Mobile Friday - Meow Kingdom: Cute Cat Idle RPG - A Satisfying Mix Of Old And New Idle Mechanics

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Meow Kingdom: Cute Cat Idle RPG, also known as Meow Kingdom, on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

As well as how good the game looked from the screenshots and how frequently it had been updated since i downloaded it, i was also interested to try out this game because i wanted to see how/why it's download was over 1GB in size. many of the Idle Games i've tried out as part of this series are a lot smaller than Meow Kingdom. But after playing it for an hour, i have a good idea why it's as big as it is.

It's a little unfortunate that Meow Kingdom starts with such a compressed introduction video as everything after it looked much better. i was pleasantly surprised by how much artwork there was for each character and it really helped portray the emotions of each character. i thought the main characters had so much that it really stood out when it came to the introduction of Gong and their lack of artwork.

The game has a decent tutorial that takes things, mostly, one step at a time and even has videos for some things too. But there are times when it feels like the game has forgotten to mention something. the first example i can think of is when the tutorial mentions increasing game speed but never mentions what the "A" button next to it does. there was also an example late on in the video where the game wouldn't let me install a building because the game's tutorial was going to do it. but for the most part it does a great job for new gamers and Meow Kingdom feels quite accessible. 

The idle mechanics of Meow Kingdom feel a little older than some other aspects of the game. as well as collecting gold and experience from buildings in our town, there are other things we can do to interact with the world, which isn't something i've seen that much in games i've played as part of this series. for example, if you don't touch the screen, the game enables a screensaver of sorts that'll follow cats around. you can interact with the cats by picking them up and getting them to do some things or you can zoom in and pet them or take a photo of them. the cats have wants that are telegraphed by bubbles above their heads, much like the Theme Park/Rollercoaster Tycoon/Two Point games do. around the town, there are items you can touch that'll give you more gold and help keep the place tidy. these little interactions give Meow Kingdom an older feel as i associate these menial tasks with the games i mentioned before. but i think they work well with the game.

The combat in Meow Kingdom is what makes this game feel modern. like the rest of the game, the combat looks great with the enemies looking very distinct and the boss enemies looming bigger over us. at this point in the game we're only able to have 5 characters in our team but it was unclear if we're going to have more. each of those cats can be placed in a grid, or you can ask the game to auto assign the best cats in their best positions. once that's done, your team sets off after the enemies. there's a choice to do the combat at normal speed or to speed it up, but if you press the "A" button, combat will be automated. even tho it's tempting to speed up the combat, i'd suggest doing it sometimes at normal speed because of how flashy some of the attacks are and how well animated it all looks. once the fight is over we're greeted with another cool looking victory screen.

If you're a fan of idle games, a fan of cats, or you're after a good looking game, i'd recommend giving Meow Kingdom a go. there's more to it than just it's cute exterior with solid idle mechanics, solid battle mechanics, and a story that's been simple yet fun so far. there's plenty to do in this game, there were aspects of it i'd yet to unlock in this video. but with it's relaxed pace and feel, there's little pressure to race to the finish. 

Version 00.15.01 Played.

Mobile Friday - Remi Zeros: Card Defense - Good Looking Wave Based Game That Gets The Basics Right

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Remi Zeros: Card Defense on my iPhone 14 Pro.

There were a few things on Remi Zeros: Card Defense's store page that caught my attention. the art style certainly stands out but the screenshots and video also seemed to show how simple the game was to play.

I wasn't expecting the story sequence at the start and because i enjoyed it i was a little disappointed that i never saw anymore story stuff during this video. it's possible that as we progress to other stages there maybe story between them, but i can't say for sure.

The graphical style extends from the story intro into the main menu and into the gameplay. i really thought it was cool how the summon sequence works, taking our character lurking in the background and brining them to the front and they themselves do the summoning. so it was a shame that by the end of the video, with my home screen filling up with icons, that the devs seemed not to be taking full advantage of the phone screen and instead clogging up the middle and detracting from what had once been a cool sequence.

Thankfully the gameplay remained solid throughout. Remi Zeros: Card Defense starts with a good tutorial that makes it clear what to do but also reveals from the start what the basic gameplay loop is. what i will say is that there were a couple of times when the tutorial was trying to be useful but was also dumb because i didn't have the materials to do what it was trying to show me or it wanted to show off a powerful attack but i had already cleared the screen of enemies.

