolutely nailing the attitude of turn-of-the-millennium  music and game design. Unfortunately, the graphic artist’s talent isn’t well-used when it comes to the art seen inside each level. Though there’s plenty of gameplay variation from stage to stage, each one looks almost exactly the same as the last, with grid-like corridors all drawing from the same three tile sets.

Despite that, Monomals is one of the most polished games available on the service. So, while a music-fishing platformer might not sound like everyone’s cup of tea, it’s certainly one worth trying out.

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You’ll go through several dungeons located across each area. Every dungeon is filled with monsters, spells, and items. Some will help you, some will hurt you. Your goal is to go through the dungeon without dying. There are a total of 8 areas across the map of the game. Card of Darkness is mostly a linear game, with a few exceptions that let you take another path to reach the same destination.

Every time you go into a dungeon, you can equip at least one Card of Darkness. The Cards of Darkness are holding items that grant you some kind of ability. Some abilities are not that helpful, while other abilities can boost your health or make extra potions appear on each floor of a dungeon. The dungeons are where the action happens. Every time you enter a dungeon you’ll see a floor with stacks of cards. These cards are randomly generated so, as Forrest Gump would say, you never know what you’re going to get. You know, like a box of chocolates.

Your objective is to create a path to reach the other side. You do this by taking cards out of the stacks. If you take a card, you’ll have to take them all. Depending on what the card is, you might have to fight an enemy, grab a weapon or a spell, or use a healing potion. Enemies will have a number below them that represents the Life Points you’ll lose by attacking them. Weapons also have a number below them that’ll help you lose fewer Life Points.

Personally, I like the randomness every dungeon had. Not knowing what you’re going against makes you prepare around what you can control, which is the Card of Darkness and the other items you can purchase from the shop. That being said, it might become a little frustrating and repetitive if you don’t pull a lucky game. I kid you not, I spent almost half an hour on a dungeon just to clear it in no time because of some random good RNG. And yes, I did get mad, but I kept playing because I was actually having fun.

I think one of the things that kept me from rage quitting was the simplicity in Card of Darkness’s gameplay. It’s borderline addictive. Since you only have to tap around, you automatically wanted to enter the dungeon again. Don’t get me wrong, losing because of randomness can get annoying, especially if you’re on the last floor of a dungeon. However, luck is always a big factor in card games. Whether it’s Card of Darkness, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Hearthstone. It’s still BS, but it’s part of the game.

Funny enough, I found boss battles to be easier than the actual dungeons. When battling a boss, instead of creating a path to cross, you have to take cards of stacks until you find the heart of the boss. You have to destroy 3 hearts to win the battle.

Another thing I enjoyed about Card of Darkness is the next level of creativity the team had for this game. Everything from the environment to the characters feels unique and colorful. The characters have personality, even the bad ones, and they’re likable, even if they don’t say that much. And of course, there are over 100 cards available in the game. Sure, some enemies might get a little repetitive–like at first, you have a rock, and then you have an ice rock–but there are a ton of other enemies with unique styles and abilities that separate them from the rest. It felt like completing a Pokédex of bad guys

Overall, Card of Darkness is a fantastic game. Its simple, yet addictive gameplay, fantastic visuals, and creative battles outweigh the mild annoyance you might get by its randomly generated dungeons.

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Rosie’s Reality is not a complete exception to this rule. It’s a family game, so there’s a lot of instructions, bright colors, and silly jokes. However, it’s not just a mindless puzzle game.

The game starts in the year 2048, in a world where robots are part of humans’ everyday life. That is until the global control center gets hacked. Robots become a threat and no one suspected this would happen. No one except for Will Smith. That last part isn’t true, but am I the only one who thought of I, Robot? Maybe I am a boomer.

Even without Will Smith, humans have a backup plan named Rosie, a rescue robot that’s not affected by this update. Now, it’s Rosie’s job to rescue the other robots, with your help of course. You’ll guide Rosie through several puzzles, rescuing malfunctioning robots and earning stars along the way.

Rosie’s Reality is a puzzle game in which you’ll create a path for Rosie to follow. You’ll use blocks that make her do things like change her direction or jump. There are also power-ups that you find on the levels. These power-ups help Rosie do things like move faster, but you can only use them once after you obtain them.

Rosie’s Reality has two game modes: Single-player and multiplayer. In multiplayer you go online to find other players to solve puzzles with. The single-player mode has 3 worlds, each with its own number of levels. Your objective is to help Rosie reach the goal. Sometimes you’ll also have to fix malfunctioning robots that are spread across the level with a special chip.

At every level, you can get 3 stars. The number of stars you win depends on how fast you finish a level. There’s a timer on every level that starts to run as soon as you start the level and it doesn’t stop until you reach the goal. If you run out of time you lose the level.

The timer adds another level of difficulty to the levels. The puzzles are not as easy as you might think. You’ll have to manage your resources, time the other robots’ movements and create a correct path. All this with the pressure of a timer.

You’ll need the stars to progress through the game. To collect all three stars, you’ll have to learn how the mechanics work, and there’ll be some trial and error every now and then.

However, repeating levels turns frustrating because of Rosie’s Reality’s unskippable animations and cutscenes. They’re nice and all, but you’ll get tired of them after a while. Everything has animations, and when you restart a level with a cutscene, you’ll have to go through it over and over again. You’d think that we’d have skip buttons by the year 2048.

One thing that makes you put up with the animations is that they’re so well made. The robots’ movements are cartoony and smooth. Plus, the bright colors and overall friendly environment make Rosie’s Reality a great game in the visuals department for kids and grown-ups alike.

There’s an AR mode that uses your device’s camera to place the puzzles in the real-life world. This is a neat feature that keeps the game interesting and dynamic. Instead of just using your fingers, you’ll have to move around to see the level from different perspectives.

When you’re not using AR mode, you’ll move around the level by sliding your finger to the left and right. You’ll control the blocks by tapping on them and then tapping in the place you want to place them. Depending on how big your device and your fingers are, you might make some mistakes when taping on a square. It’s not that big of a deal, but it does take time away from you.

Despite its looks, Rosie’s Reality is a family game that the whole family can actually enjoy. Its friendly visuals and cheerful narrative, combined with challenging puzzles and easy-to-learn gameplay will keep players of all ages engaged in this colorful adventure.

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NOTE: Rosie’s Reality is available on mobile exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

And that’s one thing Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree shows us in its story. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a story about mere mortals. Instead, it is the story of Estra, the daughter of the last great leader, a guardian chosen by the gods. But, we get to see how people live after the gods abandoned Midgard, leaving humans behind until they become worthy again.

Needless to say, life’s not that good. Years after her father’s death, Estra is having some weird dreams and visions about the past and the future. This starts to happen at the same time as people start changing and their veins start to fill with some blue energy. It’s your job to figure out what’s going on and what do you, your father, and the gemstone he gave you have to do with it.

The story is great. The characters you interact with are lovable and have their own personalities and backstories. You’ll get attached to some of then fairly quickly and even feel bad when or if something happens to them.

The game is pretty straightforward, but you’ll have the option to explore each area you visit and do some small side missions that you can finish while doing the main quest.

If you search well enough, you might be rewarded with some stones. Some of them will have lore about the Norse mythology and others will give you things like gold, objects to craft potions, or points for your wisdom.

Other times, you’ll find some fun easter eggs, like a flower filling you with determination or Snoop Dog chilling in a maze. If you ask me, these easter eggs are more worth it than all the other things you find.

Throughout your journey, you’ll need to solve some puzzles. And by some, I mean a lot of them. Overall, they’re not that hard, you just need to pay attention to the puzzle and the tutorial. Some of them might take more time than others, but you can ask for clues if you don’t have the patience for them. Clues will take some of your wisdom away so you need to use them, you know, wisely.

Speaking of using wisely, you’ll have to make some decisions in your adventure. These decisions can be a matter of life and death sometimes, and sometimes you’ll just have to decide what you want to say or ask someone else. As usual with these types of games, decisions will bring consequences to the story and to Estra in some form but don’t expect such drastic changes in the story.

Atone’s graphics are hand-drawn, and they’re really pretty. The colors are vibrant and the attention to detail in your surroundings makes you feel like gods actually walked the same path you’re walking.

In Atone, you’ll have three main game mechanics. First, you have the exploration aspect, where you walk around different areas, talking to people and finding stuff, then there’s the puzzles mechanic, which we already talked about. Both of these are extremely simple and easy.

Then there’s the battle system, which seems to be made to challenge Odin himself. When you enter a battle, you’ll feel like you’re playing Guitar Hero. To battle you need to press the keys in the correct order while being in sync with the music.

It may sound simple, but it’s really hard to master. Fortunately, the music in this game is amazing. Every battle has a song that’s so good, you won’t mind fighting the same opponent several times.

Hitting the notes correctly is important for your attack or defense. If you fail too many notes, you’ll get hit and possibly lose the battle. If you’re a Guitar Hero master, you won’t have any problems. But if you’re like me, you’re going to say “screw this" a lot of times. With that said, I would recommend you to play without a Bluetooth controller. It’s easier to tap the screen than to hit the buttons correctly.

Overall, Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree is one of the best games Apple Arcade has to offer to date. Its interesting story, colorful characters and scenery, and its outstanding music will keep you hooked to the game despite its extremely challenging battle system.

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NOTE: ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree is available on mobile exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

In fact, Yaga will end up giving you many many choices throughout the game that’ll let you decide on how you not only interact with people but also who you help, when you depart on missions, how you handle a variety of different situations, and, of course, what you’ll be bringing with you to help you defeat the undead, the bandits, and the many creatures of the world. Choice is one of the biggest features in the game and it’s one that’s implemented very well and gives you a whole lot of freedom and replayability.

One of the ways choice is most noticeable is through a pretty standard kind of personality creator. You choose options and become either more righteous, aggressive, selfish, or foolish. Personally, I decided to take the righteous route but you’re never strictly tethered to one option or another. If you do decide to use options other than your main strength, however, you’ll find yourself gaining bad luck.

Bad luck is basically exactly what it sounds like — a terrible omen that’ll really REALLY ruin your good time. It’s pretty simple to understand, too. Accumulate enough bad luck and an evil witch comes and steals your stuff. Not everything, mind you, but a good chunk of gold and most of the equipment you’re using. Bad luck can be accumulated by choosing options different from your personality, doing bad things, using magic items, having unfortunate encounters, and fighting a terrible terrible boss that makes it keep going up endlessly. Throughout the game, you’re almost sure to get it up once or twice and so I’d recommend unequipping things you find important if it gets particularly high. You still might lose them but it at least lowers the odds.

Yaga is played from a side-scrolling perspective and almost all of the game is combat and gathering quests. There’s rarely a fetch quest anywhere in sight and many side quests help to understand the many areas, characters, and lore of the world. Combat in the game can range anywhere from super easy near the mid-late game to insane depending on what you’re fighting and your strategy. You’ve got your main weapon of a hammer that can be crafted a number of different ways and also buffed by enchantments, but you’ve also got off-hand weapons. These can be wheel-shields, a sickle, shovel, and more. Each one has their own purpose but, honestly, I found myself never really using them. They just weren’t needed often enough when you can kill most enemies in 2-3 throws of your hammer.

Creating these tools and weapons really brings a lot of creativity to the game. In fact, rather than upgrading your character, this is really what you’ll be spending the crux of your off-time in. At the beginning, you’ll be pretty limited in what ores you can use and likely won’t have any great attachments for them. Pretty soon though, you’ll collect a healthy heap of diverse and super-fun attachments. By the end of the game, I was equipped with a long-distance, chaining hammer that, when thrown, would chain to other enemies and deal tons of damage. It was so powerful that, other than the final boss, I never felt in danger again. Working your way up is a blast in the game and I feel like difficulty was never an issue.

Now, let’s come to the story. It’s a pretty standard, dark little story. You’re cursed to be unlucky forever and the king wants you gone. Unfortunately, he can’t make you die by his hands so he’s instead going to send you on a series of increasingly impossible tasks. Luckily, your grandmother has your back and helps to point you in the right direction each time. Much of the story is said in rhyme, which can be enjoyable from time to time, but unfortunately there are quite a few that feel forced, and so the story might feel a little repetitive, of course. See what I did there? Rhymed it.

The controls for Yaga are… not my favorite. If you’re playing on a device, you’ll not be surprised to find that it’s got a joystick on one side and some buttons on the other. This bothered me a little as my thumb ended up a little sore and raw by the end of my 10~ hour journey. Luckily, it also has a controller option which I would highly recommend you use instead. This would help to not only combat the joystick but also make button presses a bit more deliberate, as I found myself randomly digging or dodging when I was trying to attack.

