If you think about it, most mobile games are “tap-to-win” types where you simply tap to spawn your troops.
How often do you see new game strategies in the mobile market? If you think about it, most mobile games are “tap-to-win” types where you simply tap to spawn your troops. Or, they are ones where you need to collect or pay for some kind of “collectables” in order to win.
There are very few old style, real-time strategy mobile games. These kinds of games allow you to build your base, collect resources, spawn ships, and think about tactics when attacking your enemies.
The lack of these types of mobile strategy games bothered Yelaex Games’s development team, and so they decided to break down this injustice. Today, we will look at their game, “Rome 2077: Space Strategy.”
Phase 1
At the beginning of the development process, the development team already had a world created with stories, fractions and confrontations. You may have seen this in their previous game, “Rome 2077: Space Wars.” They took that world as a fundament for their new RTS game, “Rome 2077: Space Strategy.”
Strategy Resources
With this new game, they added a lot of new ships: almost 100. Now there is a base, or MotherShip, that can spawn other space ships and handle resources. There are also two types of resources: Star Dust and Crew.
Star Dust is a main resource, spice analog from Dune, for example. In order to collect it, you need your harvesters to move to Star Dust sources in space and then unload it to MotherShips.
And each ship needs Crew. To gather this type of resource, you need to capture planets and move their Crew Academies and Crew Academies Terminals. Academy will train your crew members on captured planets, while Terminal is responsible for its fast delivery to MotherShip.
Mission & Gameplay
The campaign starts in 2077 when Republicans (first game fraction) was pushed out from main Live Space sectors to sector Delta by Alliance (secode game fraction). In your first mission, you will command Alliance forces and make a last hit by Republicans by destroying their last base in sector Alpha.
Controls are pretty simple (as it can be for RTS on mobile): tap on the unit to select it; drag to select multiple units; tap to move or attack. From the first frames, you will see that all ships have their own weapons. All weapons are divided by three categories: Energy (all blasters), Full metal (chainguns, miniguns, rocket launchers, etc.) and Ray (all rays like lasers, electric ray, etc.). Each ship has its own shields for each of those weapon categories. This means that there are no one strong tactics: “spawn the most powerful ships and attack”. No, you must have your squads staffed with a variety of ships to be able to survive. From this point you need to think about your tactics: what branch of your technology you will learn, or maybe upgrade, and what ships to spawn?
For now, the game consists of three campaign chapters with almost 20 full story driven missions and full single player (offline mode) Skirmish mode.
Maya Johnson is the Senior Editor at Appolicious. She reviews amazing products, software, and pretty much any applications that readers can get real value from.
The new year’s still only just begun, and we’ve already got one of the best stealth games this year. Just be mindful of the challenge ahead.
We don’t get a lot of really great stealth games on mobile. The level of precision most standard stealth games require is pretty hard to replicate without going through some serious hoops. However, we do have an exceptionally abundant amount of puzzle games. That’s where Maruta Escape comes in.
Maruta Escape is as much a puzzle game as it is a stealth encounter.
Maruta Escape is as much a puzzle game as it is a stealth encounter. In fact, it’s probably the best hybrid of Portal and Metal Gear Solid I’ve ever experienced. Through clever use of time manipulation, multiple viable control schemes, and a clear, crisp presentation, it’s hard to not fall in love.
if you want a hardcore stealth experience on the go, Maruta Escape is one of 2019's very best.
It’s a deceptively simple gameplay loop. You have to stand in the sphere of objects to activate or deactivate them, avoiding patrols while escaping an illicit research facility. You slowly unlock the ability to not only rewind time, but your own movements in time. Through these powers, you find a means to escape the laboratory of a deluded madman, whose audio logs you find along the way.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Normally this is the part where I’d explain what’s wrong with Maruta Escape, but really, my only complaint is that it is a HARD game at points. The free trial available on iOS only has the first few stages, but should be more than adequate a test to see if you’re up for the challenge Maruta Escape offers. It’s not unfair, but those expecting a casual experience will be disappointed; Maruta Escape plays for keeps.
Really, my only complaint is that it is a HARD game at points
You will get a marvelous stealth game out of this experience, with beautiful sound design and equally wonderful minimalist visuals. This is a top-tier game, but it will test your wits and reflexes equally. If you’re looking for something puzzling that’s a bit more relaxed, there are gentler options. That said, if you want a hardcore stealth experience on the go, Maruta Escape is one of 2019’s very best.
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
Learn the page, and tile, turning story behind iTunes’ latest hit game Roterra.
