This week on PocketGamer

Posted by TPG Staff on January 7th, 2017


What with it being January and all, one of our New Year’s Resolutions at 148Apps is to talk to our family more. No we’re not talking about a begrudging call to the folks or a curt WhatsApp exchange with big sis. Rather, we’re going to be reaching out to the extended Steel Media family a little more in 2017.

For this new feature, we’ll be finding out what’s been going on at the good ship PocketGamer over the past week. PG, as we like to call it, is one of the most established gaming websites on the web. It recently celebrated 10 years in the business - that’s pre-iPhone! PocketGamer features editor Jon Mundy is here to give us the lowdown on the week’s talking points.




Nintendo Switch news

While we live and breath smartphone games over on PG, our remit extends to pretty much any form of gaming on the go. That means we’re rather excited about Nintendo’s forthcoming hybrid console, the Nintendo Switch.

If you haven’t heard of it, the follow-up to Nintendo’s Wii will basically be a handheld console that can seamlessly slot into a dock and become a home console for playing games on your TV. Expect to see it in shops this March.

There’s been a bunch of news and accompanying reaction for the new portable this week. We reported the news that Nintendo would be making two separate broadcasts for the Switch launch on January 12, as well as the news that cult RPG Mother 3 would be coming to the console.

We even heard something about early third party accessories, which would prove to be a bit of a running theme for the week.



The best hardware of 2016 and 2017

We’re not averse to a little nostalgia on PG, and we also love our portable gaming gear. Smartphones, tablets, handheld consoles - you name it. Actually, it’s mainly just those three things.

With that tech fetish in mind, we took a look back at the past year of pocket gaming hardware. There was the usual spread of iPhones and (non-explodey) Samsung phones on display, plus a phone we said could be “pound-for-pound the best phone of 2016”. What could we be talking about? Click on that link to find out.

While we’re happy to wallow in the past, though, we’re equally enthralled by the future. As such, we also provided our views on the pocket gaming hardware to look out for in 2017 this week.

There are those iPhones and Samsung phones again, plus a couple of extras you might find surprising. Plus the Nintendo Switch. Did I mention we’re rather excited about it?


Let’s accessorize

Continuing the hardware theme (we normally talk about actual games a lot more, honest), PG provided an extensive accessory guide earlier in the week.

We figured that lots of our readers would have received new phones for Christmas - or bought phones for loved ones. This buyer’s guide branched off into various accessory categories, including cases, health and fitness trackers, and smart home appliances.

Basically, everything you need to make your new phone the hub of your life (if it isn’t already).



Developer interviews

We started 2017 in a particularly chatty mood, for some reason.. This week, PG Editor Glen Fox spoke with Cuz Perry, Creative Director at Kabam.

Perry is overseeing development of Transformers: Forged to Fight, a slick brawler in the Marvel: Contest of Champions vein. Obviously the addition of the Transformers IP will make it roughly a thousand times cooler to a certain category of gamer.

The conversation touched on adapting the one-on-one beat-’em-up genre to mobile, how its freemium monetisation model might work and more. Give it a read.

Elsewhere, we spoke to the developer of Green the Planet 2, a “Relaxing Greenery Simulation Game” with a distinctive and oh-so-timely ecological message.

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