Headlander is a funny little metroidvania from Double Fine where you play a disembodied head, flying around on a space station, trying to stop an evil computer from controlling humanity. When I first started playing the game, I somehow thought erroneously that it was going to have more of a puzzle slant to it than it ultimately did, but I really enjoyed my time with the game! With a good mix of exploration and combat and only some small gripes related to the controls, I’d recommend Headlander if you’re looking for a chill and very stylish adventure.
I couldn’t get very far in Diablo Immortal because I don’t have any mobile devices with sufficient storage space to download all the required stuff, and that’s all right. While a mobile version of a popular action RPG franchise is certainly something that could be fine and not something I would be opposed to in principle, I still am staunchly opposed to free to play games that blur the design line between playing for fun, playing as a replacement to paying money and playing as a vehicle to extract money from players. You’ll understand that Diablo Immortal is one of these games.
Tyranny is an amazing RPG in the vein of Baldur’s Gate and other Infinity Engine classics where you play the unusual role of herald for the evil overlord trying to take control of the world. In a world where I would have infinite time and no other obligations, I would’ve burned through this game in its entirety, but sadly I only managed to play through the first chapter. I really enjoyed what I saw, still! With a very interesting world, mechanics and characters, I’d feel really comfortable suggestion Tyranny to RPG fans.
Square Valley is a solid puzzler for iOS where you place tiles around a map, draw roads and rivers and try to maximize your score to hit a certain target with the constraints of the level you are in. I had a lot of fun with it, even tho I feel like the game could’ve worded some stuff a bit better and surfaced more data overall. It was still a pretty inventive and interesting game!
I had looked at Melvor Idle on mobile a while back, and while finding the core ideas of the game interesting, I had been left disappointed by the mechanics locked behind in-app purchases and mostly by the game’s too open pacing, where the player was bombarded with things they could do with very little logical progression or path they could logically take to get stronger. The PC version, being a premium title, does away with the in-app purchases, but does not change the core of the game much, so it left me with the same overwhelming feeling than the mobile version. Needless to say, I dropped it quickly.
Cmd C is an okay idle game themed around programming and computer science tasks. While I enjoyed the concept it has of tiered mechanics, challenges and upgrades, the act structure really took me out of it because I rarely play idle games for their story. It’s not completely a bust, but I didn’t stick with it too long.
Stuck In Time is a game that tries to be an idle game with the twist that you constantly loop, moving your character around, fighting enemies, leveling up, collecting items and mana, all to stay alive and have the longest loop possible until you eventually run out of power and need to restart all over again, keeping small incremental upgrades and familiarity with the map in order to make further loops easier. It’s also a neat-looking world that is like a big puzzle to solve. Sadly, for my tastes, it fails in both aspects.
Knotwords is a little crossword puzzle-like game on iOS where instead of finding words using hints for lines and rows, you have to ‘untangle’ weirdly shaped ‘knots’ of words on a big grid, which ultimately leads to words appearing on lines and rows. For a free game with a premium unlock, I had a ton of fun, but only when I finally activated a feature that helped me know if my words were correct - the game was a bundle of knots before that! Aha.
Cook, Serve, Delicious is one of these franchises that I really enjoy and would love to devour entirely if I had infinite time. I love the fast cooking action that you can learn to master, the rush of the orders, the mashing of the keys and the perfect gold medal that you get at the end. It’s not without its lot of frustrations, for sure, and there were some parts of 2 that I preferred over 3, but for the things it tries and the new ideas it brings to the table, CSR3 is a pretty good game!
Kaiju Attack is a fairly simple match-3 game where you fight off various Kaijus using tanks, planes and other tiles with various effects. Based on your success, you get money after battles, which you can use to upgrade your special weapons and other stats. There isn’t much else to say about it! I enjoy premium games without ads and there seems to be a good chunk on content in this one, but it got fairly repetitive and stale for me kinda quickly. Pretty neat game, still! Love the monster design.
I’ve played NGU Idle for over a year now and I would’ve played it a bit more, but idle games live and die for me either by the promise or new mechanics to keep things interesting or by the visible incremental progress towards being able to do more things. For the longest time, NGU Idle did that for me. There was always a new mechanic coming around, there was always some system to power up until it was high enough that I could go and blast through and see something else to do. I’ve also spent a few bucks on this game, because I wanted to support it although the crude humor wasn’t really for me. Do I recommend NGU Idle? In a sense, yes, it might grab you like it grabbed me, although it ultimately starts to break down, let’s say at the one year mark.
State Connect: Traffic Control, a game that looked like it was about connecting cities, collecting money and buying upgrades and more connections, just served me ads non-stop. I wasn’t going to pay 14 dollars for a game that couldn’t even have -some- gameplay before bombarding me with randomly popping videos. No thank you!
Roundguard is an interesting peggle-like with RPG elements; You shoot your round hero around, hitting enemies, breaking pots to collect gold, use skills and items to get stronger and clear the rooms until ultimately you manage to save the king or die trying and restart, unlocking new powers and challenges to make your next runs different. I had a good time with it, although I’ve found the game a bit too punishing for my tastes.
Technopoly has an interesting idea - building around structures on an island, improving resource production until you have enough to build bridges to different islands, rinse and repeat, with a fine art style and some interesting flavor. Sadly, you need to pay real money or watch ads to do pretty much everything. The most egregious offender is about the bridges you build between islands, which get doled out at a glacial pace if you don’t want to pay premium currencies. That’s all.
I had been playing some GemCraft Chasing Shadows - a fun little tower defense game, sequel of a flash game I used to play a while ago - when I noticed that there had been another one of these that I hadn’t tried out, since I am a big fan I gave it a shot! I had a good time with it, but I ultimately couldn’t sink the time or effort required to complete the game because at some point it just became too tough for me and looking at videos or tutorials to beat every level I had issues with wasn’t part of my plans. Still a really interesting tower defense game!
Micro RPG is a neat core idea bogged down by the banal horrors of mobile game development. A simple main mechanic about your character spinning around using different weapons and you needing to tap to attack enemies moving in and out of your range in order to defeat them, but encased in a pile of premium currencies, timers and lootboxes filled with cards used to level up things. Needless to say, I wasn’t a huge fan past the core concept.
Space Pirates And Zombie is a space strategy game about forming factions, upgrading your ship, fighting and conquering sectors while managing a zombie threat. I remembered having fun with the first game, so I went into this one wondering how it would go. I was overall pleasantly surprised, with the move to 3D being more or less only aesthetic and the core loop of the game still being pretty fun, but I had some issues with progression, both of your ship and of the story, so I didn’t stay with it until the end.
Tetris on iOS, it’s not that great. The controls are fine, but it’s just another free to play game filled with everything you’d expect that really does detract from the fun of playing Tetris. I would’ve gladly paid 5 dollars to play some Tetris in peace. Maybe I should just dig up Tetris DS again!
DEATHLOOP is an interesting first person shooter based around the concept of all taking place around one single day where your character is trying to break the loop by finding and killing 7 specific people. Combining puzzles, exploration and combat, it is a fine experience that I almost dropped because I wasn’t sure how to proceed, but I’m glad I stuck with it. The more interesting elements of the game were definitely its lore and puzzles, and I’ve found the combat and character upgrades/customization to be a bit lacking.
Tiny Island Survival has an interesting idea - what if a little incremental/exploration game took place on a single screen representing a single island? What could you do then, how much stuff would there be to do? I ultimately do not know, because it’s also a game that has ads so invasive I would rather shut it down and load it back up whenever they popped during gameplay, until it ultimately wore me down and I stopped playing. An interesting core idea, for sure, tho!