Roterra is the hot new fantasy tile-turning game on iTunes, and we had the pleasure to sit down with project lead Suzi Keehn of Dig-IT! Games to dig into all the wondrous details. We’re also happy to present it as the first of our new video interviews! Just click on the video below, watch some beautiful gameplay of Roterra in motion, and learn the story behind this brilliant puzzler:
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
Command & Conquer: Rivals is an another MMO strategy game along the likes of Clash of Clans and Tribal Wars that uses Command and Conquer motifs to hook you in.
Command & Conquer: Rivals is another MMO strategy game among the likes of Clash of Clans and Tribal Wars that uses Command & Conquer motifs to hook you in. The Command & Conquer series has a place in every modern gamers’ childhood – with a rich, yet excessively silly, storyline and surprisingly high stakes plotlines, all meshed together with intricate unit balance and gameplay, Command & Conquer is just one of those series that remains beloved for years.
Sadly, the games got steadily worse until they stopped altogether. That is, until Command & Conquer: Rivals. Rivals is a PvP MMO, wherein you build units in small, focused 1 on 1 battles against enemy players. You gather money using Tiberium miners so as to fuel your war machine, recruiting units with various strengths and weaknesses against ground infantry, tanks, planes or otherwise strangely eclectic units, all trying to balance out a meaningful battle over the key objective.
You gather money using Tiberium miners so as to fuel your war machine, recruiting units with various strengths and weaknesses against ground infantry, tanks, planes or otherwise strangely eclectic units, all trying to balance out a meaningful battle over the key objective.
Each battle focuses on the control of three silo points, each with three slots to hold your units – you need to fight it out for control of these points, so as to build progress towards a nuke and devastate the enemy base. At the start of the game, each base can only take two nuke shots, but as you level up, your base can be given increased amounts of health so as to require actual combat against the base to win. The key system that allows for these level ups is a combination of gold, which you get for completing bounties and battles, and cards. These cards are randomly assigned to units you already have unlocked, allowing you to upgrade your units – once you get enough cards to progress to the next level; you just need to invest enough gold into them to be able to level them up, increasing their health and their damage.
As you work your way through the game, you’ll unlock new units and even new factions, allowing you a huge amount of control over what you want to bring to each fight. As every battle has a limited roster, you can only select a small number of your available units to fight, meaning you need to balance out low cost and versatility with high damage and long term investment. There is a surprisingly large quantity of different units available, as well as level up features included, that make Command & Conquer: Rivals an intricately deep, complex game. It almost feels like Hearthstone in its deck building system, but manages to turn it on its head to create a viable strategy game out of so many composite parts.
It almost feels like Hearthstone in its deck building system, but manages to turn it on its head and create a viable strategy game out of so many composite parts.
Command & Conquer: Rivals is not what you would expect from a mobile port of the Command & Conquer series, but it is surprisingly enjoyable, replete with strategic decisions, loss and magnificent success.
Our Rating
Pros
Cons
Actively addictive, despite endless deaths. You have an endless ability to draw more and interesting shapes, despite everyone trying to murder you.
Enemy players essentially play this game as a full time job.
Card games are all the rage today, so we sat down with Jesse Decker, Senior Game Designer at Rhino Games, to dig into his team’s Norse mythology-infused card game, Mythgard.
Appolicious: What inspired Mythgard? What drew your team to create a multiplayer card dueler?
Jesse Decker: Magic[: the Gathering], the game that started the CCG genre, was a massive inspiration. It’s a game we’ve played and admired for decades. For all its greatness, however, Magic wasn’t built from the ground up with a digital experience in mind. Many of its rules that work well when playing face to face become a drag on the digital game.
A great example is the Instant card type. In the paper game, you can just ask your opponent to hold on a second to give you a chance to play your spell. But in the digital game, this translates into timers and prompts that have to run after every action in the game, sometimes many timers back to back. It’s just an awkward experience.
Hearthstone is obviously another massive influence since it’s the game that really proved that digital CCGs can have success. Hearthstone and the CCGs that have come out since have much more streamlined rulesets to appeal to a very broad audience. We felt like Hearthstone, for all its charm, doesn’t achieve the depth of Mt:G nor does it hold itself to the early promise that a card can break or modify any rule in the game. So there’s a space there. In a genre defined by these two great games, there’s room for quality and innovation.
Appolicious: Why do you feel digital CCG games are experiencing such a resurgence in the past few years?
JD: There are some great games in the genre, but also a lot of untapped potential. Magic and Hearthstone are the behemoths, and both are great games in their own right. But there’s a lot of space left for games to explore different designs and include features that those games don’t offer. For example, Mythgard offers a 2v2 mode and a very different world and story, and those are just two quick examples of features we’ve been able to build. The upcoming tournament mode has a lot of promise too: players will be able to host and promote their own events within Mythgard.