I do have a possible concern and that's making progress in the game could take a long time. it's not clear how much content is in the game but on the home screen it only mentions two stages. i'm wondering if the slow progress is going to be because of how little content there is and that whilst the start may move at a decent pace, it'll require more and more playing to earn more and more souls to level up just once or twice. the game does offer some incentives to watch adverts to gain boosts or daily logins to get rewards, but i'm unsure if it's enough.

But for now, as the game is, i would recommend Remi Zeros: Card Defense. it's great for new players, has a bit of strategy and luck to it which means it differs run to run. everytime you play you earn something that'll help you progress and for now that progress is fine.

Version 1.3.1 Played.

Mobile Friday - Tribe Nine - A Polished Debut For An Action RPG With A Cool Graphic/Art Style

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Tribe Nine from developers Akatsuki Games on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

Tribe Nine had been available as a pre-order on the app store for a little while now and i admit i kinda forgot about this game until it downloaded itself onto my phone. it's launch was the 20th but as i'm recovering from being sick i decided to wait a day. that decision might've helped as on the 21st the game got an update to help with server issues. during my first hour with the game, i didn't notice any server issues.

But what was a huge frustration was the additional data download. it was over 5GB. many of these games have them but what was frustrating with Tribe Nine was how it dealt with it. a recent example is the Infinity Nikki and in that video, https://youtu.be/hrqBnBzDM8w, we're given a music video to watch and listen to. with Tribe Nine, there's nothing exciting. there's just a near static screen and a progress bar. no music either. it took over 13 minutes to download this data as well.

So starting the game for the first time, the first impression from Tribe Nine isn't great. then it gets weird as we start to play an 8bit style rpg and our screen gets a crt filter put on it. but this is a nice weird as the app store screenshots show nothing like this. then there are people walking in the sky, and then this world all falls apart and reality starts to take over.

With this change of story it's also made clear that a mix of graphical styles are going to be used. when talking face to face, animated 2.5D characters appear on screen and look really quite good. when it comes to battles, it's full 3D characters in a 3D world. and when you're walking around in the world you're 16/32bit looking pixelart characters. i think it works, but it does take a little bit of time to get used to.

Combat is interesting, but i don't think they quite explain it well enough. there's the standard attacks of light and hard and their typical pros and cons. you have team mates fighting along side you and they seemed to be doing so smartly. as this is an action RPG, we're all running and moving around the arena dodging and attacking enemies. but there's another system at play called Tension. it's used by both us and the enemies, but for them it's a little different. for the enemies, as battles go on they get more tension. when their tension bar is full, the enemies attack full power and also randomly. this was clear to see when we had our first boss style fight. the enemy had been easy to dodge and counter, but as soon as their tension bar filled they were much harder to read, they attacked us randomly, and it really changed up how we fought against them. for us, this is where i don't think the game successfully explains or demonstrates the tension system well. everything up to this had been decently explained and clearly shown in battles. but after using it i don't know how the tension system works for us good guys. there's a combo system that's introduced first and that seems clear. when it's possible to use it, top right of the screen the heads of our team mates appear and you press them and they attack. the tension seems to add to this. i think when our tension bar becomes full we're able to use the combo system and then end with a super attack. but i don't know how to charge the tension bar or what the blue squares next to the floating heads mean.

Even tho Tribe Nine has an extra data download, the rest of the gameplay experience has been great and i'm really curious about the rest of the game, the world, and more importantly i want to experience more of the story. i do recommend it, BUT you have to download it and start it at home first to get that big data download.

Version 1.0.2 Played.

Mobile Friday - Snaky Cat - A Fun Take On Snake Diminished By Intrusive Ads And Poor Tutorial

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Snaky Cat, from developers Appxplore on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I grew up during the heights of Snake on mobile phones so i was instantly curious to try out a new take on the genre. The app store page does a good job of selling what the game has. But when i played Snaky Cat it felt like the game itself does a poor job highlighting the cool aspects of gameplay.

It starts off so well with a cool little video. but after that, there seems to be no fun cat stuff to the game besides getting new ones to use and using accessories. for example, there's a cat in the middle of the home screen but nothing happens when you touch it. the food to collect isn't cat themed either. it feels like cats were chosen because they're popular but as the game doesn't lean into it the main animal could be anything.

