Mobile Friday - Geo Gods - Minor Issues Don’t Distract From Solid Card Gameplay

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Geo Gods, another game developed by Arnold Rauers as i had previously checked out Miracle Merchant https://youtu.be/kpCxEvBWk4w, with art by Alba Ballesta González and sound and music by Marie Havemann. I played this on iOS but it's out on Android, too.

Geo Gods is an interesting card game in that it doesn't matter if you win as your score is an average taken from 6 games. each card is a god and the gods are placed onto a garden. each god has an ability that affects the field or the gods in your deck and each god has an elemental type. by the side of the field are 6 elemental power crystals, each with a power target. the goal is to get enough of each type of god on the field to activate a power crystal with bonus points awarded for getting all 6 in a round.

That was the first hint that it may be difficult to get all 6, and in the 6 games i played in this video i never got all 6 crystals. It's an interesting challenge as each god card has an ability that can have a positive or negative effect on either the garden field, your deck, or mana that's needed to put down the god cards. each spot in the garden also has a cost needed to put a card on it, but also a reward that it earns for activating a power crystal. 

This sounds difficult, and in-game the lengthy wordy tutorial does make it seem that way. but the game is still very playable. i may not have got all 6 crystals when i played and i may not have fully understood it, but as i played and tried again i did feel like i was learning and getting better. so it's very playable.

For me tho, some of the wording made things unclear. like after a game it says quit or restart. i feel that both words are wrong as quit sounds like the 6 games are ended and restart sounds like you start the 6 again from the beginning. i also felt that some of the card abilities didn't work as i expected them to from their description. maybe in trying to get the description to fit on the card, their choice of English was perhaps not clear enough.

But those are fairly minor and don't get in the way of some good card playing. what did frustrate me was learning on the home screen that i don't have all the cards because i haven't bought the game. this also meant that  mode, clearly labeled on the home screen, was also unplayable. it left me wondering if i actually can't finish the game because i don't have all the cards, whether those locked cards are more powerful. essentially, it was a bad user experience. 

But as the game has no intrusive adverts, or any adverts, nor does it have an additional download once started, i would say it's a great game to pick up and play. it's a little rough around the edges and that can be patched later. thankfully the core card game experience makes it a game that you can play one match of quickly or sit down and play 6 like i did in this video.

Mobile Friday - Miracle Merchant - As Good as it is, I’m Left Wanting More

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Miracle Merchant by TiNYTOUCHTALES. It's not a new game and it's out across the iOS app store and android.

I've seen the app icon on the store for a while but only recently downloaded it. but i didn't really know much about it other than it was a card game.  i think i saw it mentioned it was a solitaire style game, but i don't think that's quite accurate enough to describe it. It's more a card matching game. you need to match cards to what the customer needs, but also to what the cards themselves need.

It can sound a little complicated and after some of the games i've played recently i too was concerned that i was about to be dropped into the deep end. thankfully the game starts with a simple but effect tutorial that, to me, felt like it covered most of what you need to know. there were a couple of UI stuff i'm sure i worked out for myself. but i'd say the biggest thing Miracle Merchant doesn't do is keep a record of what card matches do.

there are 4 colors of cards and 1 extra trap color. each of these has a picture on them. it wasn't that clear whether the items made by combining four of them were a result of the cards used, the pictures on the cards used, or the amount of money you got from combining 4 cards. i would've liked a book next to me that would tell me what combinations i've found from the cards available.

There's a sense of wanting from this game throughout. it starts us off with a great introduction sequence as we move through a town. and that's the only time we get to see it. i was playing it for free so for me all there is are a few games of completing customer orders. it was shown that if i bought it, i'd get daily challenges unlocked. but it also looked like that was it for those who bought it, one extra mode. the game has great art style, all sorts of interesting characters on screen and a cool world too. but all i get to to in this game is match what the customer wants to the cards i have. i wanted more from this game because the world looked soo interesting.

Miracle Marchant is worth playing for free. there were no additional downloads, no intrusive adverts, and my phone didn't really get hot. but for many, i imagine that this game is a one and done. that's not to say it's bad, i don't think it is. but once you've won, there was nothing left that i wanted to go back and play. i imagine that'll be the case for a few who try it.