Appolicious: What sort of work goes into crafting Story and PvE content in a genre typically known for PvP?
JD: We’re proud of Mythgard’s world and story, and often point to it as a way that Mythgard stands out from other CCGs. For a small team like ours, what it mostly requires is resolve. It takes time and effort to do the writing and even more for the art. All of that effort has to be taken from other things. Once you have that resolve, the work is pretty much what you expect: it starts with writing, and the team poured lots of feedback into the writing at the same time that the artists worked out a concept for how we’d approach the art. From there it was iteration; we’d pair the words and art, gather around and give feedback on each section, and then repeat. For example, it took three rewrites and two passes on the art to get the opening sequence where we wanted it.
Mythgard is a strategically deep Collectible Card Game (CCG) that has both deep strategy and quick tactical gameplay. Beginning with an exclusive closed beta…
Appolicious: How did Mythgard‘s Puzzle mode come about?
JD: We always wanted a puzzle mode. We have fond memories of puzzles that were part of the early days of CCGs, and it was just a matter of getting enough other features in place before we could add a puzzle mode. One of the two founders just gave up a weekend to write the code for the puzzle mode, and from there a couple of us added more puzzles. One thing that surprised us is how valuable the puzzles are as teaching tools. The first few puzzles are really just spotlights on how a specific rule or game mechanic works.
Appolicious: What would you say is critical for proper player progression in a digital CCG?
JD: Most players will right away think that progression equals collection growth, at least for a CCG. That’s true to an extent, but there are parallel progression paths for player skill and for the time invested in the game. To have proper player progression in a CCG, you have to address all three. Mythgard’s approach to this is to provide rewards for multiple activities on multiple cadences: you can grow your collection at a decent rate just by playing, and there is a nice array of PvE modes you can play through before jumping into PvP, if that’s your choice.
Appolicious: How did your team go about crafting a user interface that scales across both mobile and PC?
JD: The engineers weren’t available for comment, but Stack Exchange and the Unity forums on their monitors a lot. A lot. One of them claimed that there’s a system to dynamically scale the UI based on an estimation of physical device size instead of just using resolution, but it’s probably just Stack Exchange and Unity forum posts all the way down.
Appolicious: You’ve integrated fully with Discord for matchmaking chat. How did this come about?
JD: We’re a small, self-funded indie team, so a close connection to our community is really important to us. We started our public alpha long before social features and feedback tools could be put into the game, and we needed a way to get feedback, share our progress, and build a community. We tried to reach the small early community using every tool we could, and Discord was the one that worked. It just offers an immediacy and sense of community that gamers want. It’s no surprise that we hear of other indie developers having success with this same tool; it has really helped us build a community that we’re proud of.
Appolicious: What is key to keeping today’s players engaged with a F2P title?
JD: You have to start with a game that’s fun to play. It sounds a little silly to say something so obvious, but there are a lot of games out there, and gamers are coming to your game to be entertained. Once you have that foundation, you have to keep at it to keep your players interested: content and communication are the keys there.
There’s another elephant in the room though: the game’s economy. To make a great F2P title you have to ensure that those who choose to pay are getting a great value for the dollars they put into your product, but you also have to make sure those players who play for free also have a good experience. In CCGs that often comes down to a question on how competitive a free player can be. We’ve tried to strike a balance point where free players can maintain a few truly competitive decks and payers can, with reasonable amounts of purchasing, have every option open to them. We’ve tuned the economy several times based on community feedback, and getting this right is an important part of our Alpha phase going forward.
If you want to give Mythgard a whirl, you can check out the game here.
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
Can you guide your crew to safety? Or are you all prey for the Xenomorph?
Alien: Blackout was a controversial game when announced. Instead of a direct continuation of Alien: Isolation, it presents itself as a mobile spinoff covering one step on Amanda Ripley’s journey home. She’s stuck aboard a Weyland Yutani research station overrun by xenomorphs, and unable to act on her own. Instead, she has to rely upon the four new arrivals answering a distress beacon. Each of your allies has a full story arc and presents an asset to your escape, but they can also be snuffed out just as easily. You see, Alien: Blackout isn’t here to play around – it’s a true Alien simulator.
Alien: Blackout captures the same essence as Until Dawn, gamifying classic horror staples in a way we haven't truly experienced before.