The tutorial is the same. it starts off being very helpful but doesn't teach us crucial gameplay mechanics. i have a couple of examples for this. as i'm someone who played the original Snake, one of the biggest rules was that you couldn't touch your own body. for most of this video, i was playing by that rule as i didn't know otherwise. it wasn't until i saw someone else touching their own body that i guessed that critical rule no longer applies. The other gameplay mechanic that's not revealed is how the boost works. it took me 7 or more games before i realized how it worked. the boost is powered by how many doughnuts we have eaten. the more we eat, the longer we get and the higher our total score is. but when you use boost, your using your score and your cat is shrinking in size. it's one reason it took a while before i started to get decent scores.

What frustrated me the most playing Snaky Cat was the advertisements. many games have them and i have no issue with some of them. but in Snaky Cat, the first advert came before i knew the value of the items being sold. it's a mistake that happens often, but what most games do now is let you touch or long press on each item to learn about them. But the biggest frustration came with the intrusive adverts. after about 25 minutes, or so, when i went to start a match, the game would launch an advert without my permission. i do these videos on wi-fi so there's no data cost to me. but for those playing on their network, these video adverts slowly eat into your data. playing Snaky Cat showed me that there get's to a point where you'll be watching one of these videos before each match. if you're not careful, it slowly eats into your data cap.

The basic gameplay idea behind Snaky Cat is solid and, from a nostalgic point of view, it was nice playing a Snake style game again. but the game as it is, this close to it's worldwide launch, isn't good enough for me to recommend. the adverts are a part of it but it's also the poor tutorial/unexplained game mechanics, and ultimately the gameplay loop came across as very simple and repetitive. many games have more unlocks or longer stories, or someone to vary up the gameplay over time. Snaky Cat needs something like the random level modifications that Squad Busters uses to help keep things fresh.

Version 1.0.2 Played.

Stories on Tuesday - The Get Out Kids - From Start To Finish On iPhone

I have combined both parts of my playthrough of The Get Out Kids into one story. I have cut out when i failed a puzzle in the second part.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/R8axa1Pr19U

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/HqxGkIHbmP0

Stories on Tuesday - The Get Out Kids - Part 2 - The Final Part

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the iOS version of The Get Out Kids from Frosty Pop Games. I'm playing this on my iPhone 14 pro, using the Lighting to HDMI adapter to record the video rather than using the phone's own screen recorder.

Going into Part 2, i thought that it might be the final part of the story and i was right. but i was not expecting the ending to the story i got. without spoiling it, i thought the premise was just a child's imagination that the guardian was playing into. i also failed to expect what happened to each of the characters in this story, too. but i'm not saying it was a bad outcome. it was unexpected, shocking, and yet also satisfying. 

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/R8axa1Pr19U

Mobile Friday - Spin Break: Roulette Battle - A Tough Roguelike Deckbuilder With A Roulette Mechanic

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Spin Break: Roulette Battle, from FIFTYONE PERCENT on my iPhone 14 Pro.

The Roulette aspect of the gameplay was what caught my attention. i was very curious how they would incorporate such a mechanic into the gameplay. would it be simple or would there be depth and strategy to it. the trailer for the game on the iOS page did tease the graphics and some aspects of the gameplay and it helped solidify Spin Break: Roulette Battle as being this week's game.

Once it's started, it takes you straight to a tutorial. at first i thought that it was good, but once i started playing the game i feel like the tutorial was a bit too basic in hindsight. there were on screen stuff in battles not highlighted, nor was the main home screen detailed. i would've liked more help with strategy and a deeper dive into the luck mechanic as throughout this video it felt like i didn't have much and was getting beaten by it.

Thankfully, if you do fail it's not a big issue as this is a roguelike. the only thing that carries over from the stages you completed is some of the blue crystal currency and one relic, out of however many you picked up. if you used a relic during that run, it's now gone, as are any cards and stat boosts you picked up during the run. when it's over, everything's reset to how it was before the start of the run.

the gameplay loop that i uncovered from playing Spin Break: Roulette Battle is simple. get blue crystals and use them to level up your character and your items. But because of how bad my runs where, i don't know a lot about this game. there is a power limit, it takes 5 to do a run and you only have 20 when it's fully charged. my guess is it takes 30 minutes to recharge 1 power.