Finally, we come to the setting. Everything in the game is meant to be kind of on the dark and dreary side of fantasy. It reminded me a lot of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales and I feel that was probably what the developers were going for. The world around always felt alive, the environments were all diverse, and the characters were all… well kind of destitute and dead inside and hopeless, for the most part. While I wish there was a bit more variety in enemy types, I feel much of the game was different enough to keep my invested and interested.

Yaga, overall, was a really enjoyable experience for me and there were few hiccups at all. I found it both challenging and rewarding, with a storyline that kept me interested and combat that felt fluid and fun. The replayability and different endings you can obtain help it even further to be a game you’ll likely want to play through at least twice to see just how much the world can change.

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NOTE: Yaga The Roleplaying Folktale is available on mobile exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

Yes, the low-color sprites are supposed to look retro, and they do look retro. There’s nothing wrong with a retro look, but indie games have been doing the retro look for so long that it’s no longer a novelty. Plus, when you try to look as retro as Bleak Sword is going for, the graphics look bad first and retro second.

It’s a shame that this is the first impression that everyone will get of Bleak Sword, because beneath the bare-bones exterior is some of the best action gameplay that’s ever been imagined for mobile platforms.

The plot is about as bog standard as RPG plots get — there’s an evil immortal king, three magic stones, and prophesied hero, so go kill the bad things. It’s all told with a sense of foreboding and gravitas that feels a bit out of place at first. The slideshow cinematic that sets up the plot tells its classic tale of betrayal and woe using stick figures, and it’s hard to get invested in the fate of a kingdom when your first impression of a place is that it’s drawn by a five-year-old.

Yet the game pulls off something tricky as it shuttles players through its multiple various decaying, monster-filled environments: it begins to feel like it earns that gravitas. Its combat captures a sense of succeeding against all odds by the skin of your teeth, and it turns out that the art style is actually fairly effective once you look past the cave-painting-esque look of the player character.

There’s a spattering of atmospheric lighting and environmental effects that hammer home the bleakness that the game’s title none-so-subtly points at, and the simple art has just enough detail to hint at the grotesqueness of the creatures while leaving enough to the imagination to let the players’ minds fill in the gaps. Add on top of this all some eerily fluid animation, and players could find themselves believing the story if they hadn’t already forgotten about it by the time they reach the end of the starting forest.

The boss fights make the best use of this style, with massive, intimidating sprites that dwarf the player and evoke a sense of fear as you mentally try to figure out what exactly it is that’s hunting you around the battlefield and trying to smash you like a pancake.

What’s frustrating is that a game doesn’t need retro art to achieve this effect. I get that indie game developers like more8bit might not have the budget to spring for high-fidelity character designs, but I can’t shake the feeling that if the game didn’t star a pixelated stick figure knight, it’d have become a huge hit that people simply wound’t be able to stop talking about.

Simply put, the way this game plays a smartphone is masterful. It has a tense dodge/parry/counterattack rhythm that mimics Souls-like games, while limiting the action to smaller, static stages. This helps emphasize the game’s greatest strength: its ability to draw players in and make split-second decisions about how to best handle whatever collection of foes they’re facing down at the moment.

Players can only move around by swiping the screen to make quick dodge rolls. This would get annoying if they had to explore large, sprawling levels, but when the main concern is smaller battlefields, the system becomes second nature.

The game knows how to mix things up in a way that keeps its central mechanic from growing stale. Every few stages it brings out new enemy types that all need to be approached with different strategies to avoid taking damage, and they all hit hard enough to make players want to avoid their attacks. The environments also change regularly, with each place offering its own hazards that affect both the player and foes alike, giving players the chance to be clever in how they defeat their foes.

The game offers both a one-handed and two-handed control scheme, but it really shouldn’t have bothered with that. The one-handed control scheme features a clever and intuitive way to mix moving, dodging, parrying and attacking into a series of easy-to-remember single-finger inputs. The two-handed scheme, meanwhile, is just the same controls, but half only work on the left side of the screen, and the other half work on the right.

I get that they’re trying to make things less-daunting for  people who are used to playing with a gamepad, but a smartphone isn’t a gamepad. The sooner that mobile games stop pretending that phones are gamepads, the sooner we’ll start seeing games that work with a phone’s touchscreen instead of against it. Bleak Sword, at least in one-handed mode, is one of those rare games that works with a touchscreen, and it does a marvelous job of it.

There are things that the game could do better — like less-linear stage progression, a story that’s more than just an afterthought, and a few bug fixes spring to mind. But it’s rare to find a mobile game that embraces its platform as well as Bleak Sword, and I encourage anyone with an Apple Arcade subscription to check it out.

I still think it could do with some better graphics, though.

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Stela is a platforming game developed by SkyBox Labs set in a post-apocalyptic world. You’ll play as, you guessed it, Stela, a young woman who’s probably the last human on earth. At least she’s the only one we see. You’ll join her journey as she witnesses the last days of an ancient world.

If you’ve played games like Limbo or Inside, then you know the drill with these types of games. You wake up in the middle of nowhere, with no clue of who you are or where you’re going. You only have to keep going right and see where the path takes you. All this while avoiding all kinds of monsters and creatures that are extremely deadly and violent. The best tip I can give you is to avoid everything that moves. It doesn’t matter if it’s bugs, bats, big tentacles, or Shadows. If it moves, it wants you dead.

We don’t learn much about the world or the creatures we see throughout the game. Stela’s mission or back story is a mystery too. The only bits of information we get come from the achievements, which are really easy to get. They are the only things giving us information about the creatures we see and the places we visit.

The stories with these types of games are always ambiguous. We never get a straight answer. Instead, we have to look in the world around us to get an idea of what’s going on, which is great. It’s what makes you keep playing. However, you don’t really feel satisfied at the end of Stela. You just end up having more questions than before.

Sure, these games are always open to interpretation, but I’d love to have more answers about the world we’re in and about Stela herself.

Throughout the game, you’ll have to complete puzzles to make progress. Most of them will be easy, but you probably won’t solve them on your first try. You don’t get tutorials so you’ll need to explore for yourself and use the objects around you to solve the puzzles. It’s not always clear which objects you need to use, especially when starting the game, but after a while it’ll be easier to spot them.

However, this means you’ll die a lot. Especially when doing the time-based puzzles. Again, they’re not that hard, but I did have a couple of issues with them, mostly when I needed to jump quickly. I don’t know what it is, but sometimes Stela won’t jump when you tell her to. Luckily the checkpoints on this game are well placed. Still, it’s always annoying when you die because the game didn’t register your input.

Skybox did an excellent job with Stela’s scenery. You’ll go across forests, frozen lakes, and even something that reminded me of Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road. It doesn’t matter where you are, the game does a great job making you feel scared and out of place.

Wherever you are, you’ll always feel small. The vast environment and the creatures you face will give you a sense of being powerless. Even if this sounds bad, it is a fantastic and scary experience. The feeling of loneliness combined with a great original soundtrack leaves you anxious and scared.

I’m saying this in the best way possible, of course. Stela is a beautiful, cinematic game that does a great job keeping you curious and scared since the beginning. While it could do a better job when it comes to guiding the player through the game or making the gameplay mechanics a little more intuitive, Stela is one of the more enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve had in a long time.

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NOTE: GAME NAME is available on mobile exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

ZiGGURAT was a simple game with basic graphics and unusual controls that, despite having an ending, was pretty much an “endless" shooter. Towaga: Among Shadows (), by contrast, has completely different controls, a gorgeous art style, a much-more straightforward weapon, and a story campaign with interesting characters and clear goals getting accomplished.

Yet, it’s easy to see how Towaga owes some of its appeal to the ground broken by ZiGGURAT’s gameplay — in no small part because you often find yourself standing atop a ziggurat fighting off waves of incoming enemies. Some of these enemies have two eyes, though, so there’s a clear difference.

Players take the role of Chimù, a light-wielder whose village was destroyed by an evil creature named Mental. It’s his task to exorcise dark spirits, restore sacred shrines, and destroy the foul being that rendered his world to ash.

He does this by shooting light beams from his hands. It’s more effective than it sounds.

For a game that mostly consists of standing in place waving around some kind of mystical flashlight, developer Sunnyside Games have shown a lot of ingenuity in how to force players to adopt new strategies. While the game starts out with creatures that just blindly charge Chimù and are easily dispatched with a quick beam to the face, it soon changes things up.

Before long, players have to split their focus between enemies that teleport, enemies that explode, enemies that fire orbs and enemies that will make their allies more powerful if they stick around for too long. The boss battles show an even greater amount of creativity, constantly shifting the playing field in a way that keeps players on their toes.

Dealing with the varied threats requires players to quickly identify which types of enemies are attacking, a feat that’s unfortunately harder than it needs to be. Each creature has a distinct silhouette, but they’re all the same color, so when they attack en masse (as they often do) they all kind congeal into a blob of blackberry jelly with a strange aversion to bright lights.

Thankfully, there are spells that help with crowd control when things get out of hand. They all help turn the tide of battle in your favor, though some are more useful than others. I found myself exclusively using an enemy-slowing ice beam that covered a good quarter of the screen up until I unlocked the vampiric bullet spell that heals Chimù as it hurts the enemies.

Players can also level up their abilities, though there’s very little there besides standard stat increases. This comes along with two endless modes that players can grind to increase the amount of “shards" they have, which are used to purchase the upgrades. The upgrades do help make the game easier, without letting the player get so overpowered that the game can be beaten without any effort. It would have been nice if there were more depth to the system, however.

Aside from the problem with the enemy colors, the graphics and animations absolutely shine. They successfully inject character into Chimù, his allies, and his enemies as the quest to defeat Mental progresses throughout the story. The locations that Chimù fights in are gorgeous and varied, adding a sense of weight to the action and making them feel distinct despite the fact that from a practical standpoint, there are only three different types of levels that players fight in: A flat plane, the top of a pyramidal ziggurat, and up in the sky.

All of this combines with some fantastic sound design that works together to draw players into the action.

The game follows a story that reveals itself with vague suggestions and subtle implications, both in the dialogue of the characters, animations of Chimù’s memories, and journal entries that describe what led up to the catastrophic world that players are fighting through.

It is styled in a way that gives players a sense that the story won’t end when the game reaches its apparent climax. And they’re right — a revelation that could be considered a spoiler, but when the game nears its apparent end and players realize that they’ve barely touched the unlockable content in their codex, it’s one that most people will figure out on their own before the reveal.

There’s certainly things that Towaga could do better, with its samey environments, token upgrade system, and uneven powers. But the problems never feel like much more than nitpicks, and don’t distract from what is ultimately a great exploration in how to take simple mechanics and weave them into a game that feels like a blockbuster experience.

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NOTE: Towaga: Among Shadows is available on mobile exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

Down in Bermuda is a puzzle game with some exploration aspects. The game is played from a top-down view and is fully 3D, encouraging you to explore the island from all angles. Your goal in the game is to progress through the island by collecting orbs. To progress you must collect every orb and that can be a little difficult, but never was it frustrating for me. Simply scroll around, turn camera angles, and make sure you finish off every puzzle and tap everything as some things will move or open to reveal orbs.

Many of the puzzles are different to each other and I was very glad for the variety. There’s a whole lot of simple button presses and levers, but there’s also some memory ones, hidden patterns, time-based puzzles, observation puzzles, and even one where you throw barrels at mines. Never did I feel like any of the puzzles were too hard or too tiring and so I think anyone from children to adults would enjoy the adventure found here.

You won’t be alone in the game, either. Your reason for this adventure, other than the sheer accomplishment of finishing the little puzzles found throughout the map, is to help an old pilot who crash landed there more than 30 years ago. All he wants is to go home and, gosh darn it, it’s your job to get him back. You won’t be interacting with him a whole lot, but thanks to collectible photographs, you’ll learn a good deal about his story. You’ll find these photos around the various islands and each one unlocks a bigger picture of who this lost soul is.

The islands themselves are each different and offer a host of variety. Not only do they each seem like their own little environment but they also all have their own secrets, fauna, and monsters. Luckily, the monsters are also defeated by doing puzzles, so it doesn’t stray from its focus and I like that. Each of the monsters found across the map serves up an orb when defeated, too, and it’s not so difficult that you should have any problems.

The controls in Down in Bermuda are easy and I love them. It’s all just taps and drags, including two-fingered drags to spin the camera. You’ll also find a zoom function on the side of your screen so you won’t have to worry about trying to spin and zooming instead.

The graphics and sounds of the game fit well with its relaxed environment. The sounds are a little sparse and the graphics are nothing more than simple shapes and colors, but I found myself enjoying them and feel like it might’ve been harder to see an orb’s subtle sparkle had things been too flashy. It also won’t take up much of your device’s resources in case you have an older model device.