Unlike Isolation, Alien: Blackout relies on abstraction to bring the horror to life. Crammed inside an airduct, you have to guide your new friends via security displays and limited security cameras. Worse still, your battery is on an eight minute timer, and you can’t fully control the systems of any branch of the station. You have to make do with extremely limited resources and feedback, sometimes going off of the survivor’s reactions as the mission proceeds. What’s a relief is that exploring Alien: Blackout to the fullest doesn’t require substantial time investment once you get the hang of it’s controls. Clocking in at around forty-five minutes, the main incentivize is to replay the story and experience different endings, including with everyone surviving at the end.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
In this way, Alien: Blackout captures the same essence as Until Dawn, gamifying classic horror staples in a way we haven’t truly experienced before. There’s elements of Five Nights at Freddy’s, Lost Vikings, and even some elements of Alien: Isolation‘s gameplay, such as hiding in lockers and careful use of the motion sensor. The new format doesn’t take away any tension or challenge, ensuring you’ll have plenty to scream at. This is bolstered by fantastic audio-visual design. From the creepy walk of the xenomorph to Amanda Ripley’s despairing breaths, the geniuses behind The Detail and the Thief of Thieves game are at it again.
My only complaint is that the controls are less than ideal on smaller smart phones. This is a game you want to be playing on a tablet, or if you have luckier results than me, BlueStacks. Above all else though, Alien: Blackout is a breath of fresh air in a marketplace full of freemium games that pile on hours of grinding and mountains of microtransactions. Instead, it’s a reasonably priced, highly polished, focused experience that you absolutely need to have on your phone.
Our Rating
Pros
Cons
A reminder that mobile games can be more than one-touch platformers and match-three puzzlers, Alien: Blackout is the console quality experience mobile gamers deserve.
Steep learning curve, and best played on a tablet rather than phone.
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
Assassin’s Creed Rebellion rises above expectations, offering the player a surprisingly good mix of both strategic decision making and lore-focused story telling.
A mobile port of the critically acclaimed, ever-enduring Assassin’s Creed series might seem… well, destined for failure is perhaps too harsh, but these kinds of games being ported to mobile never do tremendously well. However, Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion does its very best to strive against this expectation, offering the player a surprisingly good mix of both strategic decision making and lore focused storytelling. With a fairly standard plot of Assassin’s Creed – villainous Templars and heroic Assassins competing for power and artifacts – Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion has you building up an Assassin’s base, with new Assassins and resources to recruit and gather along the way, all the while completing missions to fight against the Templars.
Each level requires you to pick three Assassins, choosing them from a variety of different types. Each type of Assassin has different skills, such as being effective at shadow assassinations, plain old combat or trap and weapon disarming.
Each level requires you to pick three Assassins, choosing them from a variety of different types. Each type of Assassin has different skills, such as being effective at shadow assassinations, plain old combat or trap and weapon disarming.
You need to pick the right balance of characters for each mission, as each one will have a unique set of challenges that you have to overcome if you want to get the maximum benefits from finishing the level. The key impetus to complete missions (besides the story itself) is to unlock new and exciting characters using Animus cubes, as well as drop rewards from completing legacy missions. The reward quality and quantity goes up depending on if your characters survive the level. The aesthetic of Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion is decidedly cutesy and animated; however the actual gameplay is anything but.
The aesthetic of Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion is decidedly cutesy and animated; however the actual gameplay is anything but.
You combat a whole host of different enemies, beating them to death in direct combat or by stabbing them in the face through misdirection. Despite the cute graphics, the actual gameplay belies the adorable expectation – you are really just as brutal as in the regular Assassin’s Creed games. You progress through missions, gathering resources to improve your base in a fairly linear fashion, as well as choosing the right recruits to level up, train and bring with you on missions. Assassin’s Creed Rebellion strives to combine this odd mix of strategy decision making with the puzzle aspect familiar to most mobile gamers. What’s really strange is that it actually works.
Despite the immediate expectation, Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion is a game that really ties itself together – the Assassin’s Creed story works well within the confines of a mobile game, providing the player with excellent justification for both its existence, and for your continued playing of the game. The strategy elemnt is fairly straight forward, yet not at all boring. It’s a clear, consistent path forwards, but small deviations through gameplay decisions allow you to make each level your own.
Assassin’s Creed Rebellion is a game that really does tie itself together.
Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion appears a humble offering, but it really does manage to be something else – part board game, part stealth-strategy game, yet completely Assassin’s Creed. Also, completely fun.
Our Rating
Pros
Cons
The strategic decision making is in depth, yet simple. The story of Assassin’s Creed works very well, surprisingly.
The art style somewhat belies the actual gameplay; it is surprisingly brutal.
We dive into the twisted inner-workings of Alien: Blackout’s horror with the project’s lead writer JD Sorvari on how to craft a horror game where any character can die.
Appolicious: How did Alien: Blackout come into being? What gave birth to such an ambitious pitch as a AAA-quality mobile Alien game?
JD Sorvari: It was a fruitful collision of ideas between developer, publisher and IP holder. Each one had been considering different parts of the equation, which then came together in what is now Alien: Blackout.
