Mobile Friday - Age of Empires Mobile - It Tells You, Lets You Do Soo Little It's Like Playing A QTE

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried Age of Empires Mobile from TiMi Studio Group on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

I’ve known of the Age of Empires series for a long time, it’s always been a game I’ve been curious about but I’ve never really had a PC/Laptop that could tackle it. When I saw there was a mobile version, I was really curious as to what they were going to do. Would it be a straight up PC port, would be a bespoke version of the game. Well, after trying out this mobile version, what ever it is I’m no longer interested in trying out other games in the series. 

I say it in the video, but this must be one of the best looking bad games I’ve played all year. Bugs aside, the game has issues throughout. However, it starts really strong setting up what I expected to be an interesting story and that’s essentially the last time I saw the story in this one hour video.

Age of Empires Mobile has this issue where it introduces something and then never brings it up again or never explains it. I’ve mentioned the story, but there are gameplay elements. There was a need for a scout, and it never happened again. There are bodies strewn about that we talk about but never acknowledge. We start in someone’s abandoned house but only spend a few minutes there as suddenly a whole town, with castle has been built, but not by us. Tho later we are able to put down things to be built, but it’s once everything has been built. 

Another issue is the game failing to answer the question “why”. This happens throughout this video so I’ll keep it to two. The first gameplay mechanic is our boat. I never built it. It was never introduced. It was just there and were tasked to go to an island and beat the bad guys there. Once done, we start earning a coin. Again, it’s never introduced what that coin is used for or that we earn it per hour.

We start the game with a French hero. We have play as that character in a very medieval European world. The game has built a medieval European town for us. And then the game stops and we can change civilization. WHAT? I don’t know why, it’s never told. I have no idea why and it was extremely frustrating at the time. I picked England, as I’m from England, and the game continues as if nothing has happened and it’s not discussed. 

Age of Empires Mobile feels like a game with many parts that are not connected. It doesn’t feel like an accessible game for new players, either. I don’t know how fans of the series would react to this game, it doesn’t feel like it was designed for them either. So I don’t know who this is built for, and as it is it’s not worth playing as in a way, do we even play it beyond pressing a button to complete a mission. 

Version 1.3.101 Played.

Mobile Friday - Infinity Nikki - A Game On Mobile Rather Than A Mobile Game

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Infinity Nikki from Papergames on my iPhone 14 Pro.

As you see from this video, Infinity Nikki makes a bad first impression on mobile. first there's an additional 7GB download, then it has to verify the extra data. next it wants to restart the game, which actually means closing the game to the phone home screen. when you restart the game it then spends 4 minutes or so compiling shaders. In all, it took nearly 20 minutes from starting the game to actually getting to play the game. Infinity Nikki is a game that you must start on Wifi, tho i don't remember if ever warning us that it's additional data download wouldn't be suitable via a mobile network.

Graphically, at first glances it looks amazing but if you look around the edges you can see, and not unsee it, that Infinity Nikki is pushing my #iPhone14Pro to it's limits. there is continuous pop-in, to a distracting degree, and the frame rate appears to suffer fairly often. As the end of this video shows, the game still has some bugs, too.

For me, i found it's soundtrack to be just as impressive as the graphics but it too seems to have issues. there are moments when there's no sound and it really sticks out as the back ground music and sound effects in this game is rather good. there were a couple of moments where the chilled relax nature of the soundtrack didn't match the action on screen or the seriousness of the story either.

This mismatch of tone was something i felt throughout the demo. it wasn't just the music. the game has a clothes making mechanic that has no fanfare about it and is just text on screen. whereas the clothes summoning mechanic has more flash around it and feels more of an event. In this video our characters travel to 2 new worlds and seem surprisingly fine about it all. even the locals they meet don't seem to mind a walking talking teddy bear looking character. it reminds me how weird this similar situation felt in the free to play game Palia, https://youtu.be/B-MIuLyos1g. But the one that really stood out the most, and annoyed me the most, was the tutorial. Infinity Nikki has a fantastic tutorial that makes it an obvious choice to gamers who haven't played too many games. and then there are times when the tutorials revert to simple text boxes. it often tells us what button to press to get out of menus, but also at times doesn't. it mostly puts things into context, too, but it completely drops the ball at the Tidal Guidance section.

This leaves the story and honestly, i don't think even after an hour, i fully know what's happening. Infinity Nikki seems to be a bit of a slow burn at the start and i wouldn't be surprised if it would take another hour or two to fully grasp what's happening. We're teased something about our mum, in the first place we visited, but our character seemed not to notice it. We didn't learn too much about the second world we're in or if we're meant to do more than just find the mythical clothes.

I can't help but wonder if the console experience of playing Infinity Nikki is much better than playing it on iOS. this really did feel like i was playing the lesser version of this game, so much so that i don't think i would recommend it to those who could play it on console. there's the ability to log into the game with a PlayStation account but it never really says if there's cross save between phones and PS5. For many games with rough launches i keep the game on my phone and would check back in on my own time. but for Infinity Nikki, i've already deleted the game. 

Version 1.0.1 Played.