Down in Bermuda does a lot of good by keeping it fresh. Puzzles are unique, the different islands and environments are refreshing, the style of the game is relaxed, and there was no feeling of frustration from it. It’s a really solid game that I hope gets a whole lot more content soon as I saw no issues at all with it. I would certainly recommend this game to you (or your kids) for a fun little weekend.

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It feels kind of refreshing, honestly, because on the whole Grindstone is not particularly revolutionary and that lack of IAP breathes a bit more life into what could have been a pretty run-of-the-mill puzzler. Each stage is more or less the same: you start with a screen full of monsters, and you need to chart a path through them by matching the right colors. Each monster you slay will add to your score for the level, and once a certain threshold is met the gate will open and allow you to escape to the next stage. Eventually other wrinkles are added, such as beefier enemies that will attack you in specific ways and treasure chests that need to be unlocked. There are also the titular grindstones, which are prismatic gems that allow you to switch colors mid-path.

I say it’s not revolutionary because I’m pretty sure we’ve all played games with at least one of these specific mechanics before, and just a quick glance at some of the screenshots will probably remind you of dozens of games over the App Store’s 11-year history that it was clearly inspired by. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s not fun or worth your time, and Grindstone is absolutely both of those things.

To start with, the visuals are fantastic. It has kind of a modern Cartoon Network vibe with splashy colors, exaggerated animations, and just the slightest edge of adultness (which spellcheck assures me is a word) in its over-the-top gore. Seeing your character stomp and slash his way through enemies again and again is very satisfying, and the squishy sound effects are the perfectly gross cherry on top.

The level of challenge also feels right, although it took me a while to appreciate it. At first the stages felt a bit small and cramped, and it could be frustrating trying to find a long enough path to defeat certain enemies or reach the point goal to finish the level. But after a few minutes the board will almost always begin to fill up with grindstones and other special parts (which are also used as crafting material for better gear and power-ups) that allow you to make longer chains more easily. Despite my apparent bad luck at starting each stage without many options, I almost always managed to finish every goal without a lot of problems.

As for the goals themselves, there are (usually) three in each level: Opening the door, unlocking the chest, and stealing the Slob’s crown. The first is the only one you really need to worry about if you want to beat the stage and move on, but you will eventually need chests for crafting materials and crowns to unlock further stages down the road. It’s sort of like the Three Star system found in other games, where you don’t really need to go for all of them every time, but it’s a nice incentive for completionists.

In all, Grindstone is a very satisfying matching puzzler with an equally satisfying price. I do have my suspicions that the novelty of getting what is essentially an extremely free-to-play game but with all the predatory aspects removed might be coloring my perception and making me think it’s more compelling than it really is. Maybe in an alternative universe where the word “freemium” never existed and this exact game cost $5 I wouldn’t find it particularly special. But we don’t live in that world, and it’s hard to argue that the game doesn’t look cool and play really well. And it’s certainly very fun, with an insane number of stages to play through. If you’re craving one of these gem-matching puzzle games but tend to shy away from free-to-play stuff, I think you’ve found your new addiction in Grindstone.

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NOTE: Grindstone is available on mobile exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

Where Cards Fall is a Puzzle game developed by The Game Band and published by Snowman. You play as a young man as he goes back and remembers past moments from his life. To do that, you’ll need to solve puzzles with the help of cards.

Every time you beat a puzzle, you’ll see a little cutscene about an event in the young man’s life. You’ll see his life from his teenage years to his adulthood, with a lot of good, bad and uncomfortable moments, friendship, and even love. Just like any other person’s life.

And just like every other person’s life, it’s boring. You won’t get a crazy story with cliffhangers or amazing plot twists. Instead, you’ll see someone struggling to make friends, get good grades, and get a job.

Some people might be disappointed by this game’s story, and I get it. I was disappointed too. I was expecting a murder or something to happen (I think I’ve been playing too much Jenny LeClue). That is until I saw it from a different perspective. The Game Band is trying to remind us what we’ve all been through.

The story is meant for you to look at your own life and remember the good and the bad moments in it. And to appreciate them because they led you to where you are now. You lost friends along the way and made new ones as well. You failed and succeeded many times, and you’ll keep doing it. It’s all part of life, and we all experience this, even if it’s different from person to person.

That being said, it’s still boring if you don’t give it that much thought. So, if you’re looking for a crazy, over the top story, this game might not be for you.

Where Cards Fall is a beautiful game. Each puzzle takes place in a dreamlike stage filled with details and colors. You’ll keep looking at your surroundings to see the different objects and people that appear on every level. Many of these objects don’t do much, but some will tell more about the story that you won’t see in the cutscenes. Despite this, the game has a slight problem with perspective. Being a 3D game with a fixed camera, you’ll sometimes fail to see what to do because of the position of the cards or the buildings.

The music is a big factor in this game as well. It’s meant to relax the player with calm, soft sounds. If you want to have a relaxing gaming session and immerse in the game completely, you should try Where Cards Fall with your headphones.

Something that’s not that relaxing is its gameplay. To solve the puzzles you get to control two things: the boy and the cards. To move the cards you need to drag them across the screen and place them where you need them. You can make a house of cards by spreading them with two fingers. Depending on the space you have available, you can make the houses bigger.

Regarding the boy, he’s not so fun to use. You move him by tapping where you want him to go. It’s simple, but it takes so much time for him to move. And sometimes, while you’re moving the cards, you might tap on the screen, causing the boy to move to another side and ruining your progress.

Overall, the controls, while not the best, they’re not awful. But it would have been nice to have something like an undo button for certain situations.

The puzzles are simple at first, but they do get more complicated as you progress through the game. You’ll have to be patient and try different positions and house sizes, and even interact with things like wind or clouds to solve the puzzles. However, they are solvable and rewarding when you beat them.

Where Cards Fall is a relaxing, beautiful game meant for you to relax and enjoy while thinking about your own life and gaming as a whole in a new perspective. Not everything has to be explosions and cliffhangers. Sometimes you could use a little time to relax. If you don’t care about the story, it’s still a fun and challenging puzzle game with over 50 levels for you to solve. But if you’re looking for a story-driven game, filled with fiction and mystery, you’ll have to keep looking.

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Sally, on the other hand, is a green-haired… human, probably? Where Grimoire takes his approach in a charming sort of aloofness, Sally is direct, flat, and sarcastic in the best of ways. She’s much more of a partner than a sidekick and the banter between his charm and her sarcasm definitely hits a good note with me. They never felt like the same character but just a successfully working unit dedicated to solving the murder of one Freya Fellow.

The entirety of this game will take place inside of Tangle Tower, a tall structure that’s actually really two towers kind of conjoined into one middle building. The towers themselves are actually rather important as each one is designated to the Fellow family members or the Pointers. Both families were married into the Remingtons at one point and it’s been unhappiness inside Tangle Tower ever since.

Your pair of detectives are called in to investigate the tower and find who killed Freya Fellow, a young resident of the Fellows who only wanted to paint her friend and distant family member. Sometime during the portrait, however, Freya is killed from inside the locked room. The poor girl, stabbed dead. She had so much to live for! So much to give! She was the best of them all… at least, that’s what pretty much everyone will tell you. Not one of the eight different members of the house will tell you otherwise and so it’s up to you to figure it out in this classic whodunit.

A good portion of your time in Tangle Tower will be spent searching for items across a whole slew of different rooms. There’s quite a few bedrooms but also a music room, astronomy tower, gardens, and a few others. Each one feels like its own little comforting space and has a ton of cute, voice-acted lines that really make the setting feel alive. I loved searching around not only for items but just to find every different thing that Grimoire and Sally had to say.

Much of the game will be spent in painfully long dialogues. I love hearing some exposition, don’t get me wrong, but when you’ve got over 40 items in the game and 9 characters you can (and pretty much have to) ask about, it gets a little much. As much as I enjoyed the story and the mystery behind it all, I did find myself desperately wanting to skip more and more as time progressed. That said, it is also a rather necessary evil so I can’t really punish the game for that. Detective games tend to have lots of dialogue and the fact that it’s all well-written and voiced helps immensely.

There’s also quite a few hidden clues to be found around the house. Many of the rooms have a puzzle or two that are both engaging and fun. Never will you find one that’s the same as another and that’s one thing I do love. A part of me does have to question why so many members of the household have puzzle boxes… but hey, maybe they all just secretly love puzzles. One great thing about these puzzles is that they include hints which will in no way punish you. If you find yourself stuck, you can click the “complete” button and it’ll tell you one of three clues, with the third almost giving you the answer. It’s a really helpful system and I found myself using it occasionally.

Finally, gameplay-wise, you’ll also find yourself in moments of deduction. These are fun and enjoyable ways for you to explain exactly why this clue or story doesn’t add up. It’ll give you a list of around 8 plausible items and some various phrases for you to stick together to make one coherent thought. It’s a system that I found enjoyable and intuitive. The majority of the time, I found myself knowing what I was looking for but other times I stumbled around a little, which makes it feel perfect in terms of difficulty.

The graphics in Tangle Tower are one of the main things that remind me of Deponia. They’re weirdly simple but very lovable. I found myself falling in love with the tower itself just as much as I was the gameplay. Every room was its own space and yet a working part of the tower. The characters, on the other hand, are a little bit stiff. Once you talk to someone for the first five minutes, you kind of already know almost exactly who they are. There are a few surprises in store, of course, but it is a very cliched games in terms of characters.

Overall Tangle Tower is great and very enjoyable. The story is well done and will always have you guessing who the killer might be, the controls are very simple which leaves you to investigate rather than fumble around, and the atmosphere helps to draw you in. All of that coupled with the superb voice-acting found in almost every action in the game will surely leave you satisfied with your time. I for one am excited to see what comes next.

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NOTE: Tangle Tower is available exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

Arthur is a well known author of the Jenny LeClue books. The books are not selling well and Arthur is being pressured to make them more dramatic and dangerous. After a particularly rage-inducing call, he decides to indeed give them the murder and mystery they’ve all been waiting for.

Your first mission in the game is to solve the ‘murder’ of Jenny LeClue… for your mother’s class. They believed it was an accident but you can prove them wrong. First, you’ll search the crime scene for clues using a first person POV in which you move the camera around and interact with what might be suspicious. A green smudge on her lips, a pool of blood at her head, muddy boots, and a floor that is immaculately clean yet still wet… she didn’t slip on the water, she was poisoned!

After collecting clues, you use them in combinations to deduce answers to questions. The first being “How did I know the victim didn’t slip”. Much of these moments of deduction are animated in simple little drawings in your notebook and serve well to show the story as well as tell it. I found myself enjoying them throughout the adventure and was occasionally wrong, which is always a plus. It’s never fun if it’s too easy!

Jenny LeClue – Detectivu follows a pretty specific pattern — Run around, investigate area, find clues, make deductions. It’s a tried and true method and nothing ever feels tiring. The majority of the game will be in a platformer-style but it’s only barely the majority. There are puzzles intermittent throughout the levels that can be anything from wire-puzzles to breaking boards or changing knobs on a dial to decipher a hidden message. There’s rarely a puzzle that doesn’t seem fun, but some of the puzzles and investigations have one problem — glitches. It wasn’t super often, but around 3-4 times, I would get stuck. It wasn’t me, though. I’d spend a good 30 minutes trying to figure out if I’m missing something but in fact it was the game. Occasionally the “back” arrow simply wouldn’t load or a puzzle wouldn’t progress properly. No amount of changing, flipping, or sword-moving would fix it. It became a hassle having to redo up to 15 minutes of content but that’s really my biggest gripe and it’s not so annoying that I found myself hating the game.

Over the course of your investigation, which I feel was well planned, entertaining, and of decent length (around 10 hours), you’ll be living two stories. There’s the obvious “Jenny LeClue” mystery that befalls Arthurton. You’ll mostly work on the mystery but also there’ll be plenty of choices to make Jenny the detective you want. She can be an emotional planner or a logical dreamer. I won’t give out any spoilers but it’s definitely got the basis of a good story but an ending that leaves you saying “…why?”. Personally, I’m not a big fan of cliffhangers and this game gives you a big one as literally the last scene.

The second story you’ll be playing is as Arthur… or more like an unseen force in Arthur’s apartment. Much of the game is played in the first story but Arthur, the author, is just as important. The story hurts Arthur to write just as much as your character, Jenny. He struggles with what he wants and with compromising his beliefs, which is shown in Jenny’s own emotional struggles to not only the murder but the troubles in her now-broken family.

