This Week on PocketGamer

Every week we round up the top talking points from the past week of coverage over on PocketGamer.

Our UK-based sister website has been covering the portable gaming industry since 2006, so it’s always interesting to get their perspective on a fast moving industry.

Here’s what’s been occupying the thoughts and gaming time of the PG crew over the past week.

Nintendo’s second mobile game slightly underwhelms

Fire Emblem Heroes hit iOS and Android last week, marking Nintendo’s second foray into mobile gaming after the wonderful Super Mario Run.

PG wasn’t quite as impressed with the new game as it was with Super Mario Run, but found it to be an entertaining turn-based strategy game nonetheless. The PG team also offered some beginner’s tips to help get you started, and then took a closer look at the game’s F2P structure.

Free-to-play is a bit of a sticky topic with many hardcore gamers, who resent the idea of ‘pay to win’ systems or any form of artificial pay wall. As such, you can expect this ‘F2P Inspector’ piece to be the first of many.

Nintendo’s first mobile game underperforms

The conversion around Nintendo’s choice of mobile payment systems actually started earlier in the week. PG reported on the news that Super Mario Run had been downloaded an impressive 78 million times.

Unfortunately, only around 5% of that number actually splashed out the one-off fee to unlock the full game. By our reckoning, that’s around 4 million people, which falls a long way short of the double-digit millions Nintendo was hoping for.

With the Android version of Super Mario Run yet to come, it’s too early to write Super Mario Run off as a failure. But it’s not exactly looking like a resounding success.

Game of the week: The Frostrune

Fire Emblem Heroes snagged all the headlines last week, but PG’s favourite game of the week came in the form of a beguiling norse adventure game. The Frostrune is a point-and-click puzzler with wonderful hand-drawn artwork and impeccable audio. If you want to truly lose yourself in a good game for a few hours, The Frostrune would be an ideal pick.

Elsewhere, Warlock’s Tower provides some pleasant Game Boy-inspired retro puzzling, while Snailboy: Rise of Hermitron is a platformer that makes a virtue out of the titular character’s lack of speed.