Mobile Friday - The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure - Story And Mechanics Not Cohesive, But Easy To Play

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure from Super Planet on my iPhone 14 Pro.

The game's art style caught my attention in the app store but it was the game's Guild Mechanic that made me want to try it. unfortunately, i was not able to try out the Guild feature in The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure as i wasn't able to progress the game enough to unlock it. when i checked out the App Store page, i was concerned that this game may have an additional download but thankfully that wasn't the case.

Right from the start, The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure is a great looking and great sounding game. the intro cinematic/tutorial also makes a great first impression. but after that it's almost relentless. The game doesn't have a tutorial that most other games do, it's similar to last week's King Smith: Forgemaster Quest, https://youtu.be/Jdjm2JGh3xE, in that the game has a mission system that helps teach aspects of gameplay. when there's a mission, you press it and it takes you to where you need to go to complete it. But this means that the main screen starts filling up with icons quickly and at times it can feel somewhat overwhelming.

Other aspects of the game's design have made the game feel streamlined and easy to play. the first example i came across was with the loot. when i obtained a better item, instead of having to go through menus to equip it i could tap a notification on the screen and it automatically equips it. i can visually see the item on my character, too.

But whilst decisions like that make The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure easy to pick up and play, i played most of it one handed, it also means that there are aspects of the game that are not tied into the game's story. the one that stood out the most was the summon system. it doesn't feel tied into the game world at all. 

I think The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure would be a great idle game for many players. the ease of play would be good for those who commute, the story helps elevate it above many other idle games, and it will take time to unlock all the features of the game. But it's the game world and how disconnected it feels from the game's story, the tutorial, and the missions, that will probably mean The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure won't win many, if any, awards. However i think it does more than enough right to be a pleasant gaming experience.

Version 1.0.10 Played.

Mobile Friday - King Smith: Forgemaster Quest - It's Buggy And Has No Tutorial But It's Still Good

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out King Smith : Forgemaster Quest from Cat Lab on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

I mention it at the start of the video, but i'll repeat myself here, the recording of this video didn't go to plan. my recording stopped halfway and i lost that file. i restarted the recording and continued my first playthrough of King Smith : Forgemaster Quest. the start of this video is that continuation and it uses the gameplay i recorded. after that, i have included my audio from when i started playing the game. as that video recording is lost, i have included "B-Roll" of King Smith : Forgemaster Quest's App Store Page. 

I was interested in trying out King Smith : Forgemaster Quest because i wanted to see how it would combine forge, dungeon, and shop keeping. i have played a few games similar to this in the past and really enjoyed them so i came into this with some hope of finding something cool.

Unfortunately, King Smith : Forgemaster Quest lacks a tutorial and my first 30 minutes or more were frustrating as i tried to work things out. it's not just a lack of a tutorial that makes starting King Smith : Forgemaster Quest frustrating, some of the UI just doesn't make sense. one of the bigger culprits was levelling up our heroes, on that screen the information on how much of an item we'd use to level up must've been a pixel or two high.

Another frustrating aspect of this first hour were the bugs. you'll hear when the gameplay video starts that there's no BGM. that stopped within the first 30 minutes. when the boss levels start there's a splutter of sound before it starts and fails. when i went into a portal, one of my characters got stuck a floor ahead of my team and just spun in circles. sometimes there were sfx, some times there weren't.

but despite these issues, i did have a good time playing King Smith : Forgemaster Quest. there is something to it's gameplay that's simple but effective. the graphics are good and there are some nice little animations here and there. when i heard the music, it wasn't too bad. I would say the good outweighs the bad, it's still possible to have a good time with it.

But all these issues do mean i won't be considering King Smith : Forgemaster Quest for Mobile Game of the Year. i would still recommend it to people looking for a fun new idle game, but i'd also tell them to watch out for updates via the app store.

Version 1.0.13 Played.

You can try out Tiny Cafe by using my invite code is: BA09G11D

Mobile Friday - The Get Out Kids - A Highly Recommended Great Looking Free Narrative Puzzle Game

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Get Out Kids from Frosty Pop on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've not been great at narrative puzzle games. there are times when the game's logic and my logic don't match and it can become frustrating trying to solve long winded puzzles. an example of this is when i played When the Past Was Around on Switch. some of the shorter puzzles in that game were fine, but there were times i just didn't understand what it expected me to do. Ultimately it was the story that kept me going, and you can check out that video at https://youtu.be/DAdBca0e-mI.

The Get Out Kids starts with a fairly unique characterful home screen. when i hit the Let The Adventure Begin button i was pleasantly surprised by how many chapters there were to this story. it gave me hope that The Get Out Kids was going to be more story focused than puzzle based. it starts with a prologue that tells a rather sad story with text on screen. for me, i had no issue with the size of the font, but it would've been nice to have a font size option for better accessibility as other aspects of the game allow us to zoom in to see things better but this part doesn't.

With the sad story finished, we time skip to what i assume to be the game's present and a couple of the main characters. After some story and introductions to them, we start with Molly's room and it looks great. there's a lot of character in the room, the same with Salim's room too, but it's not overwhelming. everything was nice and clear and easy to work out what's what. in this room and the next, our goals were simply find stuff and maybe do a light puzzle or two.

