Mobile game reviews

TECHLIFE’S TEAM REVIEWS THE LATEST GAMES FOR ANDROID & iOS SMARTPHONES & TABLETS.

Battle Breakers SURPRISINGLY BLAND. Free with IAP

EPIC GAMES, DEVELOPERS of the insanely popular Fortnite, ha sfollowed up itssuccess with Battle Breakers, a gacha/ strategy hybrid that is available across both PC and mobile devices. Unfortunately for fans, it’s a title that doesn’t have any of the flair, creativity, humour or fun mechanics of its cousin – instead, it’s a title chock-full of very repetitive gameplay and a plethora of various currencies.

Battle Breakers starts out with a unique mechanic – you build a team of heroes and tap your way through crystals, which may either spawn enemies, items, coins and so forth. You fight through enemies and bosses by matching colours/elements against your opponents’ weaknesses. For the first few playthroughs it’s fun, and there are a few variations to how strategies can work against different sorts of scenarios.

But very quickly, you realise that the game’s basic loop isn’t varied or fun enough to make you want to play long term. In fact, you can essentially let the game play itself through any mission or event, which heavily dilutes any challenge, and there aren’t any variations to the base. There are plenty of ways to farm the various currencies however – I counted about six – and plenty of in-app purchase packs to get heroes and so forth.

It’s disappointing that Epic Games has developed something so banal and repetitive, after generally being known for trying new and potentially risky games. Their earlier mobile games, the Infinity Blade series, were stellar examples of pushing the platform forward and were critically acclaimed for their gameplay and graphical prowess. In many cases, Battle Breakers is easily their worst title, and puts them almost on par with Nintendo as treating mobile simply as a revenue stream.

Bullet League 2D BATTLE ROYALE. Free with IAP

BATTLE ROYALE TITLES are the new hotness when it comes to mobile developers – their popularity combined with simple development timelines (in many cases there is only one map, and much of the level design involves randomised item and location placement) so variations on the theme are starting to appear. Bullet League is easily one of the best I’ve found so far, with much of that success owed to its simplicity.

Players are dropped into a 2D platform-esque map, with no weapons or items. The map shrinks in a similar manner as it does in the 3D versions of the genre, there is a circle around the edges of the map which restricts to the center, knocking out players who find themselves out of it, and continues closing until only one player is left.

After each map you are granted experience and upgrades for weapon and item types, as well as unlocks for different characters. The upgrades system scales with your level, so you aren’t likely to be dropped in a match with overpowered and experienced players. I was able to win quite a few games during my playthrough, so it seems to have a high enough player base to split across the various skill bands.

Golf King: World Tour

SIMULATOR FOCUSED 1V1. Free with IAP

MOST OF THE more popular sports titles on mobile have learned that in many cases, players may only have 5-10 minutes to play almost any game. 30-40-minute-long FIFA matches are unlikely, as are 18 holes of golf. Golf King relies on short, 3-5 par single holes of golf with a single real-time opponent, with a focus on realism, including considerations for wind, elevation and surfaces.

Each match is concise and easy to control – the game largely sets up each shot, although you can tinker with it a bit – and chooses the correct club. Most of the skill comes in finessing the power and direction of how you hit the ball and attempting to balance distance over obstacles such as water and sand. You take turns with your rival and can watch as they setup and take their shots. The winner, effectively, sinks their ball before their opponent.

Players can upgrade their gear – including individual clubs, balls, and clothing – which is provided via “card packs” that can be bought or earned via play. Thankfully there isn’t a lot of pushing towards in-app purchases, although they are available, and ads are few and far between. The golf itself is very addictive, smooth and fun to play, with a decent variety of holes and courses and a strong player base.

Archery Club ARCHERY DUEL, YOU SAY? Free with IAP

ARCHERY IS ONE of those sports that I’ve always been fascinated with, but cost was always a prohibitive factor in taking it up. Thankfully, I have a mobile phone and Archery

Club, right? Well, it’s not the same as pulling back a carefully strung bow with your fingers, but at the very least you can compete with a stranger without spending about $600.

Archery Club takes a very similar strain to Golf King in its operation, except that the differences in difficulty are much smaller, relying on different target sizes and distances rather than varied courses and holes. Coupled with this is a very tight 20 second timer for each shot, meaning many matches take less than two minutes to complete.

The controls aren’t as tight however, with movement feeling overly floaty, and as a result, the outcome of most shots seem to be random. Adding to this are a wide range of pay-to-win adjustments in premium gear, which essentially make almost every shot dead-on, meaning that if you come up against someone who’s paid for a few epic packs, you’re probably going to lose.

That said, the speed and relative enjoyment of a tense and fast competition with a stranger is very addictive, especially when archery is a relatively unknown property in gaming. It’s a shame it just isn’t very refined.

Once Upon A Tower

RAPUNZEL, RAPUNZEL... Free with IAP

ONCE UPON A Tower is a roguelike, which effectively means that every time you play it’s a randomised experience, and when you die you start all the way at the beginning. On the surface this sounds relatively aggravating, but in practise it works for mobile games thanks to their short and random replayability.

In this title you play as a princess, trapped in a room above a treacherous tower full of traps, enemies and… roosters? You make your way down, carefully dodging, defeating and disarming said obstacles on the way, attempting not to die and collecting currency for upgrades and equipment. The lower you get, the harder the enemies and traps become, making effective use of your funds and equipment essential for victory.

OUaT is a perfect example of effective short experiences – it’s fun, controls are basic and responsive, and the game’s difficulty branches on a curve that’s accessible to most players. There are no mandatory ads and any purchases just make life a little easier for you if that’s what you are looking for. Otherwise, it’s brutally difficult as you reach the lower levels and strategy is almost certainly required to finish.