Jenny LeClue – Detectivu also has a few extra features that are mostly just for flavor. There are hidden stickers and scraps of postcard throughout all the levels. They’re all easy enough to find for the most part but they’re all also miss-able and the perfectionist in me died a little when I realized I missed two scraps of the very last postcard. The stickers are used on your notebook just to customize it. Personally, I put the mayor’s face with a big red X on it… because he died. Twisted? Yes. Perfect? Also yes.

You’ll rarely find your device overheating or draining too much battery. The bigger issue to me is that the game only autosaves and so if you close the app entirely, you might end up set back farther than you’d like. Pay attention to the top left of the screen though and if the “Jenny LeClue” logo pops up, you should be fine to exit. They seemed to be coming every time you enter or leave an area or find something big so there was never a huge lull between saves.

In the end, Jenny LeClue – Detectivu succeeds in telling you an engaging story with good mechanics, fun puzzles, a great way of introducing mystery, and characters that you’ll really find yourself enjoying. If you take away the glitches, this is definitely a top-notch game that I think any lover of mystery, murder, or puzzles will enjoy.

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NOTE: Jenny LeClue – Detectivu is available exclusively as part of Apple Arcade, a premium gaming subscription service from Apple. Without being a subscriber to Apple Arcade you cannot download and play this game. Apple Arcade is $4.99 per month and does come with a free one month trial, you can learn more about it on Apple’s official website or by visiting our dedicated Apple Arcade forum.

Mini Motorways by Dinosaur Polo Club should look instantly familiar to anyone who loved Mini Metro. In fact, I didn’t even know it was coming out until I scrolled through the Apple Arcade section of the store last week and saw that familiar art style with the word “Mini” attached to the screenshots. It’s every bit as crisp, clean, and bright as the original looked, although not quite as minimalist this time around. There are shadows and topographical features now (or is that grass?) and a grid to help you place your mini motorways, and actual buildings that pop out of the ground instead of abstract lines and shapes. If Mini Metro looked like a subway map, Motorways looks a bit more like a board game. Overall it’s a very satisfying evolution of the previous game’s visuals that feels new and unique while still maintaining the feel of the original.

Also returning is the wonderful sound design that continues to perfectly compliment the distinct art style. The music is minimalist to the extreme, with simple chords droning softly in the background and seemingly random bleeps and bloops chiming away pleasantly as you plan your city. Some of the sounds aren’t random at all, and are meant to clue you in to certain events (a new building popping up, or the week ending, for example). One of my favorite cues is the extremely satisfying Waaahhhhhhh! when a new week begins.

Just because the music and sounds are relaxing doesn’t mean the game will put you to sleep, however. In fact, it can get downright stressful after 20 minutes or so. Just like in the first game, your goal in Mini Motorways is to connect points on the map with tracks (roads instead of rails this time) that will allow the unseen commuters to get where they need to go as efficiently as possible. If a building gets too clogged up with alerts (signaling a ride is needed), a timer will begin filling up. If you can’t get enough cars to that location and it fills entirely, it’s game over.

This being a sequel, of course, there are some important differences this time around. Since the game is all about roads and cars, you are no longer just connecting all the “stops” on a map; rather, you have to connect little houses (which contain cars) directly or indirectly to the larger buildings that share their color. Also, you have the freedom to draw roads any way you like instead of being limited to straight lines that snap into place like in Metro. This allows for a bit more freedom since you can draw multiple paths zig-zagging between any two points (or three, or four…), or even create your own roundabouts if you want. You can also attempt to draw main roads with shorter arterial paths branching off, and Dinosaur Polo Club’s algorithms seem to encourage this by often creating house-heavy suburban districts separate from areas with a lot of buildings. After each week you can choose a few upgrades for your city, too, like more roads and bridges (basically the same as the original game’s “tunnels”) or even a highway that allows for faster travel between two locations.

Another one of those upgrades is the traffic light, which in theory should alleviate congestion and make your roads run smoother. In practice, traffic lights seem to do absolutely nothing at best and actually make your roads even more congested at worst. This is where the game starts to show some rough edges, and it’s indicative of one of its biggest problems: the ‘rules’ the traffic follows are entirely unexplained, and most of the late game seems to rely on you understanding and anticipating how that traffic will move.

For example, if one road gets too congested, would it make sense to create a second longer road that gives some cars an alternate path? Will they take it, or will they stubbornly choose the shorter path that has a traffic jam? Even if you set up a test, it’s hard to tell since all the cars are coming from different places and by the time congestion starts to occur there are just too many to follow. This lack of clarity on how or why the cars choose to go where they go makes it incredibly tricky to come up with long-term strategies.

At first, for instance, I tried to make neat and orderly roads that mostly went in a straight grid pattern, but I soon found that haphazardly drawing crazy roads all over the place seemingly worked just as well most of the time. Contrast this with Mini Metro, which was always exceedingly clear on how every piece of the game worked. The subway cars would move and behave exactly the same way every time, and every loss felt like it was 100% my fault (with some RNG sprinkled in, of course). I could spend hours trying different strategies in that game and fully understand why each one worked or didn’t work, tweaking them to go just a little bit further next time, whereas in Motorways I usually end each game in roughly the same 500 to 800 score range as the last session no matter what random strategies I come up with.

There are also a few smaller problems that come with any new game, like various minor bugs (sometimes traffic will stop for no reason), UI challenges (I can’t count the number of times I opened the notification screen when drawing roads at the top of the level), a lack of content (only a handful of cities and a single mode to play), and no replay to share at the end of the level–one of my favorite features in the original. Still, those are pretty minor complaints that will almost certainly be resolved after a few updates. (In fact, the developers have mentioned they are looking into all of these issues–and the traffic lights–on Reddit.)

My biggest issue with the game, as I’ve said, is undoubtedly how much less clear it is with how traffic behaves than in Mini Metro, and how upgrades like the traffic light are supposed to help. I’m not ready to definitively say Mini Metro is better, though–it might just mean that Mini Motorways is a deeper game that I haven’t fully cracked yet. As it stands now, it’s still incredibly addicting and satisfying to play and very beautiful to look at and listen to. Even with the few problems I had, it’s certainly a top-tier Apple Arcade exclusive that shouldn’t be overlooked by fans of the original or newcomers to the series.

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While there are those similarities, you can definitely see some differences in the gameplay. There are no hero troops nor any mobs to kill on the battlefield, but even so, it’s a game that works and offers up a good variety of strategy and troop-types. You also don’t have to upgrade any buildings other than the bastion or stronghold to unlock the bigger and better buildings, like the ones to allow you to build siege weapons. This means that you could save all your resources up at the start and begin by throwing out mounted units and wizards while avoiding footmen or archers entirely.

There are only two races in the game which means there’s not a whole lot of options there. Orcs are your traditional ‘big, dumb, angry, green people’. Rather than archers, they’ve got slingers and their wizards are more of the dark-arts variety. The humans are the other race and are the more industrialized and technical folk, eventually upgrading into giant cannons for siege weapons while the orcs get rock-throwing trolls. Pretty much all these troops are equal in skill so what this game comes down to is advanced troops, strategy, and your numbers.

Maps are another feature that are important in the game. There are three different ones, each with their own distinct features. The Deep Woods map keeps it standard with a neutral gold mine up top and a lumber mill down bottom. Dry Steppes throws in a gold mine on each side and a tower in the middle which will shoot enemy troops. First one to take control gets it permanently until the other side destroys it, so it’s going to be everyone’s first priority. Ancient Swamp is the final map and gives a long, winding path in the middle with two gold mines, a lumber mill up top, and a magical stone on the bottom which will give units a speed boost.

The controls are great and I couldn’t be happier with them. Press and hold is pretty much your go-to for almost everything. You use it to build barracks, stables, and everything else as well as upgrade all your buildings, but it’ll also be used for mining resources faster, capturing neutral buildings, or even healing or damaging troops on the battlefield. Any time you’re not actively upgrading something, you should be using it to mine for your resources quicker. The screen is also a drag and drop or you can click the minimap to view an exact spot at any given time. My only complaint here is that I wish I could zoom out and see the whole map, but that’s really just nitpicking.

There’s also a single player mode mostly just used for tutorial, practice, or late nights where no one’s on multiplayer. It contains four different difficulty modes which range from “You win. Period” to “Oh, dear God. I’m being attacked by every side! Maybe I can… nope, I’m dead.” In other words, if you’re looking for a real challenge or just to practice some different strategies, single player has it.

Matches in Red Reign will vary greatly depending largely on your and your opponent’s strategy. It can take anywhere from three minutes to thirty with things coming to a head in glorious, bloody fashion. It’s a game with pretty basic music and it doesn’t seem to take up many resources either, so that’s a pretty good deal.

In the end, Red Reign does a great job of creating a real-time strategy game that looks simple on the outside but has many different layers on the inside, especially if you play multiplayer. My only hitch is that I want more, and if this game added some customization options like flags or armor/skin tattoos and perhaps a multiplayer with friend option or even rankings, it would reach an even higher level of recommendation. Until that point, it’s a solid game that only really wavers if nobody is online to play it.

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When playing What The Golf? you need to forget everything you know about golf. In fact, you need to forget everything you know about logic as well. You’ll guide a golf ball through a laboratory divided into different sections. Each section has two different areas, one on the left and one on the right.

Every area has a unique theme and is filled with small references and details. You’ll find yourself playing Portal, Super Mario Bros., and even Superhot. Each area has several flagpoles which represent a course you need to play at least once to make progress. Each level will keep you guessing what your goal is going to be. Maybe, you’ll have to get a golf ball to the flagpole, or maybe you’ll have to use a TV with a rocket attached to it to destroy trees. As I said, there’s no logic in this game. And that’s what I like about What The Golf?: You’ll never know what you’re going to get.

As I mentioned before, you need to go through each flagpole to progress in the game. However, if you want to get collectibles or get a crown on a flag, you need to play every level on each flag. This gives you a reason to replay the game, which is good because it’s not that long. In my case, I got tired of playing trying to get the crowns because it’s basically the same challenges over and over again.

What The Golf? is a physics-based game, which means you’ll have some frustrating moments. Its gameplay is really simple. Most of the time you’ll just have to drag your finger down the screen and then release it to shoot the golf ball or whatever you’re using. This is simple but sometimes the game’s physics will work against you for no reason, especially in the 3D levels.

Fortunately, all levels are not that hard to beat. Some levels will take some time, but as soon as you figure out what you’re doing, it won’t take too long before you beat it. Keep in mind, though, sometimes patience, and thinking outside the box is key.

The game’s looks are great. What The Golf? does a good job changing from 3D models to 2D sprites in a smooth way. You can see that Triband, the team that made the game, put a lot of time into every detail that covers the laboratory and each level. From hidden rooms to secret chests, references and puns, there’s a lot to discover.

The music, on the other hand, is not that good. First, there’s not a lot of music inside the game. While you’re exploring the lab or playing the levels, you’ll only hear a couple of sounds most of the time. But, when there is music in the game it is happy and relaxing.

Overall, What The Golf? is a silly, fun little game filled with popular references, different characters to control, and a lot of lame and funny puns. While you might get stuck in a few levels, the game is entertaining enough to keep playing until you figure them out. Even if the game is not that long, it will give you a crazy experience that will keep you entertained and make you chuckle.

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Assemble With Care is an absolutely amazing game with puzzles in the form of real-world items to be repaired, simple controls, and a story that’ll keep you reading until the very end. Literally. I am guilty of skipping through dialogues in countless games, but I couldn’t skip this one. Every scene is beautifully voice acted and each moment in the story is an adventure in and of itself.

You play as Maria, a young woman that succeeded in becoming a Restorer. Your job in this narrative is to fix objects of all shapes in sizes. You start out in a very short tutorial in which you must unpack your suitcase. I know, it sounds a little dull, but it ties in well with the entire story and is simply meant as an introduction. Luckily, the controls are simple enough and require only tapping and dragging on the screen.

Once the tutorial is over, the real fun begins. After each cutscene (which I highly recommend you watch as the story is one of this game’s strongest points) you’ll take apart, fix, and reassemble various items. This could include anything from a simple yet meaningful cassette recorder to a rich woman’s camera and even a cafe’s neon sign with customizable options. You’ll be repairing broken, mangled gears with shiny new ones, changing out and hooking up wires appropriately, replacing smashed or otherwise damaged parts, and screwing and unscrewing and re-screwing things over and over again. There are even a few mini-games which I’d hate to spoil for you, so I’ll opt to keep them a secret.

But that’s not the place where this game shines. If ever there was a game to show how games are an art form, this is it. The graphics paint a peaceful and picturesque landscape that puts you at ease, especially when in conjunction with the music. The story is whimsical, simple, and meaningful. Every chapter, when you’re restoring items, you’re not just repairing them, you’re helping to repair a family. It’s a story I can’t get behind enough and a game I’m certain to play again.