It's now Chapter 3 and this was a very short chapter that had a simple puzzle before we got some story from the town about a pet goat. then it's Chapter 4 and the final chapter i did for this video. in another beautifully rendered location we're tasked with making a noise and creating an escape. each puzzle happens in turn so it never felt overwhelming but what stood out the most to me here, other than the floating heads, was the text for Molly's dog Moses. the game didn't need to give the dog some character, it would've made sense by what had happened in the story for the dog to go when it was told to. but the developers wrote 3 sentences about this dog's character and temperament that weren't needed but really added to the game.

Back at the home screen, on the left side there's an icon for Computer Games and i tried out the 7 bite sized games that come free with The Get Out Kids. they're retro styled but have some modern ideas. i really liked the first one, Spaced Out, and think it could be it's own separate game in a Bit.Trip or Geometry Wars style game. the game i didn't understand was SeeSaw.

i really enjoyed my time with The Get Out Kids. one reason why i stopped playing the story when i did was because i wanted to take my time with it, maybe record the story as part of my Stories on Tuesday series because i was enjoying it. but it wasn't just the story, i enjoyed the tasks needed to progress the story. it really felt like a game crafted for a mobile experience. The Get Out Kids is a game i would recommend to anyone with an iPhone and it's seriously making a challenge as one of my Mobile Game of the Year games. if i could make a suggestion to the developers, it's that i'd like an option to turn the background music down. at present, there's only on or off but i'd like a halfway level of volume. other than that, i can't think of anything else The Get Out Kids needs.

Version 1.0.2 Played.

Mobile Friday - Pokémon TCG Pocket - Open Packs With Minimal Flair, Get To Level 3 For Card Battles

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Pokémon TCG Pocket from The Pokemon Company on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've always been a bit of an admirer of Pokémon TCG, not so much because of the game but because of the artwork. i have never collected Pokémon cards before so i was looking forward to trying this out. 

But Pokémon TCG never really matched my enthusiasm. it's a somewhat sterile experience. the excitement i felt of getting a cool looking card was never matched by the experience of getting it in the game. By having little to no fanfare, it comes across as a generic app even tho the experience of collecting is quite personal.

Thankfully, getting the cards is mostly straightforward with a decent enough tutorial on how things work. But there are Ui aspects that give the impression that not everyone was communicating with each other. the home screen has buttons on the top left that look like we can do something, but when you click on them it opens up and we can't. i don't understand why it looks like it's something we can use when we actually can't. it should be greyed out on the home screen or not there at all. 

This lack of unity appears when battles are unlocked. i don't understand why some parts of the battle mechanics require us to touch a card, when others require a hold and press motion. there are times when you have to go from one style to another. so when the battle section starts, you'll see i get more frustrated with the overly complicated controls.

But to get to this part of the "game" you have to get to Level 3, something that can easily take 2 days due to the pack cool down timers, which are 12 hours. This feature is locked on the home screen, whereas the example i mentioned above isn't as clearly locked. i don't understand why such a big aspect of the game is locked behind player level, when it doesn't matter.

When you start the battle mode, you don't use the cards you've unlocked. you have to do the tutorial first and for this you're given cards. when you complete it you're given a deck of 20 cards, tho for some crazy reason i wouldn't be able to check out this deck for a while to come. when i stumbled upon the deck menu, i was given the opportunity to create my own deck with my own cards. This is what should've been put behind player level, not the whole game mode but this aspect.

Pokémon TCG Pocket isn't a great user experience. it doesn't feel cohesive, it doesn't match the emotion we the player feel, and it kinda feels a little old. If you want to collect packs, then it's fine. if you want to battle, it's fine. unfortunately, in it's current state Pokémon TCG Pocket is nothing more than fine.

Version 1.0.5 Played.

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Tiny Cafe from Nanali Studios on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I have played a few of these animal themed restaurant simulators for Mobile Friday. Campfire Cat Cafe, https://youtu.be/Zhz5-EKj2NM, has been one of the ones i would recommend but i can now add Tiny Cafe to that list, too. These games all tend to have great art style, but then suffer with issues like they're too grindy, Cat Snack Bar, https://youtu.be/hhqyaTmhXw4 and Cats & Soup, https://youtu.be/B5_zo0ov4IM and https://youtu.be/hCvATMGu-9g, being too big examples of this. or if they try to have a story it feels like a side thought and isn't too in-depth, Animal Restaurant https://youtu.be/DZhTicMX4Bo is an example of this.

In the hour i played with Tiny Cafe, i do think i was at the beginning of the grind in terms of the basic gameplay but the story aspect of the game was just getting started and i was interested in where it would go. we not only have the story of our main character, but there's the story of his friend, and the stories of those who visit our shop. these stories are an effective way to get us to come back to play the game.