I was genuinely surprised by how bad i was at this game. i couldn't defeat the first stage after the tutorial, it's 1-1. because of the game's luck mechanics and run to run randomness, i don't know if it was a skill thing or a luck thing either. that's kinda the main negative i have with this game. i'm bad at it, i don't know why, i don't know if it's meant to be like this, and i don't know how to get better at it other than grinding the blue level up crystals.

This isn't a fault with the roulette aspect of gameplay. i actually enjoyed what it added to the game. it's not simply choosing who goes first, if you land on red the enemy attacks and if you land on blue you attack, but there's a surprising amount of strategy to it as the deck building is also somewhat tied to it. if you're able to turn all spots on the roulette wheel blue, you unleash a super powerful attack. to turn the pieces blue you need to land on blue and then use cards. the cards are a mix of attacking the enemy, healing yourself, putting up shields, working the graveyard mechanic, and changing piece color on the roulette wheel.

This is where luck is powerful and not explained fully. there are times when your card will go up against the enemies card and who has the strongest card wins and deals damage. but then there's two luck mechanics that can turn a 70+% card vs. a 30% card from the enemy into a loss. there are also parts of the enemy UI that i don't understand.

I feel like there is a solid game here, but in it's current state it feels unbalanced and is hiding a bit too much from the player. the start of the game shouldn't be this tough. with some better tutorials, some gameplay tips, and perhaps making the first couple of stages part of the tutorial, Spin Break: Roulette Battle could be a game that'd be fun to keep coming back to. as it is now, i do think it's worth trying as the music is great and i did enjoy the pixel art. i liked the strategy aspect, too. but it'll put a lot of people off as it's not quite all there at the moment. 

Version 1.0.7 Played.

Stories on Tuesday - The Get Out Kids - Part 1 - Chapters 1 to 13

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the iOS version of The Get Out Kids from Frosty Pop Games. I'm playing this on my iPhone 14 pro, using the Lighting to HDMI adapter to record the video rather than using the phone's own screen recorder.

I previously played The Get Out Kids as part of Mobile Friday, https://youtu.be/pEhZEe0lyfE, and had a great time. back then i said i wanted to come back to it because i wanted to experience the story. It didn't win my Free to Play Mobile Game of the Year Award as it was a release of an older game that originally came out on Apple Arcade, but i had such a great time with it it did get an honorable mention.

In this Part, we started from the beginning playing through the same areas i played for last years video, but it wasn't long before we started experiencing new stuff. It was nice to come back to the game and focus on the story. there was one puzzle involving cars that i found difficult and actually failed. but it's not an issue with The Get Out Kids, the scene was restarted without penalty.

I'm looking forward to Part 2, and it might be the final Part. the story so far has been interesting but we leave it after something might've happened to someone close to us. my mind is racing with thoughts as to what might happen next!

Mobile Friday - Hardcore Leveling Warrior - An Idle RPG With A Nice Story, But A Short Tutorial

For  the first Mobile Friday of 2025, i tried Hardcore Leveling Warrior, from Superplanet on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I am mostly sure that Hardcore Leveling Warrior came out this year, 2025, so will include it in my Game of the Year Round up. it's app store page looked really interesting. the art looked cool, reminding me of the style of Kill la Kill, and for the most part i think it carries over well into the game. what was perhaps the most surprising thing was the soundtrack. the start menu blasts you with a cool song and the bgm throughout was nice. i do think that i'd have to tweak it so the music volume is less than the speaking.

I've played enough of these games to know that RPG could mean anything. but here in Hardcore Leveling Warrior, there's an actual story and within the first hour we watch a cutscene of our fall from power, we meet up with people from our past, and we make new friends. the idle nature of the game acts as the grinding of levels between story beats and feature unlocking.

After my time was up, there were many elements of the game i hadn't unlocked and a lot of story too. i get the feeling we're talking double digits of hours needed to play through it all. and of course, as a mobile game, the developers can always add more story or side quests in the future.

Hardcore Leveling Warrior isn't the simplest idle game i've played, it lives up to it's name. there are a large number of things to level up, one way or another. our character himself has a few ways to be levelled up, then there's the items we have equipped, our skills, our companions, boosts, and more. the numbers in this game are going to keep on getting bigger in a way that feels right for the game and our character.