Appolicious: Please, describe your role(s) on the project and what that entails.
JD: As the lead writer, I wrote more or less everything for the game, from the background and plot to the characters and dialogue. Of course I had some help from the other narratively inclined members of Rival Games and Theory Interactive as well. Also, I was involved in creating the original pitch and was a part of that whole process.
Appolicious: What’s the secret to maintaining tension and atmosphere in a mobile?
JD: We got a great boost from our combination of music and audio effects, which I feel really drive home the atmosphere. The fact that you know the Alien is always present, but you can’t see it, is nerve-wracking and creates general tension the entire time. The constant management of multiple crew members and also not being able to see where they are at through a camera at all times is really unsettling. Also blips… you come to know the sound of them and when you hear one, your heart jumps and you know you have to scramble to avoid the Xenomorph!
Can you survive? Alien: Blackout is a single-player game that will test your survival skills and see just how well you would fare against your own Xenomorph …
Appolicious: The decision to let crew members die was a bold one. How did you go about balancing that, and accommodating characters being potentially dead during the story?
JD: From a story point of view, it just took a bit of preliminary planning. All the dialogue was written so that different people could interject at different points, depending on who was still breathing, and separate dialogue was written for “last crew member standing” situations. None of the characters were created as “expendable”, as I wanted the players to be able to pick their own favorites from the crew. The real balancing work had to be done in level design though.
Appolicious: What is it about Amanda Ripley that you think resonates so much with fans of the Alien franchise?
JD: She carries on the same spirit that Ellen Ripley has. She can be strong, but she doesn’t have to resort to traditionally macho posturing to do it. She can also be vulnerable, and she displays a humanity that is sometimes neglected especially in video game characters.
Appolicious: What’s your personal favorite aspect and/or moment from Alien: Blackout?
JD: I just love how right it feels. I’ve been a fan of Alien for decades, and just looking at the level map with the dots moving around gives me chills and makes me smile at the same time.
Be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming review of Alien: Blackout.
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
It takes considerable effort to botch a management strategy game on mobile, but Cheerdealers finds a way with Distrust, one of the worst mobile ports in a while.
This was supposed to be a review of Distrust, the well received strategy-survival indie spiritual successor to James Cameron’s The Thing. It’s a genuinely neat game that melds ideas from the likes of Don’t Starve with a real-time management layer. You guide the last two to three survivors of a helicopter crash to investigate a seemingly abandoned military research base in the arctic and swiftly learn that things are awry. So far, so wonderfully creepy. That is, if you can actually manage to play it proper on your phone. You see, Distrust first came out on PC, and my goodness does it show because there seems to be absolutely no effort made to work with the new platform.
Icons are the size of ants, and often times you won't even know what they do until after pressing them.
Icons are the size of ants, and often times you won’t even know what they do until after pressing them. Distrust‘s free tutorial level certainly helps you get a feel for what all might be experienced, but the game itself seems to expect you’d be able to drag a mouse cursor over every icon to be informed what functions they serve. Also, because every action is so hard to make out, regardless of if you use the zoom function or not, you’ll often find yourself sending commands you never intended. Just swapping between your party can be an utter nightmare of one thinking you’re telling them to cancel their current task while you were just intending to check in on the other while they were doing something.
It's not that the gameplay itself is bad, but this mishandling makes a joke of ever playing this game on mobile.
Now, you might think maybe if you hold down your one finger, a small cursor might appear, or a magnifying glass might make it easier to choose and decide, but you’d be wrong. In fact, the only reasonable way to even move around the map to survey everything is to open the minimap and tap in there to quickly jump wherever you need to be looking. This leads to an extremely tedious experience trying to get your team to execute your plan properly. It’s not that the gameplay itself is bad, but this mishandling makes a joke of ever playing this game on mobile. I never experienced combat, but I have to imagine it plays even worse if basic exploration is any indication.
Worse still, as I said, while there is a free tutorial, the actual meat of the game is locked off. In fact, a lot of it is obfuscated with microtransactions, and while I haven’t played the PC port, you can be pretty certain it’s not nearly this bad on there. I understand the need to monetize your game – developers need to eat too – but the main hook of the game hasn’t even been fully introduced yet. You don’t end your demo before the exciting thing happens; it should end right as things are getting good. Then there’s incentive to put down the few dollars to see more. Combine this abrupt cutoff with the lackluster controls, and I can think of few worse introductions a game could offer to prospective buyers. It feels like this port was handled with little to no research or quality assurance, which shouldn’t be the case given how well it’s been received on PC.
You can't just slap a game on mobile, something developer Cheerdealers needs to understand.