The start of the game does well to incorporate the games story into the tutorial and it takes us through basic gameplay in a way that's a little handholdy but not in a patronising way. the tutorial was soo good that i was surprised when it failed to do some basic things. there are icons on the screen that the game doesn't tell us about but there was also a way to take a screenshot of your cafe and the game hadn't told us about it.

the characters and their animations are great. For the most part, i enjoyed the art style of the characters and the cooking equipment. but the background details seemed a bit too flat, basic, and not quite in the same style as other stuff. it's noticeable but not distracting. the game does something a little unique where you can not only zoom into a specific piece of equipment but you can also rotate around it a little. Tiny Cafe doesn't just have traditional cooking and cafe stuff, there are some fun things as well like a bath.

I would recommend Tiny Cafe. it's one of the better restaurant simulation games i've played but also one of the better ones with a story as well so i'm interested in returning to see what happens next.

Version 1.0.8 Played.

Mobile Friday - BLEACH Soul Puzzle - A Fun Polished Match 3 Game That's Refreshingly Simple

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out BLEACH Soul Puzzle from KLab, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I'm a fan of Bleach and have been for a long time. i've played a few games from Bleach, like the PS3 game Bleach: Soul Resurrección https://youtube.com/shorts/2ml6Ik5EuqI, and KLab's Bleach: Brave Souls on PS4. looking at the screenshots, i knew that it was going to be a Match 3 game, but because it was Bleach themed i wanted to try it so that's why i gave it a go this week.

Maybe i'm a little jaded with Match 3 games, but going in i wasn't expecting too much from BLEACH Soul Puzzle. it does make a nice first impression. i thought that it's tutorial was simple but effective and it got across the basics of gameplay. the graphics looked HD and appropriate for Bleach, and while the music was repetitive and a little generic it also felt appropriate. BLEACH Soul Puzzle didn't feel like a match 3 game that was reskinned to be Bleach themed.

the biggest surprise, in a nice way, was how simple BLEACH Soul Puzzle was. Match 3 games tend to add mechanics to try and differentiate themselves from each other. whether that's challenge mechanics, score mechanics, or something with the power-ups. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, as long as their tutorials are decent enough to get it all across then i have no issue with them. But BLEACH Soul Puzzle has none of that. it's goal is simply erase a set number of things, whether that's a gem, gems, or other stuff on the game grid. 

As the game's tutorial is solid, the goals are explained, and the overall presentation being polished, BLEACH Soul Puzzle works very well. i'd even recommend it to Match 3 fans, who like myself, may find the simplicity of the experience refreshing. 

BLEACH Soul Puzzle does have one or two issues. the game did have an extra download. it wasn't huge, 107 MB, but i wasn't expecting there to be one at all. i also think the game should explain some of the menus, like collection and gallery, before they're unlocked, and that the Exchanges menu should be locked until a little later in the game. as there's no icon for a Store, the game should direct players to the coins.

With BLEACH Soul Puzzle being based on the current Thousand Year Blood War and that series not being finished, i feel that this game is going to be around for a while, maybe even years. once that series is finished, it's possible they'll rebrand the game for the next story arc or even go back to previous arcs. BLEACH Soul Puzzle is well worth playing now and it could be a game you return to on and off for a lot longer.

Version 1.0.4 Played.

Mobile Friday - Disney Pixel RPG - A Basic Gacha RPG That Needs A Little Work

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Disney Pixel RPG, from GungHo Online Entertainment, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding this game when it was announced so i took a step back from it and didn't learn what it was. so i go into this not knowing much more than what the screenshots in the app store show.

Unfortunately, Disney Pixel RPG starts with a bad first impression as i had to download extra data. it wasn't as much as some other games, but it was more than i would want to download over a mobile network. it did warn that the game was going to do this download, but it didn't warn about this eating into mobile data, some games have started to provide that warning and recommend that such a download be done over wi-fi.

Next is a basic avatar creator and then we're thrown into gameplay. it's here that the game tells us what it's story is and i think it does this fairly well. once we're told about it we're put into a combat scenario and shown how to fight in Disney Pixel RPG. the controls can be set to auto or each character can be given instructions. a cool feature is that we're shown is that you don't need to go into a menu to set a command, you can flick the screen in a certain direction to command a character. But it also shows how basic some parts of the game are. there's no "battle music" or "victory theme", it all just feels generic music when you're in a world.

After this the tutorial mostly stops. it's weird that Disney Pixel RPG's tutorial had been great up to this point but then just drops us in the home world. other than some basic party stuff, there's a lot of the menus not talked about. an example is how i was completing missions throughout this video but had no idea where that section was. things were happening in combat that weren't being explained, mainly status conditions. things like this were making the game feel old, like it should've come out a few years ago.

The Gacha mechanic is another example of this. games still have it, but some of the better games find a way to incorporate it into the game world. In Disney Pixel RPG, it feels like a separate thing from the game's story, just like how games used to have such a feature. It's also not as flashy as most modern mobiles games.

a weird thing about Disney Pixel RPG is how it uses abbreviations. none of them are detailed. some can be worked out or at the very least guessed, like i did with LBrk Eff guessing it was Level Break Effect. but next to it is a "i" button that doesn't show what the abbreviation meant. There were some others i had no idea what was being abbreviated. 