The spelling mistake wasn't an issue for me, but what does keep Hardcore Leveling Warrior from being a great game is it's tutorial and quest mechanic. both start out as good and useful, but their limitations become quite apparent. early on, i failed to beat the first boss and my character was stuck looping the previous stage. the quest wanted me to beat the first boss, but when i pressed it nothing happened. the tutorial didn't tell me how to get out of the loop if i failed to beat the boss. But there were other times when pressing the quest took me to where i needed to complete an action. The home screen also feels unnecessarily cluttered. especially when the tutorial never talked about it and there were no quests to interact with it. 

Hardcore Leveling Warrior isn't bad but it's not fantastic either. but what it does have is an interesting story and some cool art and music. i wont be deleting it from my phone as yet as i'd like to see a little more of it's story. so i would say it's worth downloading and trying, but after an hour i think you'd have a good idea if it's something you want to continue or not.

Version 1.1.2 Played.

Mobile Friday - Wizardry Variants Daphne - Good Music, Controls, Graphics, And Extra Data Download!

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried Wizardry Variants Daphne from Studio 2Pro and Drecom on my iPhone 14 Pro.

This is the final Mobile Friday game of 2024 and this year ends with a good one. i'm not familiar with the Wizardry series, only really hearing about it earlier this year when Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord came to consoles. So going in, i didn't know what sort of RPG it was or what to expect, but the screenshots on the app store did help as i realized that it might be a first person camera style game were you navigate an area step by step.

It starts off with a tutorial that's simple but it gets the basic controls across and it gives us a little time of using the them before the twist happens and we start the game proper! Then, around 8 minutes into the game we're greeted with an extra data download scenario. i'm not a fan of these and Wizardry Variants Daphne has good and bad points about this. the bad point is that for those who download the game, start it to check for a download and find there isn't one, they're going to find out that there's extra download once they've left Wi-fi. most games with extra data do it before the game starts, having it around 8 minutes into gameplay is different and maybe not something mobile players will be used to. on the other hand, the way it's incorporated into the story is brilliantly done and not only that they have smartly covered up the extra download with a questionnaire that helps with creating your character. my character creation was done just moments before the download finished so i got to see some of the trailer that runs afterwards. it's a risky move having such a different extra data download section and i commend the devs for trying it. but i can't help but thing that letting players download it from the start, before the game starts, would also be an option.

Another one of these is seemingly the inability to change the game from right handedness to left hand. i played most of this video with just my right hand and it feels like the game's been cleverly designed around mobile play with a single hand. so not having an option to switch things up from right to left does seem a little weird. Another odd choice is how the text and speech are done. i was surprised by how much of the game is voiced, but when you start the text appears in the bubbles far slower than how it's spoken. it's so much slower i started to get frustrated by it and it really slowed down the gameplay. i think this needs to be clearer in the options or even something that we can choose before it starts, like the handedness i mentioned earlier.

Other than those mostly small things, the game is great. in a way for me, surprisingly so. for how good i thought this game was, i'm surprised that i've heard no one talking about it. i thought the music was great, from the background stuff to the fighting music, it was all nice to listen to. the controls are simple and accessible, to the point where the game's basic tutorial was actually all i needed. gameplay is also simple to understand and graphically it was great. there's some fantastic art, in game graphics, and i actually thought some of the character art was the best looking stuff in the game.

This video is longer than most Mobile Friday videos because the story grabbed me. it's a fantastic first hour with an very early twist to keep our attention and we were in two different areas. i wanted to see what happened next and something kept happening. there's our first story, our second story, what ever happened to our companion, what happened to the king, and the overarching story of what happens every 100 years. 

One nice thing i didn't know was in the game was it's Gacha mechanic. like most good mobile games, they found a way to have one if Wizardry Variants Daphne that fits into the game's story. our character has an ability and we pick up bones early on. by the end of the video we find a place where we can use both and there we have new party members. in a way it's a little strange, but the video we get to watch as it happens is unlike any other gacha i've seen and yet it all fits into the game we've been playing perfectly.

I highly recommend Wizardry Variants Daphne. i think it's an approachable RPG for newcomers, it's well designed for mobile gamers, and for someone like myself who's never played a Wizardry game i never felt like i was missing something. you'll need to play to get the extra data download out of the way, but after that it makes a fantastic commuting game.

Version 1.2.0 Played.

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.