Assemble With Care is, however, a short game. With 13 chapters to play, you’ll find yourself done in about 2-4 hours depending on how quickly you figure out how to restore each individual item. Each chapter shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes and the vast majority will take less, so if you’re looking for a long-lasting game or one that’s more of a traditional puzzler, this isn’t it. There are also no major hints in the puzzles and so you may end up temporarily stuck. Luckily, no puzzle has more than around 15 pieces, so you shouldn’t be stuck for very long at all. You also have the benefit of having manuals in a couple of the chapters to help you along further.

This game is perfect for anyone with a love of stories, puzzles, and fixing things alike, but I highly recommend everyone take a quick peek at it. There’s an even balance between story and puzzle so I doubt you’ll find it lacking in any one area. Assemble With Care is truly one of the best apps I’ve played in far too long and really left me wanting more even though the story was wrapped up quite well. No matter if you’re still in your parents’ house or already having children of your own, I feel confident in recommending this game to each and every one of you.

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Dead Cells is fun. Actually, it’s really fun—one of the best games I’ve played this year, in fact. The art is beautiful, the gameplay is smooth, challenging, and rewards both practice and patience; the soundtrack is superb, and rewarding exploration with story is something I quite enjoy. It is, in a word, amazing. However, it is not perfect. Despite the effort to devise controls that feel natural and work well for a complicated and fast-paced game, they just aren’t good enough. Even with the extensive customisation available, it’s all too easy to whiff a dodge, botch a jump, or simply move the wrong way. Without a controller or a keyboard, the game becomes much, much harder, and it’s not a small difference.

Art and sound design are as integral to a game as the gameplay itself. Poor art or unsatisfying sound effects can turn an otherwise astounding game into a mediocre time sink at best. Similarly, incredible music and artwork can compensate for otherwise tedious or boring gameplay. Fortunately, there is no need to compensate for anything here. The music is fast, always pushing you to move just a little faster, go for just one more hit, and always take that risk. It’s a perfect fit for a fast game that pushes its players to always be on their toes. Similarly, the sound effects when hitting enemies, smashing to the ground, breaking down doors, or even getting hit, are impactful and satisfying, lending a certain weight to actions.

While the music and sound are good, the art is simply gorgeous. While it may be pixel art, it is incredibly detailed, well done, and did I say gorgeous? Take a break atop the Ramparts and admire the view, look out from the Clockmaker’s Tower at the clouded skies, or gaze at the island as a whole from the Throne Room. Wherever you are, and wherever you look, there is beautiful pixel art. Now, while being visually impressive is important, it does come second to conveying relevant information in a readable, and enjoyable, way. Dead Cells does this well too. Enemies are visually distinct, and have clean, clear animations. While there are a few exceptions, they are just that: Exceptions. Between the animations and enemy design, reading enemy tells and learning how to interpret them is made to be part of the fun, rather than a confusing obstacle.

Between the sound design and the art, Dead Cells feels really good to just sit and play. It’s not a game you can relax with, necessarily, not with its fast-paced nature, but it is a game that rewards a successful parry, or complementing one item with another for more damage, or a greater effect, or some other synergy. Finding and using these tricks accentuates the satisfaction of slamming down on an undead archer from above, pounding a scorpion with a hammer, evading a pouncing zombie, or putting a halt to a charge from a shieldbearer. It’s the little, individual feel-good things that add up to a sense of accomplishment when they are mastered and used to beat a particularly troublesome elite monster, or beat a boss, or race through a level in record time, that rewards all the practice and prematurely ended runs.

Sound design and art only play a partial role in determining how a game feels to play, though. The other, equally important, part is gameplay, and boy is the gameplay solid. At its most basic, Dead Cells is a 2D hack & slash platformer with combat reminiscent of Dark Souls, or Bloodborne—that is to say hard, unforgiving, and incredibly rewarding when it finally “clicks". Layered on that is a rogue-lite (or, as they call it, a “RogueVania") system, where death puts you back at the start, but with the benefit of preserving unlocked equipment and tools for use in the future. Finding all the different weapons and tools is reason enough to explore, but in addition to that there is usually more than one way to leave a stage. Whichever path you take the end is always the same, but the journey is different and offers different enemies and, as such, different equipment blueprints to acquire and secrets to find.

Building on the “RogueVania" idea, when gear and powers drop from enemies, it almost always drops as a blueprint which must be researched before it can be used. There are exceptions (notably amulets, monsters will occasionally drop usable equipment from what you have unlocked), but not many. If players die before they make it to a safe zone at the end of a biome, they lose any blueprints acquired, as well as cells and gold. In addition to unlocking new gear, these safe zones also provide the means to enhance equipment, heal up, and take a single mutation. These mutations are passive abilities that can provide a degree of flexibility, or double down on something you’re already good at. Choose wisely, though! You can only have three at a time, and it becomes very costly to reset them.

Everything about Dead Cells is fast and pushing you to go even faster. The music, the animations, the enemies walking around, bursting from the ground, or descending from the ceiling—everything. Move faster, hit faster, dodge later. It’s no wonder, then, that you’ll eventually slip up and take a hit here and there. For quite a while that’s alright—there’s a lot of healing in the biomes themselves, nevermind the free healing after each. All you’ve really lost is your untouchable status which is, admittedly, valuable. But then you beat the game and unlock your first Boss Stem Cell. All of a sudden, the kid gloves have come off. There’s less healing, and harder enemies appear earlier. Every hit feels like it hurts twice as much, enemies feel twice as tough, and there are twice as many. Oh, and those free health refills between each stage? Those are gone too. Good luck!

With the precision required to time dodges and still get hits in, it’s no wonder why controls are so important. Before I rip on them, though, it’s worth noting that Playdigious has done an admirable job with onscreen controls. They are good, and they may even be good enough with practice. By default, they are arrayed in a way that makes sense: The jump, dodge, and interact buttons are easy to reach and close to the side of the screen, and the buttons to activate your gear are a little to the left. They aren’t quite as easy to reach, which is unfortunate, they are not uncomfortably far away. Movement is handled on the left side of the screen with either a floating touch pad or a fixed touch pad (changeable in the settings). Not so bad, right? Maybe a little complicated, but that’s alright! And it is. Until a parry is the difference between dying and not, or five seconds are the difference between finishing the stage in time and not, or the only way to avoid taking damage is to immediately drop down and execute a downward slam. These are not niche situations either; they occur regularly, and without precise controls and a familiarity with them, it’s very hard to successfully navigate any of them. So while the onscreen controls may be good, they are simply not as good as a controller. Fortunately, for those who have an MFi controller handy, or those who are running the iOS 13 beta, you can use a controller.

Is Dead Cells well suited to being a mobile game? Personally, I think so, but I would also love to see games like Stellaris or Mirror’s Edge on mobile as well. Generally speaking, if the thought of using a controller to play a game on your iPhone or iPad is anathema, then this is almost certainly not the game for you. On the other hand, if that sounds like the greatest thing since sliced bread and goat cheese, you’re in the right place at just the right time. But, regardless of platform or what controls you choose to use, there’s no question about it: Dead Cells is an amazing game, and anyone interested in rogue-lites would be well advised to give it a shot at their earlies convenience.

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GRIS has you playing as Gris who is a young girl dealing with the various stages of grief. As you make progress into the gorgeous locations in the game, you see Gris grow emotionally and slowly come to terms with what is going on. This includes gaining certain abilities and being able to bring more colour to the world. The narrative is told through non spoken short cutscenes and key in game moments that are masterfully animated.

When it comes to the core gameplay, expect a combination of light platforming with puzzle solving to go alongside exploration in a side scrolling experience. A lot of GRIS‘ experience is all about the journey and how Nomada Studio conveys different emotions through the game world and the addition of colours. Gris learns new abilities as time goes by and you are often introduced to a new ability with a very basic puzzle to get you comfortable with the new mechanic. You then go on to use this in conjunction with other skills to solve some of the later more obtuse segments. I only really had trouble with two puzzles towards the end of the game when I played it on Switch and could remember almost every solution when I replayed GRIS on iPhone and iPad.

Visuals are most definitely one of the aspects of GRIS that gets people interested the most. Gris looks great and is animated very well. Her movement is smooth and the segments that involve sliding across slopes are very well done. I love the addition of colours as your progress. It makes more an even more striking image because Nomada Studio has managed to make even the early areas look amazing. It is great to have this on a higher resolution portable display than Nintendo Switch for sure. There is one aspect of the visuals that needs to be fixed. Some of the main menu interface icons are low resolution. The symbol for iCloud save in particular stands out badly.

If you’ve watched any trailers for GRIS, you already know how amazing the soundtrack is. Berlinist’s work on GRIS is phenomenal and it makes for not only a great game soundtrack that will instantly remind you of the areas in the game but also one that is great to listen to while working. There is a good combination of traditional instrumentation and use of various samples alongside to have individual tracks stand out. ‘Debris’ and ‘Gris Pt. 2’ are my favourite songs on the soundtrack for sure. The one aspect of the audio that is a problem right now is bluetooth support. I played a good amount of GRIS with the iPad speakers and then with AirPods. When I used AirPods, I had no trouble for a good amount of time but when I disconnected them and went back to using them a few seconds later, the audio was all gibberish. Hopefully this is fixed soon.

In terms of port quality, GRIS is mostly great. I played on an iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad Pro. Performance was much better on the iPads and the iPad Pro was mostly perfect with a bit of frame pacing that resulted in some stuttering. GRIS has 16:9 gameplay on iPad so expect black bars on the top and bottom. Thankfully the on screen controls aren’t restricted to just the gameplay portion of the screen. I was a bit concerned about the on screen controls but they are implemented very well and I could even do some of the more obtuse puzzles where you need to position yourself perfectly to solve. GRIS also has MFi controller support if you have one of those. It plays very well with a controller as expected since it was designed for one anyway. It looks gorgeous across the board but playing on iPhone has one big problem that involves every scene that has a cinematic zooming out moment where you sometimes need to solve some puzzles when completely zoomed out.

Barring the bluetooth audio issue that seemed very random, I hope Nomada Studio can address the zooming out on smaller screens. I know it makes sense to do this for console games on larger screens and it even works to some extent on iPad, but it makes some sections of GRIS almost unplayable if you don’t already know what you’re supposed to do. I also ran into random performance issues on iPhone 7 and 7 Plus but not as much on iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro. Nomada Studio has been quick with a few patches post release already adding achievements.

Overall, GRIS is definitely one of the best games you can play on iOS right now. I adored it when I played it on Switch back in December and replaying it twice has been a joy. I wouldn’t really call GRIS replayable even though you will miss some things on your playthrough. These aren’t really essential because the core story that is a three to four hour long experience feels just right. While I already know how to solve the puzzles so I was just blasting through the game again, I will never tire of the stunning art, animations, and audio design in GRIS. This is easily my favourite iOS port so far this year.

Journey has you playing as a robed figure exploring a massive desert. Your aim seemingly is to reach a mountain that’s always visible to you initially. Journey‘s story is told through a few cutscenes spread across the experience without any voices. The gameplay plays a big part in piecing together the narrative and I’ve found people interpreting things differently. You slowly find more scarf pieces and can jump or fly higher. Your scarf plays a very important part in the game. A lot of people compared ABZU from Giant Squid to Journey but I feel like even with Journey‘s vague structure, it handles the overall narrative much better. My main complaint with the core game has always been one of the later segments of the game that feels tacked on and breaks the flow. I don’t want to spoil things, but you will know when you reach there. The in-game mechanics for that area are really bad.

As of now, there is no MFi controller support in Journey on iOS. This is pretty surprising considering the game is originally a PlayStation 3 release that was ported to PlayStation 4 and eventually PC. The touch controls are more or less fine but the camera might be a problem for some. I’d recommend spending some time trying to not only change the setting but also experimenting with camera movement using the right virtual analogue stick. This will help a lot later on when the game pacing becomes a bit faster or when you find yourself struggling with some of the platforming sections. The movement felt very erratic at first and almost gave me motion sickness just like The Witness did when I played it on iOS.

Visually, Journey is beyond stunning. The art direction really carries the game even on older devices like my iPad Air 2. I played Journey on iPhone 7, iPad Pro, and iPad Air 2. The iPad Air 2 definitely struggles with it and has instances of freezing, but it was fine on my iPhone 7 and iPad Pro. If you have a newer iPad Pro, it even supports higher refresh rates. One interesting and weird aspect of the game is that the in-game settings just have some control options but the system settings on iOS let you select from various resolution and framerate options for Journey, supporting even 120 fps if your device is capable of that refresh rate. The iPad Air 2 version at default settings reminds me of many third party ports to Switch that have loads of aliasing but are playable.