One can only hope Distrust gets its act together in the future, but first impressions are everything. Being free-to-start might net it plenty downloads, but that doesn’t mean half as many players are going to stick around. You can’t just slap a game on mobile, something developer Cheerdealers needs to understand if they intend to make a place for themselves on the appstore.
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
It’s that time again – let’s ring in the new year with the best of 2018! These apps were handpicked by our staff as the best of the best; the pinnacle of their genre that stuck with us long after playing. Whether playing on Android or iOS, you need these installed on your phone and tablet. Without further adieu…
Pako 2
Pako 2 feels like what would happen if you took the very end of every mission of Grand Theft Auto
Pako 2 is the perfect sort of game for every fan of crazy 80’s car chases and chaotic physics games. A melding of everything great about hot pursuits with slick controls leads to what can only be described as truly wonderful madness. It’s got great retro visuals and loads of additional content to unlock, keeping your latest getaway as refreshingly unpredictable as your first. Pako 2‘s breakneck run absolutely worth your time. See our full review here.
Alphabear 2
Words are a powerful thing, especially when they assemble Voltron-like bears to save history. Confused? It’s okay, we all are, but that doesn’t stop Alphabear 2 from being one of the best puzzle games of this year. Going beyond the limits of Scrabble, Alphabear 2 offers wordplay combinations that reward the most astute and swift linguistic aficionados. Whether you want quirky humor or deep puzzles, Alphabear 2 has you covered. See our full review here.
Mouse Bot
MouseBot is one of those games that catches you unassumingly.
Few games were as unexpected as Vector Unit’s Mouse Bot. Who would expect the mobile racing masters would dive into the 3D platforming genre, let alone inject their racing sensibilities into such a quirky new IP. Where many mobile platforming games struggle, Mouse Bot flourishes thanks to a wealth of clever traps to evade, adorable story, and cute as a button graphics that keep you earning cheese for that sweet new robo-mouse skin. A delight for older fans of Crash Bandicoot and young gaming enthusiast alike! See our full review here.
Nishan Shaman
At its surface, Nishan Shaman is a simple musical rhythm game; drum along with the music based on the arrival of the monsters and sit back and relax.
Who expected the year’s best rhythm game to be based on an ancient Chinese myth? Either way you spin it, Nishan Shaman stunned us with its arresting style as we tapped along to the beat, cleansing the world of evil spirits. If your 2018 was a rough year, start off 2019 right to the beat of Nishan Shaman‘s drum. See our full review here.
Infinite West
Infinite West is the turn-based strategy must-have of 2018. Pitch-perfect design, fantastic balancing, a rogue-like structure, slick controls, and endless replayability allow you to live out your cowboy/girl dreams. It’s a simple game, with depth lurking under the surface to always leave you begging for one more run. See our full review here.
See / Saw
See / Saw is everything you could possibly want in a physics-based murder simulator.
Do you have an itch to see tiny geometric test subjects fling themselves through all manner of hilarious, physics based deathtraps? Well, first of all, you should probably join Sam’s Murderous Gamers Anonymous group, and secondly, download See / Saw this instant! While far less gory than the titular franchise referenced in its name, See / Saw is the perfect mix of Super Meat Boy and Portal you’ve been waiting for. With easy controls yet fiendish challenges awaiting, it’s time to tilt your perspective with See / Saw! See our full review here.
Donut County
Like a delicious donut, Donut County's gone so fast that you'll mourn its exit, only to start again.
Donut County is simultaneously one of the most engaging AND relaxing games of 2018. A nominee for the 2018 VGA’s, it stands tall as one of our favorite mobile games of the year thanks to its reverse-Katamari Damacy, town-swallowing shenanigans. Brimming with wondrous scenarios as goofy as they are brain-teasing, it’s hard to not dive back in and replay it as we write this list. It’s more fun than a barrel full of raccoons, and absolutely worth the asking price. See our full review here.
Pavilion
Pavilion is marvelous, and I’d be neglect in my review to delay even a moment to convey this to you.
Few games capture the mysterious beauty of Myst as spectacularly as Pavilion. Presenting players with a 4th-person perspective, nudging the protagonist along through a surrealist landscape, Pavilion is one of the most artistically stunning mobile games of this year. Fans of Monument Valley take note – you will fall in love with Pavilion. Perhaps the most acquired taste of our list this year, but still so enrapturing it’s impossible to pass it up. See our full review here.
Hero Hunters
If you had told me someone was going to create hybrid of Overwatch and Cover Fire, I would’ve called you mad.