In it's current state, Disney Pixel RPG is playable and fine. but it's not hard to see issues. i found the High Graphic mode seemingly broken, what looked like place holder text behind final text, and sounds far to loud and annoying. i highly recommend tuning the sounds as Disney Pixel RPG has some basic sounds that can be piercing and annoying. there are aspects of it's design that are also frustrating, like it never shows in numbers how much health we have left. Or that our team has a power level but the enemy doesn't so we don't know if we're about to waste energy fighting an enemy we can't win.

Version 1.0.3 Played.

Mobile Friday - Punko.io: Tower Defense - A Successful Combination Of Roguelike And Tower Defense

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Punko.io: Tower Defense, from Agonalea Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

It's a combination of a Roguelike and a Tower Defense game. it's always interesting to see which elements of a roguelike are used and how they're used in combination with tower defense. At first glance it may look similar to  Kitty Keep, which we previously looked at https://youtu.be/aQNjKxIjSJg, but Punko.io: Tower Defense is not an idle game and each of the roguelike and tower defense elements are controlled more by the player than the computer.

The roguelike element of the game makes criticizing it a little difficult. one of the goals with that play style is repeatedly dying and working out what elements are repeated, learning how the loop works, and slowly making progress. But, seeing as Punko.io: Tower Defense starts off with telling us something wrong, i think it's fair to criticize the game's poor tutorial. Punko.io: Tower Defense starts straight into a level and we're soon instructed to choose a card or upgrade, but we can't upgrade as there's only 1 playable card. then the tutorial stops. if the game is going to have a tutorial, it should be correct, but for it to then stop and leave us alone is unfair to new/unfamiliar players. it may work on a console market which has more "seasoned" players but the mobile market is more casual. the game should at least ask if we want a tutorial, fix the first command, and offer some extra information to help new players.

The tutorial for the home menu is better than the gameplay one, but itself still has issues. near the end of the video i get a key, but at no point does the game tell me where or what to do with it. i thought i would be unlocking some sort of gatcha area but the forth unlock was evolution. i had to guess that the key unlocked a chest and that chest was in the shop. but i was surprised that i had two sets of keys for another chest. i can understand, to a point, why the gameplay may have less information, but the home menu aspect of the game needs to be better.

When it comes to equipment i'd argue that Punko.io: Tower Defense gives us too much information. the way the equipment aspect of the game works feels old and poorly executed. when you get 1 item, then it's fine, but as soon as you get more than one of the same item, it's difficult to manage. in the video i showed an example with shoes. i had one equipped and then got a second one. both were "good" quality. but there's no way to compare their basic stats. you have to look at one, remember, close, click on the second, and then compare. that might be manageable for HP stat, but both items have a long list of "Grade Skills" that unlock as you upgrade them, leaving us with much more to remember and making a quick task take longer. Many games have Quick Equip button that'll simply equip the items with the highest stats and that would work here. but the game needs to present the Grade Skills better.

Punko.io: Tower Defense's core gameplay loop is simple and effective. the character art is stylised and cool. graphically it's nice to look at, play, and it didn't heat up my phone. it mostly does ok with the Dynamic Island but at times it's off by a few pixels. for a lot of players it's a good game to have. but it's not the most approachable game, it feels like it was designed and made for a more experienced audience. the non-gameplay side of the game feels too basic and not as well designed as the rest of the experience and so sticks out because of that. i would recommend Punko.io: Tower Defense as no two runs would be the same, but it does need a little more work.

Version 1.0.0 Played.

Mobile Friday - Power Rangers Mighty Force - It's Fine, But Lacks Charm And The Grind Hit Hard

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Power Rangers Mighty Force, from East Side Games , on my #iPhone 14 Pro. 

I'm familiar with the recent games that East Side Games have released, i checked out Star Trek Lower Decks, https://youtu.be/5rA9Fb4SVhI, and have personally played their Doctor Who game. both of these are idle games based around an established franchise so going into Power Rangers Mighty Force i had a basic idea of how the idle part of the game would work. what got me interested is something they showed in the app store, the fighting. 

the start of the game gets across the story premise and tutorial with both being told mostly fine. i'm familiar with the early Power Rangers and i found the Rita Repulsa in this game isn't quite the Rita i remember. but other than that, in this first hour the story we get mostly works. it does feel like they're trying really hard, maybe a little too hard this early on, introducing the idle mechanic. 

Having played two of their recent releases, i was a little disappointed that East Side Games hadn't done much to differentiate this from them. It's the same idea in a new skin and the battle mechanic doesn't do enough to make this feel unique. The battle mechanic feels too bare bones and isn't explained as well as other aspects of the game. in this video i talk about how i have to remember how each character attacks as the game doesn't tell me. Plus, there are traits introduced that can help in fights and i've already got to the point where it's asking for characters with traits and i don't have them.

What also comes across as somewhat lazy is the music. apart from the odd guitar riff, it doesn't feel like any Power Rangers i've seen in the past. it's possible this music style is relevant to newer versions, then if that's the case why isn't there a large selection of musical styles for each era of Power Rangers. 

