Excellent news, everybody (dang, I miss Futurama…)! It’s time for an additional spherical of cellular sport suggestions primarily based on probably the most attention-grabbing video games I performed and that had been coated on MiniReview this week. I hope you may benefit from the learn.
Assist these posts (and YouTube content material + improvement of MiniReview) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NimbleThor <3
This episode features a brutal bullet-hell card sport (sure, you learn that proper, haha), a tower protection sport with real-time co-op, an journey sport performed in whole darkness, a enjoyable deck-building dungeon-crawler, and a vehicular fight PvP motion sport.
Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a pleasant dialogue beneath.
New to those posts? Take a look at the primary one from 129 weeks in the past right here.
Let’s get to the video games:
Heck Deck [Game Size: 92 MB] ($2.99)
Style: Card / Bullet Hell – Offline
Orientation: Portrait
Required Consideration: Full
tl;dr overview by Yousef:
Heck Deck is a minimalistic however brutal bullet-hell card sport the place time solely strikes once we transfer, and all enemy bullets are represented as playing cards.
The sport has us management a small blob that we freely transfer round small one-screen playing-fields to keep away from enemy bullets. Once we launch our finger from the display, time freezes, permitting us to strategically intention playing cards from our hand to launch our personal assaults. As quickly as we begin shifting once more, the chaos then continues.
Beginning off, we’re supplied a relatively restricted deck of playing cards, but when we intentionally take a success from an enemy, that precise bullet will get added to our deck. Regardless of shedding a life or two within the course of, that is the first strategy to acquire new playing cards.
Every of the sport’s 5 difficult ranges ends with a battle towards a boss with distinctive motion patterns. Fortunately, defeating a boss leads us to a store the place we are able to purchase a number of free playing cards and pay lives to get extra earlier than we then proceed.
The sport efficiently manages to mix card-based and bullet-hell gameplay – two seemingly incompatible mechanics that by some means work in good concord in Heck Deck. This, and the clear visible cues, make for a satisfying gameplay expertise.
The sport’s greatest draw back is its hardcore arcade-like construction, which suggests the checkpoints that enable us to begin at one of many later ranges don’t activate earlier than all ranges main as much as it has been accomplished in a single run. This may trigger some frustration for informal gamers.
Heck Deck is a premium sport with out advertisements or iAPs that prices $2.99, and lurking behind its cutesy hand-drawn animations and art-style is a tough but gratifying expertise for everybody who doesn’t thoughts the checkpoint system.
App Retailer: Right here
33RD: Random Protection [Total Game Size: 207 MB] (Free)
Style: Tower Protection / PvP / Co-op / “Random”-defense – Requires On-line Entry
Orientation: Portrait
Required Consideration: Full
tl;dr overview by NimbleThor:
33RD is a enjoyable technique tower protection sport with each single-player, real-time co-op, and PvP that expands on and improves the RNG-based gameplay popularized by Random Cube.
Matches happen on a 3×3 board surrounded by a single lane that monsters enter and stroll round. To defeat these monsters, we spend gems to spawn random towers, that are represented as cute weapon-wielding animals, at random squares on the board.
Curiously, as an alternative of leaving the map, monsters merely proceed strolling across the board, and if we don’t hold the variety of whole enemies alive beneath 33, we begin shedding our ten lives and shortly die.
Whereas RNG defines which tower spawns the place, we nonetheless have to be strategic about when to merge items, which items so as to add to our deck, if or when to randomly relocate all towers, and when to spawn new items. To not point out the numerous different techniques, reminiscent of gear crafting, a most important hero we use to set off expertise, a guild system, animal fusing, and so forth.
New towers are unlocked by means of a gacha system utilizing gold or premium foreign money, and so they every have distinctive weapons and stats that match numerous playstyles. We will play 5 co-op and 5 PvP matches earlier than having to attend an hour to regain tickets however can all the time proceed with the PvE content material.
33RD monetizes by means of iAPs for a premium foreign money spent on map skins, gacha pulls, and a subscription that present advantages reminiscent of extra PvP tickets and higher login rewards. The monetization isn’t good, however the free-to-play expertise stays nice, and there are many free gacha pulls.
Whereas some may not like the extent of RNG, I discovered it to create a enjoyable and unpredictable expertise the place we’re compelled to strategize on the fly. Should you loved Random Cube, you’ll almost definitely love 33RD.
App Retailer: Right here
Darkish Echo [Game Size: 53 MB] ($1.99)
Style: Journey / Horror – Offline Playable
Orientation: Panorama
Required Consideration: Full
tl;dr overview by AlexSem:
Darkish Echo is an exhilarating journey sport set within the whole darkness of an underground cave, which forces us to navigate utilizing soundwaves which are visualized on the display.
Each sound created as we stroll across the cave generates soundwaves that get represented as traces of various colours. These waves obey the actual legal guidelines of physics by bouncing off of surfaces, which suggests though we can’t see the precise objects and obstacles which are throughout us, we are able to understand our environment by analyzing the echo created by these waves as we transfer ahead searching for an exit.