For those interested in something less introspective, but just as excellently executed, you’d be hard pressed to find a better mobile shooter than Hero Hunters. Boasting not only slick cover-shooting, but a swath of unique heroes that serve you in both its extensive campaign mode and addictive online multiplayer, Hero Hunters is quite the package. While many a “hero shooter” game has fallen flat in the aim to mimic the subgenre’s best, Hero Hunters rises above to achieve true frenetic, action-packed glory you’ll want to have in your pocket. See our full review here.
Bacon: The Game
Bacon: The Game is perhaps one of the strangest, most freakishly wonderful games to have ever existed.
Yes, a game about bacon released in 2018. Indeed, that game was stupefyingly better than it has any right to be. To describe it is like solving a riddle, as it contains hidden depths amid one of the simplest mechanics in games – the mere act of flipping a piece of bacon. It’s free, it’s amazing, you’ll put bacon on everything, and you’ll be laughing along with us soon enough. See our full review here.
Game of the Year: Card Thief
Card Thief is your new gaming addiction, melding deep stealth tactics with accessible card play.
To be the best mobile game of the year, an app must be accessible yet deep, vividly detailed and engrossing, content filled but not requiring more time than a three minute bus trip to get the full experience. Card Thief encapsulates all of these ideals, evoking the core tenets of Thief and its stealth contemporaries, all in the span of a deck of cards. Easily one of the most refined, replayable, and downright amazing games of this year on any platform, earning a 10 out of 10 from Elijah (a rarity, to be sure), we are proud to name Card Thief as our Game of the Year!See our full review here.
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
Kingdom Rush Vengeance is the latest sequel to the Kingdom Rush series, all about holding back waves of enemies.
Kingdom Rush Vengeance is an interesting twist on the standard Kingdom Rush experience – true, you’re still basically doing the same thing, defending chokepoints as enemies rush in from determined entrances and try to kill you, but this time it’s different: you’re the bad guy!
In Kingdom Rush Vengeance you play the villain of the previous game, come back for… reasons unknown, determined to reconquer your terrible empire and wreck havoc upon the world.
Kingdom Rush Vengeance is the latest sequel to the Kingdom Rush series, all about holding back waves of enemies: https://appolicious.com/kingdom-rush-vengean…
In place of the standard archer tower, mage tower, soldier barracks and cannon… thing, you have dark and evil twists on each of those buildings.
The stats are basically the same entirely but… it’s dark! And Evil!
This skin changing forms some of the problem behind Kingdom Rush Vengeance, because it is, functionally, the same thing as the previous games.
Your archer tower is… still an archer tower, even though they’re called “Shadow Blades” or what have you.
The only real functional combat differences is that their upgrades (which are the special powers they gain when they level up to the highest level through spending gold) are different, essentially making the towers at your disposal little more than thematic alternatives with different skins and abilities.
Functionally speaking, this is just Kingdom Rush with a mod pack.
Functionally speaking, this is just Kingdom Rush with a mod pack.
However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; people like Kingdom Rush! The expression ‘don’t reinvent the wheel’ exists for a reason – some things are just good.
Kingdom Rush Vengeance brings the same enjoyable gameplay, the same frustration in suddenly having one of those damn enemies slip through your net and make it to the finish line with you unawares.
The primary difference in gameplay is the inclusion of sudden surprises. That’s not the name of the gameplay feature, but it’s the only way to explain it.
After a few levels, maps will feature a few unique terrain features that might look innocuous to begin with, but are actually horrible and game ending.
For example, a map with chokepoints and a logical defensive location might suddenly be ruined because dwarfs arrive on a broken mine cart track and invade you in the back, ruining your whole defensive formation, forcing you to reload.
These surprises are fun to an extent, allowing you to play reactively, but because of the gold system that relies upon defeating enemies to obtain more currency, you can’t really defend yourself.
In other words, these levels are essentially guaranteed failures the first time around, forcing you to repeat the level.
In other words, these levels are essentially guaranteed failures the first time around, forcing you to repeat the level.
Kingdom Rush Vengeance is the same as the previous games, only with a few cosmetic and thematic twists; it’s the same fun, tower defence gameplay, modeled to perfection.
However, it has with it a few new frustrating features and a whole host of irritating changes.
Kingdom Rush Vengeance is good fun, but it can also be terribly annoying.
Our Rating
Pros
Cons
The same great King Rush gameplay brought back again. New skins and abilities for the evil version.
There are simply way too many irritating map features that ends your level.
Release date: November 22, 2018 Platforms: iOS and Android To know more about Kingdom Rush Vengeance visit: https://www.kingdomrushvengeance.com/ Ironhide Fa…
Normally at Appolicious, we spend our time looking forward to the latest unexpected evolution of the mobile landscape, but the past always holds some surprises. Case in point – would you believe that there was once a time where Sony not only actually invested in creating handheld games, but brought three of its then-marque franchises to your phone?