On the audio side of things, Journey is flawless in general but the iOS port has issues on some devices. On iPad Air 2, I had the sound cutting out randomly or jerking around. I had none of this happen on iPad Pro or iPhone 7. Austin Wintory’s score for Journey is more than worth the price of admission here and it is unbelievably great in the game. I’m still blown away by when The Road of Trials plays in game and this is the sixth time I’m experiencing Journey. The sound design outside the music is excellent. You only communicate with others who happen to be paired with you through a single sound or audio signal. It works brilliantly in the game and keeps the sense of mystery alive throughout your experience.

One interesting aspect of Journey is the multiplayer component. This isn’t traditional multiplayer where you invite a friend and play together. You get randomly paired with others seamlessly and don’t actually know who they are. You can communicate with them through an audio signal and can help each other out in some situations. On iOS, Journey uses Game Center for matchmaking. I had no trouble having people appear in my games. It worked just as brilliantly as it did when I played it back on PlayStation 3 a long time ago. You usually see a white glow around a part of the screen when someone has joined in or is near you.

Journey on iOS is a universal game. It even has iCloud save support. On devices that support it, Journey has interesting haptic feedback for your chime or audio signal. I know iOS games are often cheaper than their console or PC ports but Journey at $4.99 is a steal. One thing to note is that this is very much a one and done experience for the most part. You can replay it for secrets but I doubt most people will bother because the real magic is the first playthrough that should hopefully be unspoiled because the locations are stunning.

Right now, I hope Annapurna Interactive is working on fixing the issues with the port. Adding controller support would be amazing but the real big issue is the camera movement that definitely needs tweaking.

Overall, Journey on iOS is a must play if you’ve never played it before. Hopefully the few issues like the audio bugs on older devices and camera controls are addressed in a future update. The lack of controller support is pretty baffling considering this is originally a console game and I hope proper controller support is added at least when iOS 13 ships. If you’ve already played Journey on PlayStation or PC platforms, this is the only portable version and it has been a joy to play on iPad and iPhone years after replaying it on PlayStation 4. Now when is Annapurna Interactive bringing What Remains of Edith Finch to iOS?

Worker placement board games are a staple of most serious table top diets. From the Dungeons and Dragons rooted Lords of Waterdeep to the nuclear proliferation based Manhattan Project, you can find a theme of any stripe to toss meeples at. What Raiders of the North Sea does differently isn’t just swap in a theme palette and call it a day. It looks at the inner workings of the genre and decides that the status quo has got to go. Instead of slowly filling a board covered in a myriad of options, in this game you only have a handful of options, and no matter what you can almost always get to the job you need to do.

The problem comes with order of operations. Mechanically speaking, you take your turn first by placing the meeple you have, and then picking up one that was already on the board. You take the actions of both of those spots on the board, first the one then the other. So the worst thing an opponent can do to you is prevent you from doing two things in the order you want to do them, or sometimes preventing two actions from being done in the same turn. This vastly reduces the board control aspect other players can have on your gameplay and opens up the entire game in a way that the majority of worker placement games only wished they had. Doing a raid is a bit different, but you still end up putting a meeple down and then picking up a different one. Overall, you will never have a “dead" turn playing Raiders of the North Sea, only a less optimal or more optimal turn.

The only negative thing I can really say about the way the game plays is that you and your opponents will all basically follow the same biorythym in game. Very often you are gathering, recruiting, and raiding the same time everyone else is. On one hand it’s not necessarily a bad thing to be able to gauge how quickly you are progressing vs the other players, but there is not a whole lot of asymmetry in this one. Even with the armory and valkyrie tracks that reward you for armor gained and sacrifices made you won’t get into many situations where a come-from-behind victory surprises anyone.

Now if all I had to say about this game is “yep, it’s a good game" you could just go to one of the many wonderful boardgaming YouTube channels and get a whole word smorgasbord about the quality of the game. What you wont get from a boardgame review is any words about the quality of the app. Sitting at just under 365 megs on my phone, the game boasts online and local play along with a solid tutorial and easy to press buttons and icons. While it would be a nice thing to see more work done to reduce crashes the game has when starting up and maybe a color blind mode, the game has a solid foundation. I have seen no stability issues once past the initial load in, and ultimately the app does its primary job – to present the game in a clean manner and organize the inner workings of the game mechanics.

At the moment neither the Hall of Heroes nor the Rocks of Ruin expansions are available as add ons, but at $9.99 Raiders of the North Sea offers a really solid gameplay experience in a well put together package. I would say the primary audience for this app, like most board game apps, is the travelling board gamer who isnt interested in lugging their entire collection along with them. We need to see more board game apps like this one. Not just that prime target is satisfied, but also a wider array of folks with features like online play and a simple and easy to use interface. If you like board games that emphasize strategy over randomness or board games that feature vikings, or just worker placement games, this is a great one to pick up.

There is something a little different about P1 Select ($3.99), however. If this is your first experience with one of his games you may or may not believe me, but this is a kinder, gentler Brough game. It’s not as complex as Imbroglio ($3.99), nor is it as hard to come to grips with initially as 868-HACK ($7.99). As such, it’s a great introduction into the wild world of Brough’s creations. If you’re a veteran, don’t worry. There’s still plenty here to chew on, even if it may not quite have the longevity of some of his other titles. Your aim in P1 Select is to make your way through nine procedurally-generated stages, gathering as many Pontos as you can along the way. You’ll get one Ponto for every floor you clear, but you can earn extra Pontos by defeating enemies in a particular way. Whether you make it to the end of the nine stages or perish along the way, the number of Pontos you collect is tallied up and recorded. A single good run isn’t enough, however, as P1 Select keeps track of your average score across 20 sessions, and that’s what the leaderboard rankings are based on.

There are nine different characters to play as, and you can choose who you start with each time. But you’ll be playing all of them regardless of who you start with. Every step you take shifts you to a different character. You can see ahead of time which one it will be. Attacking an enemy will also change out your character. Each character has a different way of attacking, somewhat like a chess piece. They all use rings to power their attacks, with most taking a single ring. The key character here is Midas, who has the ability to change an enemy into a Ponto when it attacks. Certainly, other characters have their uses. Some can jump over walls. Some can take out multiple enemies in one go. And they all will leave you in different positions after using their moves. All of those things can be valuable given that you’re ultimately playing a game of energy conservation and positioning here.

You can’t attack without rings, but the rings may not be within easy reach. If you defeat all of the enemies, your character will scoop up the remaining rings before leaving the room. You can walk out the exit door anytime you like provided you can reach it, however. So you really have to consider whether you can save more rings by fighting or by running. But you also need to think about making opportunities to use Midas for extra Pontos. And no matter what you do, sooner or later you are going to have to fight. Naturally, all of this comes after the basic goal of making sure you don’t die a stupid death, which can happen pretty easily if you’re not cautious. It’s a lot to take in at first, though perhaps not as much as there usually is in one of Brough’s games. You really just have to learn what each character can do and be careful not to box yourself in. Easier said than done.

Everything in P1 Select looks and sounds weird in that now-familiar Brough style. That said, it’s always clear what everything is. All of the different characters, along with their abilities and position on the grid, are always at the top of the play area, so the amount you have to memorize is relatively limited. If you reach certain score thresholds, you’ll unlock a few permanent upgrades that will help you push your score even higher. As mentioned, there is a leaderboard in the game, and you have your choice of two different control layouts thanks to a post-release update. The default method requires two fingers and while it does feel good, it’s sometimes not practical to use. You can switch to a single-finger control method that works just as well and is easier to pass off as sending an email to HR or whatever it is the important management people do these days. Either way, it’s not too hard to play the game. Swipe to move. Either hold two fingers or tap to set up an attack, then swipe in the desired direction to let fly.

P1 Select is a more accessible game, and as a result I ended up treating it more like something to play when I had a few spare minutes rather than a game to settle into for longer sessions. I like that its scoring system being so straightforward and clear. On the other hand, it does feel like it’s lacking just a little in depth when compared to some of Brough’s other games. I still play 868-HACK and Imbroglio fairly regularly, but I’m not fully confident I’ll still be playing this game years from now. Is that a big problem? For how little these games sell for, I should hope not. Even if I were to quit playing it tomorrow, an unlikely possibility if ever there were one, P1 Select would have provided me with a full week of taking over my phone in my free time and my thoughts in my not-so-free time.

It’s a no-brainer purchase if you’ve liked any of Brough’s previous games, of course. But if that’s you, then you’ve probably already bought it, haven’t you? If, however, you bounced off one of his games before for any reason other than the art, you might want to give this one a glance. There’s a concerted effort here to try to reach out to a slightly different set of tastes, and if you give it a chance to get its claws into you, you may end up finding this to be the gateway to a brighter, Broughier world. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Players will guide Hanny, our intrepid dungeon delver, as she plumbs the depths of a dungeon in search of an exit, loot, and (most importantly) delicious pastries. Such an auspicious quest is not accomplished easily, though, and each floor harbours traps, locked doors, and malicious monsters who want no more than to catch those who dare invade their dungeon. Fortunately for our young protagonist, escaping a room is quite simple: Just find the door and leave. What could be simpler? What about the monsters, traps, and puzzles, you ask? That, dear reader, is where the fun comes in.

See, solving some rooms really is as simple as just walking through the open door, most doors are actually locked and require activating some number of tiles or flipping a button; or perhaps they are unlocked, but getting there may require knocking a number of monsters off the playing field, or dodging around until you can safely walk by or lock them away. Moreover, there are a variety of environmental hazards to worry about, like spike traps, ice patches that collapse into an endless void if you cross them too much, or fireball-flinging walls that should really settle down and just be normal walls. Oh, and then there’s the move limit. If traps, monsters, and puzzles weren’t enough for you, each level has a maximum number of moves that can be made. Run out and you’ll fail, make it early and you get a pat on the back.

While the normal hazards can be dealt fairly easily given enough time, the move limit really complicates matters. Suddenly, rather than taking the long, safe path around the edge of the room, you instead have to hit the button to pass through the middle where, quite conveniently, all the goblins, crabs, and squid are locked up. Can’t get through without hitting the button, but hitting the button adds another layer of complication to the mix. If that all sounds incredibly difficult, though, take a breath and rest easy. Most solutions are fairly obvious and, even if one isn’t, most levels have several solutions. If you don’t hit on one, you’ll probably stumble upon another.

Regardless, players should be prepared to die, and die freely, since the only punishment is to reset the floor. If a floor is simply too difficult, however, you can opt to watch an ad and skip it, or pony up $2.99 to remove all ads. Since there are no ads between levels, no forced ads on death––really, no forced ads at all––this is purely optional. The only ad of note, in fact, is the (quite small) banner ad on the bottom that changes from time to time. Since puzzles are so small and take place in the middle of the screen, it has no impact at all on gameplay, and is almost entirely unnoticeable. In truth, Bumpin’ Dungeon is far too kind to its players.

So the level design is neat, it’s not super difficult, and the monetisation is ridiculously player friendly. What about the visuals, the soundtrack, the overall feeling of the game? Well, I’m glad you asked! The visuals (as you may have seen from the screenshots) are delightfully retro, each and every sprite is colourful and lovingly made, and the environments themselves include a variety of hazards that lend a certain flair, as well as the obvious challenge to overcome.

The soundtrack is a wonderful set of upbeat tracks inspired by a variety of game elements (mostly monsters), featuring charming names like “Jiggly Bones,” “Dungeon Blaster,” and “Gerblin Bro Hug.” While I’m not sure how into hugging a gerblin is, each and every track fits into and emphasises the carefree joy of a good dungeon crawl. More than that, though, it is hard to not feel encouraged listening to one of these tracks so, no matter how difficult a level may be at any given time, it’s no great trouble to give it just one more shot, or come back after giving it up for a day or two.

In fact, that is perhaps Bumpin’ Dungeon’s most defining feature: From floor one, everything––monsters, Hanny herself, the soundtrack, the floor design––is geared towards a certain upbeatness, a certain carefree lightheartedness. Sure, levels can be difficult, but since when does difficulty diminish atmosphere? Every level, every bit of story, every puzzle imparts, above every momentary frustration, an assurance that this dungeon? It’s nothing special. Hanny does this every day. There’s no sense of danger, no immediate pending doom or great insurmountable difficulty. Now, that could be a problem if the goal was to create some grimdark dungeon crawl where everything is bad and nothing goes according to plan, but that is very clearly not the goal––or, if it was, Moby Pixel failed spectacularly. Regardless, the end result is a lighthearted, upbeat puzzle game perfect for five minute sessions.