Ultimately, Power Rangers Mighty Force isn't a bad game but i would only go so far as to say that it's Fine at best. the basics are solid but there's not much more than that. it treats the Power Rangers Fine, but doesn't seem to go over and above with it. for example, as someone who's only familiar with the earlier stuff, i wanted the game to celebrate the other eras with something like a Wiki or just simply saying on the character screen which show they're from. Power Rangers Mighty Force doesn't do anything to reinvent the genre and feels a little old nowadays. but if you're a Power Rangers fan it's a fine Idle Game.

Version 1.0.0 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

Mobile Friday - Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG - The Roguelike Needs A Little Tweaking, But It's Good

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG, from Another Jay, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

It's a combination of a Match 4 game and a Roguelike and going in i was very curious how it would be balanced. the Match 4 gameplay style is similar to the famous mobile game 10000000, and it's later sequel You Must Build A Boat. so i was familiar with that gameplay style, but the game also does well with it's tutorial in not only explaining but also showing how it works.

With the tutorial being so strong for one aspect of the game, i was disappointed in how it stops with the other aspect of the game. Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG has been developed clearly with mobile in mind, it's playable with one hand and is welcoming to new players. so it's hard to understand why the developer decided to stop being so welcoming when it came to the Roguelike aspect of gameplay. There's no tutorial and the game doesn't even push the player to that aspect of the game. it's entirely possible to play Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG and never interact with it's Roguelike half when you first play it.

clearly, the game needs to either hold the players hand and take them directly to this section so they can spend the ability points gained from levelling up, or change the labels to make it clear that you can quit and upgrade. As for the Roguelike aspect of the game, i learned that you do not keep any in-game upgrades you obtain. Nor do you keep money. but you do gain XP and when you level up you gain Skill Points. these are permeant and you can spend these points on the home screen in the Skill Tree section. 

But i felt that this section also needs a little work. i didn't feel like i gained anything useful from the first 2 upgrades. i feel the start of this Skill Tree needs some tweaking, some rebalancing, to help make the first step a noticeable change for the player. gaining a secondary weapon did little to nothing in the first stage as my first weapon was able to kill most things in one hit anyway and was more powerful than the secondary skill i could equip. I think moving the third skill, a new Grid Power block, down to first and then having Grid Power Weapons spawn in the level, or after a boss, would be a better way of introducing the mechanic but also showing how it can make you stronger.

The music in Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG is fantastic and i'm glad there are separate tunes for bosses in the levels. a little more fanfare on levelling up would've been nice, and helped draw attention to unlocked skill points, but what's there is great and i would like the soundtrack.

Even as it currently is, Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG is a good and well worth downloading. It's one i'm going to play in my free time and i will keep a look out for updates to it as there's a solid base to work from. 

Version 0.3.3 Played.

Mobile Friday - The Elder Scrolls: Castles - I Can't Recommend It

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Elder Scrolls: Castles, from #Bethesda, on my #iPhone 14 Pro. 

After spending an hour with it, i can't recommend it. i'm just as surprised as you are. the game has been in development for such a long time that it's surprising that it's launched in a somewhat broken state. when zooming in and out in a mobile game causes soo many issues, it's not good.

But it's not just that. it's design feels old, if not actually designed with mobile in mind. the best example of that is just how poor the tutorial is. more than once it would mention something and not even tell me where it is or how to do the thing it wants me to do. Tutorials in modern big mobile games tend to be a little more hand holdy, it's a smart way to slowly introduce game mechanics to the player but also it slows the player down so that the "grind", if there is any, is delayed or hidden. in The Elder Scrolls: Castles, i felt like i was grinding away fairly early on. and there are whole important aspects of the game that are never explained, like the whole day night cycle.

And talking about the design, it feels like the game was made by two teams who didn't talk to each other. one team did the mechanics whilst the other did the story beats. but in the hour i played, neither worked well together. for example, in these sort of games you need characters working to produce goods. but The Elder Scrolls: Castles would continuously bring up things it wants us to do that took characters away from making the goods the game had also told us we need. the most frustrating of these was getting a shrine we could get married at, but to do so meant removing one or two characters from making stuff. later, we got the ability to make a bed so that those characters could have a child. but again, you have to remove those characters from working. up to this point, i had only gained 2 or 3 extra characters which wasn't enough to fully populate all the jobs i need to survive. But that's not all as the game had also introduced the ability to sell stuff to earn money, which i needed to do, so i not only needed goods to survive but also goods to sell, and then there's the goods i need to help villagers around the castle. it ended up with the game wanting me to do two different things that weren't compatible with each other.

With the content being so thin that the grind started early and the game mechanics fighting each other, i'd hope that the story at least would be what saved The Elder Scrolls: Castles. But i'd argue there's little to no story. apart from our father at the start of the game, there was no significant story element for the rest of the hour. there were small interactions that helped talk about what was happening outside the castle, which we couldn't see happen, but other than that i felt like the game had no story to tell.

Even the graphical style of the game felt old. it looks fine, but it doesn't wow me. the style they've gone with doesn't look great zoomed out and has little to no character until you zoom in. The castle itself looks odd, especially the areas yet to be built on.

