Mobile game reviews
James Pinnell reviews the latest games for android & iOS smartphones & tablets.
Guardian Tales
Free with IAP
Regular readers of this feature will know that mobile RPGs have exploded over the last few years, with most of them following a similar playbook. Guardian Tales takes a slightly different tact, injecting humour, variety, and interesting characters into an increasingly tired and overworked genre. Fans of the older top-down Zelda titles will get a kick out of the familiar playstyle, with isometric exploration and combat with a wide range of weapons, skills, and magic.
Each level is also packed with secret routes and quests, interesting puzzles, a genuinely funny story, and a spin on the usual “grind” to farm materials and items to boost your characters. For example, one of the repeatable dungeons involves your character demolishing illegally parked cars, to the horror of local bystanders. An entire sub-story involves an increasingly ridiculous chase over a staggering portion of the game, complete with bizarre dialogue. It was a pleasant surprise.
It seems that the developers of Guardian Tales have taken a few notes to differentiate themselves – while there is still a staggering amount of pointless currencies and upgrades, most of them can be automated, and the lack of “auto” play for first run dungeons and story modes is a very welcome change. There is still a summon mechanic, but in most cases, this is for differentiation between your companions, rather than a pointless character collection. Most of the characters are funny and feature their own obtuse backstories.
Guardian Tales is arguably the best mobile RPG I’ve played in a long time, and while it suffers from a lot of the genre’s issues (gacha, currencies, busywork) it manages to scratch a fun little Zelda itch and had me drawn to it for longer than I’d thought.
Gear.Club
Free with IAP
After the disappointing launch of Forza Street, players looking for an asphalt driving experience may find some solace in Gear.Club, a very pretty arcade racer with a lot of Forza (not Street) elements, including a variety of control schemes, granular difficulty settings, fantastic frame rate, and a funky rewind mode to undo that missed turn or rough crash. It also tends to follow a more standard race form – rather than meeting arbitrary challenges, you can just compete in multiplayer races or work on building up your garage.
One of the more interesting elements is the ability to increase the challenge as you get better at the game – everything from steering and acceleration assist, realistic manual gear types that relate to vehicles, and so on. When most mobile racing games tend to do most of the work for you, it’s refreshing to have the ability to heavily customise how you prefer to race. On top of this, the tracks are good, the AI is fair and the monetisation and IAP isn’t too bad, although this may change as the game becomes more popular.
Archero
Free with IAP (iOS Exclusive)
Archero takes me back to the early days of mobile app stores when all it took was a clever hook and some intuitive controls to make a Fruit Ninja or Flight Control. Simply put, your character starts with a basic bow and a little bit of health as they churn through dungeon after dungeon after dungeon, gradually upgrading skills, weapons, armour and levels as the dungeons themselves become more difficult and varied. It is also hopelessly addictive. There’s also very little pressure to spend any money at all, with the game being generous enough to avoid any deep pocket hits for progress.
Random chance and choice also play a big role in Archero, with various NPCs dropping into a room before or after a battle with a lucky wheel or a 50/50 choice to upgrade your health or critical hit or some other upgrade. Each choice must be made knowing that the next room may involve an enemy that is faster than your chosen weapon, or stationary making one of your friendly companion pets useless. Highly recommended for anyone who is a fan of dungeon crawling!
Hellrider 3
Free with IAP
Blocky road battler Hellrider 3 is the latest incarnation of the popular, strangely story-driven bike adventure which introduces a wonderful, blocky and cell shaded 3D design and on-the-go gameplay and mechanic changes. From the beginning, it’s impossible to tell where this weird adventure is going, combining the basic structure of a “runner” (think Subway Surfer/Temple Run) with a racer, although things tend to get fast and crazy on a whim as the game doesn’t separate out its levels or progression.
Easy to control, but frustratingly difficult at times, Hellrider 3 kept me captivated enough to push me all the way through its unique take on a genre mash. While it does not have an “ending” per say, it does conclude threads to the point I was satisfied. It is also very free for a F2P title and the game never really asks for much, other than the odd ad view. Where it does fall over a little is repetition – much of the game is largely the same after the first 15-20 zones and it is a shame when the box of tricks runs out.
Aggrestsuko
Free with IAP
Match-3 games, where you combine blocks of a similar type to complete puzzles, are much of a muchness on mobile. Like other animation tie-ins,
Aggrestsuko, based on a popular Netflix original anime of the same name, has a very simple core gameplay loop. In this case, it involves building and designing a new building with “Stars”, earned from completing puzzles. In many cases, the bare structure of
Aggrestsuko is no different to existing games like Homescapes, so any added benefit gained would largely be from its references to the series.
Fans especially would be playing for the extra content bonuses – 1-minute long TV Animation episodes that originally aired in Japan, unlocked after completing enough levels. There are also bosses and multiple playable characters based on situations in the show as well as a ton of in-jokes and comedic references. However, it would be hard to recommend Aggrestsuko to anyone but fans of the show – it is a fairly average Match-3, duplicated and improved by dozens of other games in the app store.