Mobile game reviews
James Pinnell reviews the latest games for android & iOS smartphones & tablets.
Marvel: Realm of Champions BRAWLIN, BRAWLIN, BRAWLIN.
Free with IAP
If there was an award for proliferation of mobile games from a single brand, Marvel would certainly be right up there. Not a month or two goes by without some way to tap your screen with a Hulk, or Iron Man flavour attributed to it. Unfortunately, such a phenomenal IP is truly wasted on the vast majority of what is relegated to poorly designed, overly monetised, basic experiences.
Unlike the impressive, yet almost wholly ignored, Marvel MOBA I reviewed a few issues ago, Realm of Champions is a massively dumbed down yet moderately pretty brawler – the differences being a significantly smaller map, a convoluted equipment system, no story and far too many bots. On the surface it seems quite fun – you pick one of the (initial) seven wellknown characters, use your abilities to take down enemies and towers, rinse and repeat.
Yet thanks to the monetisation of equipment and rank, skill is much less of a consideration. Everything good costs money, and all the equipment is generic, regardless of which character you are using. On top of this. for the first 10-12 levels I honestly do not think I ever encountered a human player. Every round felt suspiciously easy or overwhelmingly difficult, there was no communication with my allies or opponents, and the lack of progression made it difficult to know where I stood.
On the positive side, each character feels unique and their abilities, speed, and strength are relevant to the fighter. Combat feels punchy and the controls are responsive – even if most of the time I was connecting with a high ping. Its unfortunate that the repetitive nature and lack of human challenge detracts from this kind of MOBA-Lite experience. There is a lot of space for a more casual brawer like this, although the RAID: Shadow Legends method of heavy microtransactions makes it unlikely that Realm of Champions will be anything but a boring cash cow.
The surreal nature of Marvel’s games – each one developed by different studios in different Asian markets – is strange when their more mainstream console games tend to be western developed, with a stronger focus on gameplay and power fantasy. Based on the trend for mobile games going forward, I do not see much changing on that front. ★★☆☆☆
Grand Mountain Adventure SLICK SNOWBOARDING.
Free with IAP
Every now and again I am pleasantly surprised by a game that seems to be fairly simple and rudimentary on the surface but opens up into a clever, fun and relaxing experience. Grand Mountain Adventure is a snowboarding simulator with arguably the most perfect and responsive controls I’ve ever used on a mobile device. From the very first run, which is displayed with gorgeous detail from a top-down perspective, the game gradually opens up into an open world experience with chair lifts, hidden runs and ratings.
There is a competitive component to Grand Mountain, but much of the wonder in this title is exploration. Each run completion opens a path to a new area, gradually expanding the map to the full mountain. All in all there are seven mountains, with the first one free; the other six open up with a one-off charge. There is just a staggering amount to do – 10 challenge types, such as slalom, Big
Air, etc, cross-device multiplayer, a detailed trick system and plenty of hidden challenges, and zero load screens.
I found it especially fun to play on an iPad with a controller, one of the few games that supports this feature. ★★★★ 1/2
Evo Pop WORMS WITH CLONES. Free with IAP
ZeptoLab has been a mobile developer I’ve enjoyed for a while now – Cut the Rope was one of the first games I had on my iPhone 4 and I’ve enjoyed their silly but clever aesthetic across their releases. Evo Pop is no different – a simple to learn, hard to master WORMS style strategy puzzler that involves spawning a little block that can grow and duplicate in order to overwhelm your opponents.
The concept is simple enough – you spawn as a single block and depending on your type (balloon types grow automatically until split into two for example) you have a number of different abilities at your disposal. If you need to get across the map quickly, you may boost your evos into the air, or make a tower that leans and falls over. You could try sucking smaller enemies into your range to gobble them up or try and move yourself over to shrubbery to get bigger.
Each match earns you coins and card upgrades you can use to unlock new types and abilities – with each type having a full slate of five unlockable skills. It eventually becomes a quirky type of rock, paper, scissors in figuring out how to counter your opponent’s type.
If I had any complaints it would be that the game does not seem to feature real-time multiplayer, or if it does, it’s not clear if you are playing with a live person. There is not much of a challenge in many cases, but I do note that on the store page for the title, the developers have announced a Championship league.
Erica FMV ADVENTURES HITS MOBILE. Demo with Paid Unlock (iOS Only)
Erica is a re-release of a little known PS4 FMV (full motion video) title, which for those unaware, is essentially an interactive movie with branching storylines based on the actions of the player. In essence, it is a live actionadventure game – or in this case, a thriller – which takes place inside a creepy house and was initially designed to be played on a Playstation with a companion mobile app – which makes the port to a phone fairly straight forward.
Controls are basic – at the most, you may be turning a key in a lock or choosing a dialogue option during a conversation. It’s worth playing with headphones and on the largest device you own as well – the sound direction is a big part of the game and especially helps to build atmosphere.
Without spoiling the story, the acting and the concept are engrossing and interesting. The central character of Erica is a great protagonist, and I was very intrigued to get to the truth surrounding the mystery of a past grisly crime. Although free to download and start, the game will only complete with a single $4.50 payment – there are no ads, but the game will simply not continue past a single point without that payment.
For $4.50, this is a steal for a title that was four times more on the Playstation store. If you have AirPlay or an Apple TV you can also play this on a TV, which is highly recommended.
Headland DO-NUTS. Demo with Paid Unlock
One of the best parts of Headland is the opening screen – in clear text, it tells you that the game is about six hours in length, but only the first 45 minutes is free. The studio that worked on this title, Northplay, is a small team and its focus from day dot was to provide a fullfledged title with a fair monetisation system. After the first 45 minutes, the game requires $5.99 to continue, which completely unlocks the remainder of the game and any future content updates.
The game itself is a frenetic action adventure that can be played with entirely one hand – you can swipe and tap from anywhere on the screen to control movement and attacks, limiting the need for an onscreen UI and freeing up the developers to show off their gorgeous, colourful and detailed areas. Being a small, and new, team however, the state of the game is still buggy – there are some clipping and sound issues – but as of print an update seems to have fixed the vast majority of those.
Each area is wholly different – full of robots, monsters and creatures, all with varying difficulty and challenge. The sound and level design is clever and innovative, and coupled with the lack of ads and microtransactions, is entirely immersive. But I really do want to congratulate the developers for building their experience around customer satisfaction and a great gaming experience as opposed to simply stuffing their pockets with cash at the expensive of the medium.