It feels like Bethesda tried to shoe horn The Elder Scrolls into a "Fallout Shelter" style of game and in doing so they lost what makes an Elder Scrolls game fun to play and what makes a Fallout Shelter game interesting and unpredictable. what we have here is a bad Fallout Shelter style game that's also a bad Elder Scrolls game.

Version ? Played.

Online Saturday - DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi - BETA - 6 Matches, 5 Wins

For Online Saturday i went back to DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi on my iPhone for maybe the last time during it's BETA, and played 6 more games. I did 2 matches each with Vegeta, Goku, and Krillin.

DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi isn't well optimised for iPhone so i tried changing some settings before this video to make it better. i never really got a consistent 60fps, but it did feel smoother than the previous two videos. Plus, my phone lasted longer before the screen dimmed before it over heated. 

Version 0.8.1 Played.

Mobile Friday - LEVELS II - A Simple Well Executed Gameplay Mechanic That's Difficult To Master

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out LEVELS II, from Flow inc., on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I had played Favo from Flow inc. before and i'm familiar with tile merging games so i had a rough idea of what to expect from LEVELS II, but i was more curious if and how they'd lean into the RPG aspect of the game. Games likes Three's and 2048 have a simple idea and you play until you can't make any moves and that's it. it's all a little basic. so i came into this hoping that as a sequel, LEVELS II might offer more than just a gameplay mechanic.

It doesn't. LEVELS II doesn't even have a home screen, it loads straight into a game. there's no dungeon theme either, it's a plane white screen with the game board. thankfully there is a great tutorial waiting for us and it goes over nearly every aspect of the game simply and straight forwardly. apart from the Lightning mechanic. what i took away from the tutorial and what actually happens in the game were two very different things and it really needs to be made clear that the tutorial gives you a free one to use and after that, you have to watch an advert to get another or pay for the premium version of LEVELS II.

The adverts in LEVELS II come when you finish a game and start another. there's no warning, but thankfully that was the only time when an advert would start. As i say in the video, if the button was worded to say "watch an advert and start a new game" then i would've had no issues with an advert then starting.

There's nothing wrong with the mechanic of merging tiles, LEVELS II has done it in such a way that there's great depth of strategy to it. it works well with the minimal style of the game. But with this being a sequel, i was expecting more than just gameplay refinement. this could have a fun Quest mode where you're given tasks to defeat a certain number of specific enemies. there could've been an option for a dungeon background instead of plain white or black. there are no summons, no persistent character level, and none of the money we collect carries over for us to buy stuff. we could use the coins and buy decorations to decorate the game screen. It wouldn't surprise me to see LEVELS II re-skinned in the future with a different theme, like Christmas, because there's so little to it.

I would highly recommend getting LEVELS II, it is fun and there's a lot of strategy, and maybe luck, to it's gameplay. But there's nothing else to the game.

Version 1.0.6 Played.

Online Saturday - DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi - BETA - 6 Matches, 5 Wins

For Online Saturday i went back to DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi on my iPhone and played 6 more games. the first 4 matches were with Android 18, the 5th match was with Krillin, and the final match was with Vegeta.

When i played it for Mobile Friday, https://youtu.be/TbtJ0tSpA_M, i only used Goku and Android 18 so it was nice to try a couple of other characters. they each do play differently and i enjoyed using Krillin more than i thought i would. There's a little talk about framerate in this video, but other than that it's focus is on beating the opposing team. 

Version 0.8.0 Played.

Mobile Friday - DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi - BETA - Good Gameplay But Hard To Follow The Action

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi, from Bandai Namco, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I didn't know about this BETA until i saw DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi high up in the game charts on the App Store. so going in, i really didn't know what to expect. the screenshots they used didn't really give many clues either. all i knew was that it was an online multiplayer game that's 4 vs. 4.

Unfortunately, it starts with an extra 1 GB download so it's best to do this on Wi-fi. about halfway through the download there is the option to start the tutorial, but for this video i decided to download everything first. there is no trailer, no art, no screenshots, and no music during this process.

the tutorial for DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi is too basic. i'm not familiar with #MOBA type games, with Pokémon Unite being my main experience, so i wanted and needed more information that it gave. i found it difficult to read the map in the top left and difficult to follow the tutorial instructions on the middle left as the action takes place on the right side. there was not enough verbal instructions from Whis and Beerus, and the map is far too small to be glanceable. 

A lot of things were far too small in this BETA. i do HDMI out to a TV so i can check what the Dynamic Island is covering but i ended up having to look at the TV as a lot of text was tiny, especially Japanese Katakana names, and character thumbnails were useless at times.

The action on screen is also often too small. because we get to see a lot of the map, many of the characters are small. the enemies have labels, but they're even smaller than the characters. with things like grass blocking views, at times it was hard to work out who was friend and who was foe. the Z Fighters are a little easy to spot because of the Red "uniforms" but then again Android 18 doesn't wear a uniform and is harder to spot. when there's Gods of Destruction, Enemies, Team Mates, Opposition Players, and a Zeno all on screen at the same time, it's essentially luck and chaotic.

