Mobile game reviews

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

Survival Heroes THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Free with IAP survivalheroes.snail.com/

THE BATTLE ROYALE genre, where around 100 players all drop into a large battlefield and fight until only one (or a team of 2-4) remains, has exploded across all gaming platforms within the last year. Games like Fortnight and PUBG Mobile have rocketed to the top of the charts thanks to the exciting, challenging, visceral, and relatively quick action it provides. Survival Heroes builds on this genre by melding it with arguably the second most popular, the MOBA, where a hero is controlled with a top down perspective to attack other heroes and non-player enemies.

Like Fortnite, Survival Heroes offers players either a solo or team experience, where you drop out of the sky and onto a particular area of a map with no weapons of equipment. Instead, players open chests, dig through barrels and other environmental options to build a solid arsenal. Players battle in the same way they would in a MOBA – casting spells, using basic and powerful attacks, teaming up with other player classes in order to get healed or boosted. When their enemies are bested, they can dig through the corpse for better loot and continue fighting until they, or their team, are the last ones standing.

The game runs very well, with minimal lag or issues with framerates. Collecting a decent weapon and gear isn’t too difficult and there is quite a lot littered around the map. Additionally, players are ranked after their first few games, so it isn’t too easy or too difficult to get a win. Players were helpful and it was easy to get direction without any sort of voice chat, although it certainly helps. I found Survival Heroes to be a fantastic hybrid of both genres, fast paced and fun, with great progression and a bunch of rewards and events to mix things up even further.

The only downside is that the Australian server situation is a little iffy; like in many games players are lumped onto an Asian or South East Asian server due to population levels, although I didn’t find this affected play at all.

Sneak Ops VERY VERY SNEAKY SIR Free with IAP www.noodlecake.com

IF YOU ARE a fan of games like Metal Gear Solid, especially if you are old and grey enough to remember the original versions on the NES, you will certainly get a kick out of Sneak Ops – a clever, challenging ode to the original stealth games of the past. The idea is simple; there’s a military base full of guards, secret tunnels, and important blue floppy disks, and you’re tasked with making your way through a series of connected rooms to collect them all. It’s not all hiding however – you can knock out certain guards, trap them inside lasers, and use all sorts of quirky strategies to succeed.

The great part about Sneak Ops is that every single day, a brand-new level is released globally, with new locations, traps, guard types and more, keeping things fresh and fun and removing the issue with some puzzle/strategy games where things can get stale without regular injections of variety. Each new level is infinitely replayable, so starting up the app now means plenty of past levels to attempt and master. I haven’t been able to stop sneaking since I discovered this game and the best part is that it manages to be accessible for all skill levels. I never thought it was too difficult or too easy, nor did I feel I needed fast fingers to succeed. Recommended for all ages and time commitments!

Smashing Four LOOKING FOR A SMASHING TIME? Free with IAP smashingfour.com/

UP FOR A challenge? Every now and again a game pops up that looks quite simple but turns out to be deceptively difficult... but for the best! Smashing Four is a player vs player game that, as its name suggests, involves you “smashing” your army into your opponents, pinball style, in order to take them down. This is done via selecting one of your units on the map, pulling your finger back and “flicking” them at a certain speed across the battlefield. Each unit has its own special skills which either automatically deploy on contact or require some action from you to activate.

On the surface, the game looks, and feels, a little silly. How much strategy is involved in smashing balls together? But things like placement, angles, abilities all matter, especially if you find yourself in a bad corner with a healing unit that should be sitting at the back behind your heavier tanks. Each of your units is represented by a card, so as you play and collect more, your units’ level up, get stronger and develop new abilities. It doesn’t take long for your opponents to start making things harder for you either – I figure myself quite good at these card based short battles but its very easy to make the wrong unit choices early and end up in a short streak of losses.

But practice makes perfect, making this a colourful, fun and engaging game!

Bravely Archive CLASSIC JRPG ROLEPLAYING Free with IAP www.bravely-archive.com/

BRAVELY DEFAULT IS a popular J-RPG series that was lauded for its strong story, great music and solid battle system when it originally released on the Nintendo 3DS back in 2012.

Bravely Archive is the first release in the series on Mobile, and it has taken a traditional path for games of this genre, following on from the “collect a hero” style of other games of its type. Players make a team of heroes and fight turn based battles against enemies and bosses as they travel along a fixed path as part of a story or event mission.

The story is engaging, the music is great and there is a decent amount of voice acting and solid expansions to the main quest. Unfortunately, there is also plenty of “summon” fatigue to deal with, as you must constantly spend vast amounts of time levelling up, combining and completing inventory management of your various heroes. There are many classes, so summoning can be quite exhausting as you attempt to find the type that you want – that said, it isn’t necessary as the early game is very easy, so by the time you reach the higher levels, you will naturally have a pretty solid team.

If you are a fan of old-style Japanese console RPGs, you will get a great nostalgia hit here.

Candies n Curses FAST PACED ARCADE FUN Free with IAP itunes.apple.com/au

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN you mix a great idea for a game, such as vanquishing and dodging ghosts and other baddies with a flashlight, with an awful business model? Candies n Curses is on paper, a really fun and well-designed action platformer, where your heroine Molli is tasked with clearing each level of ghosties and bosses with a host of gradually introduced weapons and tactics. It’s a lot of fun and can get frantic as you swipe all over the place trying to fit the gaps in between the rapidly increasing number of ghosts.

The game gets increasingly difficult as time goes on, with some very well-designed boss fights, different level types and new types of ghosts and other enemies. Each level can be played with minimum time investment, making this a great game to play on the bus or train or even when you have a few minutes in between meetings.

The big problem, however, is that the game is absolutely saturated with advertising. Each death invites you to watch ads, which can be mostly replaced by paying around $13, which seems way too expensive for a title that most likely would have been on the store for $0.99c about 10 years ago. It’s a shame because there is a lot of fun to be had here, especially when coupled with the great progression, events and bonuses that keep you coming back.