Mobile Friday - mo.co - A Stylised Monster Exterminating Game With Relaxed MMO Elements

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried mo.co, from Supercell, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

Currently, mo.co is an invite only game so of course i applied and was granted an invite. if you're interested in trying out mo.co, head to https://mo.co/en/ to apply for yourselves.

Honestly, i think i came into this with the wrong impression of what the game was. i read it was some sort of monster hunting game and immediately i thought of the famous series from Capcom. mo.co is not that but you do seek out and destroy a lot of monsters in it. it's more of a monster exterminating game. there are locations where the locals are having issues with monsters, you go to these areas, deal with it, and then head back home. It's an experience designed for mobiles and short bursts of gameplay.

The gameplay is simple and yet satisfying. but what makes mo.co interesting is how it integrates an MMO experience into the game. When you travel to locations you are not alone in the world. there maybe main A.I characters in the world but there are other human controlled characters. everyone is here to achieve a goal but at no point does the game force us to team up. But if you're next to someone else and they kill a boss enemy, you both can get xp. if you use a area of effect heal move, that'll heal any other human character near by regardless if you're on the same team.

There are sections of this video where i don't team up with anyone, there are times i stumble upon a group tackling a boss and i join in. this is all done with no communication. towards the end of this video i did unlock a mode called Rifts. this mode has to be done in teams of 4 and it challenges the 4 players to defeat a boss as quickly as possible. your time is kept and the challenge is to defeat that boss with other players in a quicker time.

In this first play of mo.co i didn't unlock all the game modes so i don't know how deep the MMO elements go, but for now i like how relaxed it is about it. the game is also relaxed when it comes to finishing tasks and quests. often i would defeat the required enemies and not rush back to home and instead either help out those nearby, go to a hidden chest, or just keep on fighting. the experience is over when i choose it to be.

mo.co has been long in development and it shows because it is a very polished experience. even at the craziest screen filled moments i never noticed any lagging or graphical issues. the music is fantastic and the graphics have that bright "chunky" Supercell style. but i was surprised how barebones the tutorial was and some things in game are made much clearer than others. it feels like it's aimed more for "traditional gamers" than a causal audience but it wouldn't take may tweaks to make it more accessible to a causal audience.

Even tho mo.co is invite only at the moment, i do recommend it. i really enjoyed my time with it and i'm genuinely curious about the other modes i've yet to unlock and whether there's an actual story here. 

Version 8.96.1 Played.

Online Saturday - Squad Busters - Trying The Transformers Crossover Event

Squad Busters got some big changes and a crossover event in the latest app update so i wanted to try them out. i haven't played a game since the June video where i played it for the first time, https://youtu.be/91HK5li0Agg.

Like that video, i played 10 games but unlike that video i only managed to win 1 game. it was clear whilst playing it that the level of players has increased, which is good to know that there is a player base still playing it enough to have developed stronger squads and tactics. some aspects of the game also felt different. in the video i commented that i thought cutting trees was faster and whilst i played it i thought that the base movement speed was slower than i remembered. 

But i was here for the Transformers crossover event. i've been a fan of Transformers since i was a kid, i even have the movie across VHS, UMD, DVD, BluRay, and Digital. But i only knew of this event from the game's update page on the App Store. going in, i hadn't seen any trailers nor had i seen any social media updates. i make it clear from the start that i'm looking for the game to tell me about this cross over and to lead the way. unfortunately, it doesn't. i spend a while at the start of this video lost, unable to work out what i need to do or where it is.

I started the app, and there's nothing. after the first game i deal with the awards and chests i've unlocked and there's still nothing about this crossover. I checked the Squad News section and it was a copy paste of a press release. it just said what it brings to the game, not where it is or how it works. it wasn't until after the third game, which was Transformers themed, that i got information about it. Maybe it was explained in trailers and on social media, but like i said that's not how i found out about this. i left it up to the game and it failed.

Then came the fourth game and there was no Unicron and i didn't know if i was still doing Transformer stuff or not. thankfully it was quickly clear that i was as i earned some Energon at the start and i understood that i can collect Energon, to help with Transformer specific unlocks like Optimus Prime, in every level and Unicron is a level modifier that can be selected randomly like all the other level modifiers. 

I hope this video makes it clear how this crossover works. once things got going i was back to having a lot of fun. when i played the game in June i said it's a Game of the Year contender and coming back and playing it cemented that. Squad Busters is a lot of fun and Supercell  have done a fantastic job at making the gameplay accessible, balanced, and competitive. i rarely felt like i never had a chance and on a couple of occasions worked my way back up near to the top. Squad Busters is a must play and this Transformers event has been tied into the game very well and is well worth checking out. it appears that what ever characters you unlock from this event are kept once the event ends!

Version 7.301.3 played

Online Saturday - Squad Busters - My First Hour, 10 Games 5 Wins. It's A Game Of The Year Contender

This Saturday i tried out a new Mobile multiplayer game called Squad Busters. It's from Supercell  and is a cross over with their other games. This means, characters from those games are in Squad Busters and can be on your team. I've never played a Supercell game before so i don't have much context as to who the characters are or what game they're from. It didn't matter. i honestly think this is something that fans can enjoy but also those, like me, can enjoy too.

Squad Busters is a PVP game where 10 teams face off against each other. the aim is to get the most emeralds. to do so you start with one character and have to defeat monsters to earn coins. earning coins means you can open chests and get more characters. once you get 3 of the same character, they fuse into one larger character meaning you can get more. every time you open a chest and get a new character, the price increases. Eventually you start attacking the larger monsters or other players to get money and emeralds. once one of your characters has no health, your team gets smaller but chests drop in price so you have a chance to rebuild your squad. each round is 4 minutes long and you're slowly pushed towards the center of the map. along the edges, prickly vines appear whilst in the center is a huge emerald mine. if you loose all your characters, you're out. if you survive until the end, the team with the most emeralds wins.

If that sounds a little complicated, don't worry. Squad Busters has a fantastic tutorial that'll introduce most of these concepts to you as you play. i'd argue the game is deceptively simple at first as it can need a lot of strategy. the players you can use in a level are limited to those you've collected, either via post game chests or from the shop. So if you don't have Gregg, you're unable to cut down the coin trees. There are characters that can heal your squad, characters that can summon monsters for your squad, characters that can attack at range, and characters who attack close up. which ones of these you get pick from the in-game chests as you build your team can have a big impact on your results.

As a mobile game, it was great that there was no additional download when the game started and there were no ads being forced upon us. the screen layout looked well designed for the #iPhone14pro screen with it's rounded corners and #DynamicIsland not being an issue at all. what's probably more impressive is how easy the controls are. when you move, you don't attack. when you don't move, you attack. it's nice and simple but more importantly it's effective and makes the game very accessible.

Squad Busters not only is a Free To Play Mobile Game of the Year Contender, it's also a Multiplayer Game of the Year Contender on any platform. Supercell have crafted a game that that's equally simple and strategic, accessible and deep, and i lamented in the video that it's only out on mobile as it would be a lot of fun on a pocketable portable or #Switch. 

Version 4.326.10 played