But i'm not saying that the gameplay is bad. a lot of it makes sense and how things progress make sense in how they describe it. there is some good solid action. the next layer of flashiness also works. there's flair when going Super Saiyan and the camera zooms in close. the same happens when doing a solo finishing move or with a team mate. it adds a satisfying sense of epicenes and power to the action. 

I recommend people try this beta. for Dragon Ball Z and Super fans, it'll be fun. for MOBA fans i think it'll be something simple and easy to play. but i hope that there's enough time for the developers to overhaul the tutorial, to add a main menu tutorial, and to add the option for players to zoom into the action a little more. The developers also need to work on iPhone specific aspects. the Dynamic Island got in the way a little here and there. the PC style graphic options make little sense on iPhone, more so when there's no visual example of what any of them do, and very few games get my iPhone that hot and keep it so hot that the screen remains permanently dimmed throughout the video.

Version 0.8.0 Played.

Mobile Friday - AFK Journey - With Good Graphics, Music, And Story It's Well Worth Playing

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out AFK Journey, from Farlight Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

There had been a little fanfare about this game, with it being available for pre-order on thee iOS store. looking at the screenshots and video on the app store, it was clear the game had good graphics but i was also interested in the character creator and how or if they would incorporate it into the story.

Unfortunately, we start with a download choice. we can either download everything, about 2.5GB, or we can download about 94MB and have the game continue to download in the background when it needs to. i don't recommend this as it's not clear when this will happen or how much it'll download. you really should play the game on Wifi first and then play it out and about once the download is finished. there's not much to do whilst you wait either, other than some good music that is.

We get a cool opening cut scene that hints as to our purpose in the game and once the game starts its also clear that it's a good looking game. it's not long before we're set to leave for the outside world and then the game introduces the character creator as a way for us to hide that we're Merlin. this was such a great way to incorporate a character creator feature within the game's universe.

AFK Journey also introduces it's "Loot Box" mechanic in just as a smart way, too. the premise is that we're going to need support on our journey so letters are sent out requesting help and when we get a reply it's either items that help or characters that can join our party. 

The tutorial starts off being useful, with the game using our amnesia as a way to give us a tutorial. it's a clever way of incorporating it into the story, but it doesn't pay off as well as the two previous examples. it feels more bare bones. i feel like it could've leant into the amnesia more, giving us reminders to upgrade, or asking us if we'd like reminders. The tutorial does a poor job at explaining the busy UI around the edges, too. it's not incorporated into the story, and when the AFK button was introduced i didn't understand what it was for. 

With how well so much of the game works, having such an average to poor tutorial really sticks out. but there are some other things that became noticeable. a big one was when we were going between two locations. there are optional battles and the enemies have their level above their heads. but this is a meaningless piece of information as it doesn't tell us how strong they are. it's not one on one battles, it's a group vs a group. the information we want is the strength of the group as well as the strength of ours. that information is only present when we're on the set-up before a battle, and it's not overly clear if we're about to retreat or not, there's just some non-descript arrow.

It's great that the game has amazing graphics and music, i'm also enjoying the story. but there's just enough wrong with it that it doesn't automatically leap to game of the year. thankfully, i found the story engaging enough that i do want to come back to the game, but maybe not right away. But AFK Journey is well worth downloading and trying out, just be aware that there are a few little issues with it.

Version 1.1.173 Played.

Mobile Friday - Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution - More Of The Same

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution, from NimbleBit, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

Playing Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is more of a personal choice. it wasn't clear when it came out globally, but as someone who has played most of the games NimbleBit have released, i wanted to try it.

Because i'm a fan of NimbleBit games and still play their Trains and Planes games, whilst also thinking about getting back into Tiny Tower, i'm in two minds about Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution. The headline for this review is "More of the Same" which is both a positive and a negative. i know how the games plays, i know the rules and what's expected. but that also means there's no evolution, there's nothing new.

Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution feels like an old game. the tutorial is poor at best, the use of the screen is poor and feels like it was carried over from a different device, and there are some choices here and there that leave me more confused. a quick example of something small is how the button to upgrade your truck is on whilst the truck is driving, but you can't actually go to that screen. so why isn't it off like the City button is when your driving.

I recorded this video earlier in the week and have played it a little on and off since then and there are still aspects of the game that feel unbalanced. i have no idea why so many trucks are available when so few jobs are. i don't understand how the scrap/upgrade system work or how/when you get said items. And i have added the ice tyres to those trucks that can get them, but still don't know if there are negatives to using them on regular roads.

If Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution had come out years ago when the other hits from NimbleBit had, it would've felt like a natural fit. But now, it just feels old and not really in a positive way. games are much clearer now, either through an initial tutorial or additional smaller help boxes or tutorials as and when things unlock. I feel like games have much more animation, an example is how the animals clearly visible on screen don't move. if you're not going to animate them, why show them, why not have some cool crate for them. 

As it is, Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is fine. it does nothing to evolve the genre nor does it really harm it. the gameplay look is as fine as it ever was. For better or for worse, it's more of the same and sometimes that's enough.

Version 1.2.1 Played.