To navigate the cave and keep away from threats, we are able to run, sneak to remain as quiet as potential, clap to generate a variety of waves on the identical time, or throw stones to trigger audial distractions. The latter turns into particularly necessary in later ranges the place there are hungry monsters lurking at midnight that may solely hunt their prey if they will hear it.
As we progress by means of 80 ranges, increasingly mechanics are added, reminiscent of lethal pits, locked doorways, shifting partitions, collapsing passages, water basins, and way more. Some ranges require that we run for our life, some demand that we keep quiet and unnoticeable, and others could be solved utilizing whichever method we deem most fitted. This fixed introduction of latest mechanics ensures that we’re saved occupied until the very finish, creating an incredible gameplay expertise.
Darkish Echo is a $1.99 sport with out advertisements or iAPs. It’s a type of actually distinctive and surreal experiences everybody ought to attempt, particularly whereas sitting in a darkish room with headphones on.
App Retailer: Right here
Dungeon Raiders [Game Size: 31 MB] ($3.99)
Style: Deck-building / Dungeon Crawler – Offline Playable
Orientation: Panorama
Required Consideration: Some
tl;dr overview by AlexSem:
Dungeon Raiders is a singular mixture of deckbuilding, roguelike dungeon-crawling, and store administration, during which we equip a staff of courageous heroes and enterprise on harmful missions throughout the lands searching for precious loot that we are able to then promote at our store.
Beginning with just one hero, our aim is to complete 30 randomly generated dungeons that include rooms with monsters, traps, locked doorways, and loot chests. Our stats are outlined by the gear we put on, and as we recruit new troops for our trigger, their assault, block, well being, and mana values are added up, permitting all the get together to deal extra injury and maintain extra hits.
Throughout fight, we get to play one card from our deck on every flip, whose results get totally resolved earlier than the enemy’s flip. This easy system will get way more attention-grabbing later, once we broaden our deck with new highly effective playing cards that enable us to concentrate on melee, magic, or protection builds, or mix playing cards nonetheless we prefer to create our personal distinctive playstyle.
What units the sport other than common dungeon crawlers is the buying and selling facet, the place all extra loot we’ve got collected must be offered at our store. Whereas on the store, our heroes briefly change their specialization from warriors to buy employees, servicing the counters, hauling items, retaining our merchandise protected from thieves, and enjoying music to entertain the shoppers. We will even improve the store with new rooms, stands, and decorations that may be positioned nonetheless we see match.
Dungeon Raiders is a $3.99 premium sport with out advertisements or iAPs. Regardless of its simplistic graphics and grindy gameplay, it’s nice for everybody who likes fixed development and enjoys enjoying in brief intervals right here and there.
App Retailer: Right here
Crossout Cell (Sport Dimension: 1.3 GB] (Free)
Style: Racing / Motion / Shooter – Requires On-line Entry
Orientation: Panorama
Required Consideration: Full
tl;dr overview by NimbleThor:
Crossout Cell is a post-apocalyptic vehicular fight PvP motion sport the place we design our personal over-the-top armored car and use it to destroy different gamers in numerous on-line sport modes.
The first 6v6 mode has us battle 6 opponents over the management of an space of curiosity close to the center of some decently massive maps, with clan wars and different modes unlocking as we stage up.
By enjoying each PvE and real-time PvP matches, we progress by means of a trophy street that rewards us with blueprints for brand spanking new car weapons and elements, reminiscent of weapons, humongous knives, wheels, plates and so on., which we then craft utilizing scrap metals acquired by means of gameplay.
Throughout fight, making an attempt to focus on particular elements of the opponent’s car, reminiscent of destroying its wheels so it could actually’t transfer, or its weapons so it’s now not a risk, is an enormous a part of what makes the sport enjoyable. In the meantime, the car customization is extremely in-depth, which permits us to experiment with some actually unusual car builds – one thing I shortly discovered myself spending a variety of time on.
The post-apocalyptic theme is neat, there’s a big number of enjoyable weapon designs, and the maps are even decently well-designed. Sadly, the textures aren’t very detailed, and there’s a variety of rubberbanding brought about both by janky animations or server latency.
The controls aren’t dangerous, and there are many settings to allow or disable numerous high quality of life options, reminiscent of auto-shooting, however the sport general lacks some polish to have the ability to actually compete with its PC and console sibling.
Crossout Cell monetizes by means of a battle move, incentivized advertisements, and a number of iAPs that enable paying gamers to progress sooner. So long as you play the sport at an informal stage, it offers an honest core gameplay expertise that I believe many will take pleasure in.
App Retailer: Right here
Particular because of the Patreon Producers “marquisdan”, “Misplaced Vault”, “FarmRPG”, and “Mohaimen” who assist make these posts potential by means of their Patreon help <3
Google Sheet of all video games I’ve performed to this point (searchable and filter-able): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bf0OxtVxrboZqyEh01AxJYUUqHm8tEfh-Lx-SugcrzY/edit?usp=sharing
TL;DR Video Abstract (with gameplay) of final week’s video games: https://youtu.be/IDJAZm7VimQ
Episode 114 Episode 115 Episode 116 Episode 117 Episode 118 Episode 119 Episode 120 Episode 121 Episode 122 Episode 123 Episode 124 Episode 125 Episode 126 Episode 127 Episode 128