If you’re looking for something brutally difficult to occupy you for weeks on end, you won’t find it here. That’s not because Bumpin’ Dungeon is never hard––it can be––but rather because even when it’s hard, the solution is always just around the corner, and the levels are rarely so complicated that they take more than ten or fifteen minutes to solve. Each level feels individually well designed, iterates upon previous levels, and fits well into the overall “theme” of a trap dungeon. The soundtrack is upbeat, cheerful, and emphasises the lighthearted atmosphere imparted by the absence of serious risk or difficulty; the graphics are wonderfully retro and the sprites have clearly been made with care. On the whole, it is a delightfully well-made game that is far, far too kind to its players. If it had an asking price instead of an optional in-app purchase, it would be worth it; as it is, it’s a steal. Think I’m wrong? Go download it, play it for a few days, then come tell me. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

It’s Holly’s 10-year high school reunion, and this is her first time back to her hometown since she fled post-graduation. Your old friend Flynn is thrilled to see you when you walk into the bar, but there’s a noticeable space where another friend, Grace, used to be. Grace and Flynn were engaged, but she passed away. Even after all this time, Holly has a deep friendly love from Flynn, made clear when later she risks her own life to rescue him. I believe the title seems to come from the phrase “a fate worse than death," which refers to a horrible experience that makes life unliveable. For Holly, this is whatever happened to cause Grace’s death.

The gameplay in Worse Than Death is mostly pure point-and-click goodness. Tap and hold to walk, double tap to run; that’s about all you need to remember to succeed. Every step forward is a feat, as there are often puzzles to overcome road blocks. Each “aha!" moment is incredibly rewarding. There is also a solid stealth element to the gameplay: trial and error, combined with patience and attentiveness, is needed to maneuver past the monsters who seek to harm you.

The game lulls you into a false sense of security before slapping you in the face with terror. Some of the fear is visual, but most of it is purely auditory. Visual and auditory cues are integral to your survival. When an invisible beast is nearby, Holly’s heart will beat crazy fast and you’ll hear it grow louder as the monster gets closer. If you move with your heart beating hard, the monsters will find and attack you. The developer uses haptic feedback wonderfully and sparingly.

I call them monsters, but the enemies seeking Holly are mostly unseen, making them that much more terrifying. Holly has spent the last decade running from her past, afraid it will catch up to her; this fear is physically represented by the monsters she is running from.

There is loads to look at and explore, and often you’ll need to seek out a specific piece of information or item to proceed. If you get turned around, pause for a hint explaining your goal. It is so easy to miss clues or information needed to solve puzzles. So if you’re like me, it’s easy to become a bit frustrated – but a few deep breaths and a fresh look around will often reveal what was overlooked.

There are a few technical details worth mentioning. First, the game auto saves often, so it is easy to play for a few minutes, put it down, and return later on. Second, it supports MFi controllers, which I never felt the need to use as the on-screen controls are quite good, especially on phone screens. I can understand why, on a tablet, the controller would come in handy, as the touch points become quite spread apart. Third, I’ve run the game on both the lowest recommended devices (and iPhone 7 and an iPad Air 2), and in both instances it runs perfectly smoothly. There is zero lag and quick load times.

Unlike Home, which is entirely reliant on 2D pixel graphics, Worse Than Death features high-res comic-style panels to help advance the narrative. Something I love about the game is that all the high-res artwork was drawn by hand on the iPad Pro; it’s a real testament to the tablet’s versatility. The artwork is extremely polished, and I can only imagine the amount of screen time needed to perfect every line.

Worse Than Death is not a very long game: it should take about 3.5-4 hours to finish it. The length is perfect, as anything longer would become bloated with gameplay instead of retaining focus on the narrative. It is a bit difficult at times, especially for me because I am admittedly far too impatient to do stealth well. The good news: difficulty modes will be added in an update later this summer. I look forward to using an easier mode for my replays.

Regardless of my personal struggles with stealth gameplay, Worse Than Death is an incredible experience of love, life, and the past that haunts Holly. She’s the type of heroine you cheer for whenever she succeeds, and that you truly feel bad for when something goes wrong. The simple gameplay enhances the narrative by not overpowering it, and the use of auditory cues really is amazing. Simply put, Worse Than Death more than lives up to my expectations for it, and I already look forward to my next playthrough.

Minit is an adventure game that has you playing in one minute chunks as the name suggests. It has an all-star cast backing it when it comes to development, music, art, and even publisher and the polish shows when it comes to the actual game. Minit feels like an indie take on old school Legend of Zelda games with a unique mechanic that actually elevates the experience. There are loads of great games that are influenced by the Legend of Zelda games but it is always great when a new mechanic is brought into the fray where the end result feels more like a cohesive new game than one borrowing from an older game.

As the name suggests, Minit is experienced in bursts of a single minute of gameplay. As you explore, you will find new items and new areas. The items remain in your inventory to help you make more progress in a new run. This isn’t procedurally generated but the one minute time limit ensures you spend a lot of time replaying it and exploring different areas with newly unlocked weapons. Early on, you get a cursed sword that puts the “one minute to death" curse on you. You can use this to damage enemies and that rewards you with an item in a certain location. This item lets you move certain objects which lets you reach more areas and unlock more items. That is the basic flow of the game. You keep exploring and unlocking more items to reach more areas and have an idea of what is actually going on and what you need to do in the game. There are various sign posts scattered all over with hints and some great writing.

Minit is a completely monochrome game. It has very simple character models and spritework but it feels great in motion and looks very nice. I have a soft spot for visuals like this ever since I got addicted to playing Downwell. My favourite part of the visuals is exploring and finding an area that’s completely unexpected or one that looks amazing. The lighthouse you find right in the beginning with the specific NPC near it are great. Without getting into spoilers, some encounters later on have excellent animations for encounters.

I’ve written about Minit before when it was announced for iOS and I will not stop praising the music. Jukio Kallio’s score is fantastic. The sound design complements it very well with subtle and nicely thought out sound effects. I love how the music you hear will slowly change as you unlock more and have explored more of the game.

When it comes to controls, Minit is very simple to control. You have an analog button for movement and one for using your sword or anything you unlock later that has an active input. It plays more or less fine but it is a bit annoying to get used to sword attack direction while moving. That aspect plays better on a controller. With touch, I found myself hitting in the wrong direction a few times. Minit has MFi controller support but it isn’t implemented well. The on screen buttons remain visible when I connected my Nimbus and if I turned the on screen button display off in the game settings, the controller inputs were not getting recognized. Hopefully this is addressed in updates soon.

My only real complaints with this port are the controller implementation and one aspect of the touch screen controls. Once you get used to the directional movement with attack direction, Minit will be a dream to play on iPhone. One thing to note is the length will vary depending on how quickly you understand the puzzles and how to progress. Expect to have seen everything the game has to offer in about 3 hours. Minit is a premium port with no in app purchases.

Minit is a game perfectly suited to mobile platforms and portables in general with its literal minute long gameplay segments. You can always get in a run or two while waiting for someone in a cafe or on the bus. While I am disappointed with the lack of full controller support and how some aspects have not transitioned well to touch controls, Minit is still a must play title. It is such a brilliant concept that takes a gameplay style that works well but keeps things super fresh at all times. If you’ve not played Minit on any other platform yet, the iOS version is absolutely worth the asking price. Do yourself a favour and get the soundtrack as well.

Now, three days later, I’ve jumped all the jumps, collected all the collectables, and dodged all the hazards. Yet I am left with a question: What is it that is so elegant, so exquisitely tuned that it captured Apple’s attention? Was it, perhaps, the delightful feedback when pulling back to jump, or the tactile bump on first launch? Or maybe the smooth gameplay, seamless animations, and forgiving difficulty? Perhaps it was a mixture of it all, or something else entirely—who can say? Regardless, there is something to be said for a short game with nearly flawless components.

Ordia is a visually impressive game. Using three distinct colour palettes it crafts a delectably minimalist experience across three detailed “worlds”, each with its own atmosphere and style. Even on the scale of a single level, an effort has been made to liven up the background, and it shows. There’s always a bush, a waterfall, or some other touch that adds a certain flair to levels that would otherwise be lacking. The overall effect is wonderful, and it’s hard to find anything that deserves criticism, save (and I’m really stretching here) maybe walls in worlds one and two could use a little more… style. As it stands, they are little more than bland mono-colour boundary lines.

More than just a pretty decoration, though, colour is used to differentiate between hazard, hang point, and other useful or interesting objects. Take, for instance, the colour teal. The blob of primordial goop we fling is teal, and hang points are teal. That’s it. Whenever this colour is used, it means that surface or point is safe and can be stuck to, or on, and jumped from. Pink, on the other hand, always denotes a hazard––touch it and you’ll collapse into composite materials like the loosely grouped ooze you are. Yellow, though, is a bit of a rule breaker. Rather than a single use, it covers just about everything teal and pink don’t: Springboards, tasty morsels, and floating jump points. Whenever yellow is used, you know it’s different.

Despite what the rather tame art style would imply, Ordia isn’t precisely a relaxing game. Don’t get me wrong, the moment to moment pace is prettylaid back, and outside of time trials there’s no pressing need to rush to the end. There’s plenty of time to line up the shot, breathe, and double check before leaping from one brief point of security to the certain safety of another point, between which dwells an angry group of angry pink plants. Until, rather suddenly, it is no longer quite as easy as it once was, and you’re left desperately aiming, leaping, and trying oh so very hard to avoid the spikes on the walls, the red blob chasing you, the terribly hungry worms in the walls, or some other dastardly hazard. They are all found in the most inconvenient of places, and they all want nothing more than to ruin your day––and they’re quite good at it, too.

Fortunately, all those complications are introduced slowly, and it is not much trouble at all to adjust and keep pace. Right from the start, however, is something of an extra bonus for the entrepreneurial and completionist spirits: Each level contains ten yellow, absolutely delicious morsels for our dear leaping slime. They can be found behind false walls, by bouncing off yellow seed-like plants, or, sometimes, in plain view. Getting them usually requires some fancy fingerwork, or waiting just a little longer than comfortable before flying away to safety. A few, though need no more than a carefully aimed leap. Really, it just depends on the level and, to some extent, the world.

Despite the picture I’ve painted so far, though, not all of Ordia is perfect. While it is certainly hard to find flaws, they are there––the most notable of which is the level design. Every game has a certain amount of level design, and it could be argued that it is the single most important part of the experience. Unfortunately, it seems that some parts, some hazard sequences, are used multiple times between levels. Nothing so blatant as recycling whole levels, of course, but… nevertheless, it is noticeable. Perhaps it was done to keep the overall difficulty curve smooth, or to extend an otherwise too short level. Or, maybe, it was simply an oversight. It’s impossible to say for sure, though, and any theories as to why is nothing more than speculation. Besides which, it is a small complaint, and a small blemish on an otherwise spectacular game.

Additionally, and while I wouldn’t consider it to be a flaw per se, Ordia is a rather short game, clocking in at a mere 39 levels in all (including the bonus time trials). That’s, say, about three days worth of game, or less if you really want to push it. Bumping that up a bit, though, are two additional modes for each of the thirty base levels: Time trial, and hard mode. In time trial, players are given a time to beat and must complete the level. Quite often the given time is very generous, and fifteen, twenty, even thirty or more seconds can be trimmed off. Hard mode, however, is a different beast. It removes all checkpoints, and hazards are more difficult. What does that mean practically speaking? Well, if you die you have to start over. While I haven’t noticed a difference with the basic pink spikes, the rotating buzzsaw creatures are faster and worms are more aggressive. In short, all hazards are faster, or give you less time to traverse them in some other fashion.

All in all, Ordia is a hell of a game. It’s absolutely gorgeous, the animations are buttery smooth, and the sound effects and haptic feedback are incredibly satisfying. So satisfying, in fact, that if you aren’t actively paying attention, you don’t even notice them. It sounds counterintuitive, but you don’t want your sound effects to shout too loudly or they’ll become distracting. Apple was right––it’s a great game, and well worth the time invested. Everyone, but particularly one-handed gamers, fans of finger-flinging fun, connoisseurs of minimalism, or folks looking for a solid offline portrait game, should give it a shot. Unless an inflatable pink hazard or pushy choral chimes are involved, you can’t go wrong.

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The basics aren’t hard to grasp thanks to the tutorial. Every level starts with the goal of killing as many humans as possible before you run out of zombies, which is easier than you might think because every member of your undead horde is only around for a limited time before they fall apart — the kind of logic that a ton of victims would have liked to have seen in horror movies. You start the downfall of each region by tapping and infecting one poor soul with the zombie virus, after which he or she does the expected thing and goes around trying to eat the brains of others. Part of the fun early on is watching the behavior and dialogue of the humans, as they seem to know they’re in danger but don’t exactly grasp the severity of the situation. Each level ends when either all the humans or zombies are dead. Er, dead again, I guess, in the case of the latter.