Better yet, ensured they were brought over properly, with genuine care and effort, rather than slap-dash clones of other games? Sounds like madness, doesn’t it, but in the early 2000’s, this seriously happened.
Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile is probably the best well known of the Sony mobile trilogy. Released around the height of Ratchet & Clank‘s PlayStation 2 run, Going Mobile was actually meant to be the first part of a duology, with the latter half cancelled mid-development. This is actually a shame, as while Going Mobile is far from the greatest Ratchet & Clank game, it’s incredibly faithful to the source material. Within minutes of playing, you hear a reference to Secret Agent Clank; you grapple, rail grind, smack, and shoot through an industrial setting inside your phone. Yes, you read that right – Going Mobile is literally set inside your phone, with the titular protagonists pulled inside via a digitizing Macguffin.
It's never going to outdo its 3D brethren, but as a sidescrolling platformer, Going Mobile was certainly decent for its day.
As far as how the game plays, it’s remarkably “okay”. It’s never going to outdo its 3D brethren, but as a sidescrolling platformer, Going Mobile was certainly decent for its day. A handful of the series iconic weapons make the jump, but enemies are a bit on the small side, and the lack of audio for pretty much everything means you’ll be left to fill in the blanks. Still impressive for its day, enough so that parts of it are still loosely considered canon to the series, but overall, more a novelty than anything else.
Learn about the God of War game and more that might’ve slipped you by!
SOCOM: Mobile Recon
SOCOM: Mobile Recon by contrast to Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile opted to eschew its traditional gameplay style – in SOCOM‘s case, hardcore third-person tactical shooting – in favor of a isometric strategy-action hybrid. Though the narrative falls flattest of the bunch thanks to a hackneyed plot about taking down a terrorist organization in Africa, the presentation and level design brings to mind another Sony-favoring franchise: Metal Gear Solid. From codec-call like transmissions from command to the way you navigate every level, it’s not hard to imagine this same gameplay being applied to a handheld entry starring Solid Snake or Big Boss. Shame it doesn’t really exist for anything more than pushing you forward, but that’s least it’s for a good cause.
If anything, SOCOM: Mobile Recon is one of the earliest examples of a studio clearly understanding how to adapt a franchise.
Remarkably, Mobile Recon boasts a surprisingly modern array of gameplay features, such as stealth takedowns, issuing squad commands to your AI partner, customizable loadouts before each mission, and a distinctive take on sniping that works far better than it should. It’s far from the depth of say, XCOM, but the fact Mobile Recon actually works as well as it does is a testament to its developers’ skills. If anything, SOCOM: Mobile Recon is one of the earliest examples of a studio clearly understanding how to adapt a franchise to mobile devices, something critical in this industry.
God of War: Betrayal
God of War: Betrayal rounds out the trilogy on a high note, offering the purest port of the bunch. Set between the events of God of War and God of War II, we get a rare glimpse of protagonist Kratos before his deicide at the hand of his father Zeus, leading the armies of Sparta against their enemies. Despite suffering a similar lack of audio for the majority of its run time, Betrayal does its best with what it can, offering impressively detailed sprites and brutal clashes when you strike down massive mythological monstrosities. Everything’s rendered beautifully with fluid animations as you disembowel anyone and anything that gets in your way.
Despite all the odds stacked against it, God of War: Betrayal is a cut above what you expect from a Java game.
Not to be out done, Betrayal also takes full advantage of its vertical camera angle, incorporating it fully into its 2.5D level design, from pointing you towards later objectives to nudging you in the direction of bonus chests full of valuable experience points. This also leads to Betrayal‘s unique take on the God of War series’ wavering appreciation for platforming, trading balancing yourself on wooden beams for more traditional climbing and jumping. You even go toe to toe with Ceryx, son of the deity Hermes, which might not be the same as fighting Poseidon, Hades, or Ares, but Kratos’ bloodlust for conquest rings true all the same. Despite all the odds stacked against it, God of War: Betrayal is a cut above what you expect from a Java game.
As the old saying goes - they don't make 'em like they used to!
While the days of flip phones and Java development may be long gone, it bears wisdom in remembering the accomplishments made before we had smart phones with vivid 3D graphics engines and technology that’s reshaping our world daily. Sony’s been a longstanding provider of mobile phones, and while their handheld gaming systems have fallen out of the spotlight, these three titles were some of the earliest attempts to grow beyond a phone just being a phone. They were all worthwhile efforts, and we reap the benefits of their existence to this very day, so it’s high time we salute the hard work of those who came before. As the old saying goes – they don’t make ’em like they used to!
Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.