Infectonator 3 isn’t content to let you sit back and admire your handiwork, which might be how it got classified as an Action game in the App Store. While your original zombie goes to town, you have the chance to add to the chaos by dropping in more zombies, though the supply is limited. You can also tap on doors to open or close them, ensuring people are either available to be eaten or trapped and made to suffer a horrifying fate, depending on the circumstances. If things are looking particularly grim and mankind proves too hardy, you can even resort to items like grenades to kill them directly, which isn’t too elegant but gets the job done in a pinch.

Your skill at using all the zombie-spreading tools gets increasingly tested the further you go, because even though we humans can be pretty dense sometimes, we’ll eventually figure out when something like a full-on zombie apocalypse is going down. The game tracks your effectiveness in terms of both local and global panic levels, so if you dilly dally too long in destroying certain areas of civilization, the panic level will mean police and even the military catching on to what you’re doing. In terms of the long game, you’ll start to realize when you might be up against it when you start a level and the plain old defenseless civilians are outnumbered by gun-toting protectors, which ratchets up the difficulty immensely if you don’t carefully plan where on the globe you’re attacking and win more often than you lose. The nations of the world will also start searching for a cure to the zombie virus, much more effectively than in, say, The Walking Dead. Throw in the tricky but humorous boss battles and there’s plenty to tax both your reflexes and your wits.

So what’s a lord of the undead to do to make sure you keep up with the still living Joneses? Hit the lab, of course, to cook up special zombies with all kinds of nifty properties. Once unlocked, special zombies can be crafted from lesser walkers, which in turn can be leveled up in stats like speed (’cause you really need those World War Z-style sprinters on your side), lifespan, damage resistance, infection chance, and more. By carefully spending your coins on improvements and support items and researching more special zombie formulas by combining DNA fragments you acquire, you just might have a fighting chance to overrun the entire globe.

While the challenge involved is serious, the tone is anything but. The combination of Infectonator 3‘s mildly pixelated, intentionally retro visuals and a nonstop barrage of puns and jokes puts the game’s tongue firmly in its cheek, even set against the backdrop of the potential end of all that exists. There are several special zombies who are on the nose (but no less funny for it) parodies of other monsters from pop culture, send-ups of politicians and musicians, and basically is played for laughs that can be. Even the newscasters who pop up in-between levels are unintentionally in on the fun, and you’d have to be pretty self-serious not to smile at least a few times while playing.

The only real obstacle to my enjoyment of every minute I spent trying to destroy the world was some touch-related issues in both the map and game screens. There were occasional times where I found it difficult to select a certain nation or region, especially some that were geographically smaller. Selecting the wrong one means you have to tap the back arrow to go out and pick again, leading to some momentary frustrations. During levels, there were also moments when I swore I’d tapped to place something and it didn’t happen, and would have to select a zombie or item again to drop it in. There’s also an instinctive feeling that you want to be able to drag the map around, which only led to me sliding the app out of the active window altogether. None of these things came close to ruining my overall love for the experience, but when you see the score fall half a star short of perfect, that’s why.

Then again, almost perfect ain’t that shabby. There’s a very good chance you’re not looking for another zombie game for your phone or tablet, now or perhaps ever. But Infectonator 3: Apocalypse is good enough for you to cast aside your many preconceived notions and give it a shot, because trying to end humanity is actually a lot more fun than you might think.

As of this writing, Rome: Total War (which is the main game) is playable on both iPhone and iPad devices while only one of the two expansions is universal. Barbarian Invasion got updated for free to add iPhone support but Alexander is still iPad only. It will likely be updated at some point in the future making the whole collection playable on both iPhone and iPad. Unlike Tropico, the Rome: Total War Collection is playable across older iPads as well if you’re still rocking an iPad Air 2 like I am.

Rome: Total War is a dream come true for any fan of the Roman time period with its superlative campaign and addictive core gameplay. Combining real time strategy with turn based gameplay is something most never thought was possible, but Creative Assembly nailed it. In terms of quality, Barbarian Invasion approaches the quality of the main game and is pretty damn amazing, but Alexander wasn’t as interesting or fun overall. It happens to be the second expansion for the game and while it isn’t as good as the main game or the first expansion, it is still worth playing if you find yourself wanting more Total War.

In Rome: Total War, you can play through the Imperial Campaign which has you attempt to take over Rome as one of many factions. While you initially can only select from a few, the developers have allowed for an unlock cheat letting you play through with any faction without having to defeat them in the main campaign. There are more options to tweak how the campaign can play out with gameplay style, length, and more. This release offers a ton of options across the board for players and it is great to see it. If you don’t want to try the main campaign, you get to experience many historical battles like the Siege of Sparta. Barring the story-focussed portions, you also have the ability to jump into a quick or custom battle with a few options. Barbarian Invasion and Alexander have the same modes but Alexander adds the Battle Tournament mode letting you take part in a series of battles for Alexander’s career.

There was a time when I never thought certain strategy or simulation games would be playable outside PCs with keyboard and mouse controls but seeing many CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Divinity: Original Sin come to consoles and mobile changed my mind. Playing through both Rome: Total War and Total War: Three Kingdoms at the same time was also quite the experience because one is their newest historic title while the other is a port of what is not only one the oldest but also what most consider the best Total War game. A lot of the core gameplay outside the menus you deal with relies on dragging to direct and different kinds of taps. Drawing paths plays a very important role here as you draw paths to select and direct various units. Camera controls are super responsive as well and you can even directly focus on specific units quickly through the bar at the bottom with units displayed. I love how you can tweak the information and help displayed to either show you everything and help you a ton or recede into the background so you can focus only on the action when possible.

Visually, this collection is a mixed bag that mostly gets everything right. These games are over a decade old on PC and there is only so much you can do without trying a full blown remake. During gameplay, most things look crisp and the game runs fine but cutscenes definitely remind you that this is a game that released a long time ago. The interface is very nicely done and looks great. There are some assets that look blurry but most things have cleaned up very well on modern screens. The map in particular looks way better than I expected it to given footage of the PC original.

I put a lot of value into a great game soundtrack and having been recommended Jeff van Dyck’s score for Rome and its expansions multiple times, I finally see why this score is considered so great. There is great use of percussion to get your adrenaline pumping in battles with some very nice intro tunes as well.

As with most games of this scale, getting overwhelmed is a big issue. If you’ve never played a Total War game before, you likely might find yourself lost initially, and while the game does a good job of teaching you and helping you get your bearings it might take longer to get comfortable. I know a few people who give up and never come back to strategy games like this, but the ones who do end up adoring the games. Barring that which affects all the games, I only ran into a few issues with certain cutscenes stuttering but the gameplay was excellent across the board even on my old iPad Air 2. One aspect that will definitely turn off some is the visuals that are very dated by today’s standards.

Overall, Feral Interactive have done a great job in bringing a true PC classic game to modern iOS devices. Just like with Tropico, it is hard to play the original release with how great the new control options and user interface is on iOS. Another parallel to draw to that game is how it is better suited to iPad. It is awesome seeing a complex game like this translate well to iPhone screen sizes but you’re missing out by not experiencing the modern control options without a larger screen here. If you aren’t sure if the whole set is worth it for you as someone unfamiliar with the genre, give the original a go before buying the expansions. Rome: Total War is beyond worth the asking price on its own and is a fantastic introduction to Creative Assembly’s excellent series. If you’ve played it earlier on PC and are wondering how the game translates to iOS, the collection is a no brainer purchase. This is exactly the kind of game I want to see more of on iOS. Thinking of this release as just a port is a disservice to how much it has been improved visually and functionally for touchscreens.

While the art is a bit plain, don’t let that fool you! What Solar Settlers lacks in visual flair it more than makes up for with a variety of cards and a different experience each game; nevermind the strategy behind actually winning. Unfortunately, such strategy seems to be hidden for a disappointingly long time despite the inclusion of optional placement matches. This is likely due to the ranking system, which is intended to provide enjoyable matches and replayability alike by matching skill with challenge. For quite a while, though, this did not work for me.

Actually sitting and playing Solar Settlers is quite fun. A single match can range from a five minute brain tease to a twenty minute exercise in mental gymnastics—although the latter is admittedly far more common after unlocking expert difficulty. In normal mode, matches tend to require minimal strategic thought, instead presenting something that could be considered a puzzle. What do I mean by that? See, in normal you tend to have an abundance of resources—an abundance of hydrogen, of oxygen, of ore, and of cards. As such, it’s less a matter of planning this turn, next turn, and maybe a turn or two after so much as looking at your hand and the board—the colonists, and the planets you have discovered—to work out how make the most out of what you have and, ideally, win.

Expert, on the other hand, unlocks at level ten and offers a grueling experience that requires much more planning and a better strategy than “Let’s throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.” To achieve this radical shift, two changes are made: Settled colonists generate oxygen on turn, and exposed colonists require twice the oxygen to survive. That’s it. Those two changes turn oxygen from a minor annoyance into something that seriously limits growth, requiring constant maintenance and a decent plan of action. Ranks are not carried over between expert and normal, and for good reason—they are simply not applicable to each other. Thankfully, expert mode is a toggle that can be switched freely between matches in the options menu, not a permanent change.

Digging into the actual meat, gameplay revolves around settling colonists into their permanent homes throughout a new solar system. Sounds pretty simple, right? Aside from being millions of miles away in a little metal tube, the necessity of having to harvest materials to build habitats, the hydrogen to move, and enough oxygen to not suffocate, it is! It’s also quite relaxing. There’s one more layer, though: Cards. Cards are not drawn at the beginning of each turn, they are produced by a variety of planet upgrades (and a home world, or starting planet, but that’s neither here nor there), earned from goals, or simply received by salvaging other cards. But, however they are gained, they are always used by either playing to a tile on the board for a variety of benefits, or by tapping and holding to dismantle into a material, oxygen, hydrogen, a new colonist, or another card.

While some cards can be played immediately on some or any planet or tile, others require resources—usually ore, but sometimes oxygen or hydrogen instead. These resources are not simply delivered, however. No, they must be earned by the hard work and occasional death of your settlers. They can be gathered from a variety of planet tiles, but those planets must first be discovered—you can’t mine ore from a water world, nor can you gather oxygen from a gas giant or hydrogen from a jungle planet, and you probably won’t have everything you need immediately. Each planet has two resource tiers which offer different benefits for harvesting. A rock world, for example, typically yields one ore and one hydrogen when harvested with a single colonist on the tile, and two ore and one hydrogen when there are two or more.

Mixing the proper amount of exploration and resources, especially card draw, is essential to establishing a stable colony. During my play, particularly on expert, I found that although oxygen was a definite priority, the real difficulty was in finding the cards I needed. While space stations, artificial worlds, and planet upgrades are certainly helpful, Solar Settlers is a game about settling colonists. Turning productive colonists into happy, settled, colonists is quite a tall order without habitats, though, and that requires a bit of luck. As such, it is important to pay attention to the current goal, collect the occasional card draw, and hope to discover free hab units to make up for bad luck.

We’ve come so far and I haven’t even touched on the different races yet! While the basic gameplay is the same (all races need oxygen, hydrogen, ore, and a place to live), there are subtle differences in how those needs are met. For example, humans (the basic race) tend to have production-focused homeworlds: Produce a card, some oxygen, a colonist, a this or that or the other. Formids, on the other hand, reward planet upgrades, and others reward exploration or other focuses. Each race plays just a little bit differently than the others, and has a variety of specialised cards unique to it that benefit from their gimmick. While it is not necessary to unlock, play, and master every race… what’s the fun in ignoring the options? Variety adds spice!

In terms of flaws, there aren’t very many. There’s the normal difficulty, sure, but I half wonder if that wouldn’t be solved by just playing more, and there’s always expert mode for a challenge anyway. Outside of that, the artwork, while not bad, is not something that could be considered a masterpiece. Fortunately, it is only really prominent in the main menu, although it isn’t easy to ignore. Moreover, this isn’t a game you want to sit and play three, four, five matches at a time. It gets a bit repetitive, and the replayable veneer starts to wear thin. It can be done, but it’s better enjoyed with breaks between games.

In sum, Solar Settlers offers diverse card sets for a variety of races to colonise new solar systems. While this requires careful thought and strategy in expert mode, it tends to be rather easy outside of it, despite its ranking system. While I enjoyed playing the game as a whole, I found the best experience was in choosing a random race and playing on expert, although that resulted in quite a few losses. While it does have flaws, they are few and easily overlooked. Solar Settlers is an easy recommendation, and one I make whole-heartedly.

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