Steam Link Spotlight is a new feature where we take a look at PC games that play exceptionally well using the Steam Link app. Our last entry talked about Terry Cavanaugh’s incredible Dicey Dungeons. Read about how it’s a great mobile experience over here.
Steam Link Spotlight is a new feature where we take a look at PC games that play exceptionally well with the Steam Link app. In case you missed it, our last entry focused on Faeria, a collectible card game that used to be available on the App Store, but now is PC only. Read more about why it's still a great mobile experience over here.
This week, I want to talk about a new game. A brand new game, in fact. Just yesterday, Terry Cavanagh—the mind behind Super Hexagon and VVVVVV—released Dicey Dungeons, an awesome roguelike, deck-building game that focuses on dice-based combat.
If you’ve been following 148Apps.com for a while, chances are you’ve seen me talk about Faeria. I reviewed it when it initially came out on iOS, and again when The Adventure Pouch: Oversky came out. I also put the game on my best games of 2017 list.
It may go without saying that I really, really like Faeria. Its mix of turn-based strategy and collectible card-battling is unique, and the game itself is gorgeous. Since its release, I don’t think I’ve played a card game that grabbed me in quite the same way.
As soon as I booted up Dr. Mario World, I knew I wasn’t going to have fun with it. Nintendo’s record on phones thus far has been pretty spotty, with things trending downward as of late.
Lo and behold, a few hours later with the game and the only enjoyment I’ve gotten out of it is seeing Bowser in doctor cosplay. Otherwise, the game’s single-player offerings feel like Candy Crush Saga with less satisfying puzzle mechanics and the multiplayer is... a competitive version of that.
It feels like it shouldn’t be so hard to bring a quality version of Dr. Mario to mobile. It’s a falling block puzzler like Tetris or Lumines, and there are solid-to-great versions of those on the App Store already. Instead of just translating Dr. Mario’s mechanics to the small screen though, Dr. Mario World is a slower, clunkier, and less intuitive puzzler than its predecessor.
:: PERFECTLY (WAR)CRAFTED :: Read Review »I am someone who wrote Hearthstone off a while ago. It was hard not to try and stick with it. The game has incredible production values and a core of really great talent working on the game continuously to keep it feeling fresh and fun (full disclosure: I have a friend who actively works on Hearthstone). I can appreciate all of that from a distance, but when it came to actually playing the game, I would always bounce off of it.
It took me a while to realize, but the thing that always stuck in my craw about Hearthstone is how disingenuous it often feels. No matter how approachable it looks or fair toward free players it seems, the game is a hardcore collectible card game (CCG). The more that time went on, the easier it was for me to recognize this. From the separation of cards into the two buckets of Standard and Wild formats to single-player expansions like Rastakhan’s Rumble, the game was preoccupied with keeping multiplayer extremely competitive and single-player content extremely challenging. None of these updates spoke to me, a player that felt like occasionally dipping a toe into the game once every couple weeks.
To be fair, Blizzard has very few reasons to prioritize folks like me over their huge pool of dedicated players. I totally get that. But with each passing day, Hearthstone had started feeling less and less relevant to anyone who wasn’t already all the way bought in. That is, until now.
Back in 2014—during the height of Flappy Bird ‘s popularity—I would not have believed anyone if they said that five years later there’d be a fighting game released based on it. Here we are now, though: It’s 2019, Flappy Fighter exists, and it also just so happens to be the most competent mobile fighter there is.
Last week, Flappy Fighter dropped on the App Store, and it’s been quickly gaining attention. This is for good reason. The game is an homage to Street Fighter that uses Flappy Bird for its character design, and—within seconds of booting it up—you can tell it’s made with a lot of love and attention to detail.
Imagine this: You’re Bethesda Game Studios, one of the biggest names in video games today. You’re renowned for bringing whole worlds to life through entries in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, two of the most popular and beloved franchises ever made. Your track record is far from perfect, but that’s mostly because your output is known for being richly detailed and highly complex. People applaud even when you stumble, because the ambition of your projects is so staggering that no one else even dares imitate you.
Then, you decide you want to make a mobile game. What kind of game would it be? Given your huge audience, what statement would you want to make about the possibilities of gaming on the go, knowing that a ton of non-mobile-game-playing eyes will be watching your every move with rapt attention? Certainly not this, right?
Apple made a lot of waves from its special event this week. The announcement of Apple Arcade in particular, a subscription service that will deliver access to over 100 premium games starting this fall, sounds like a potential new step forward for gaming on mobile.
As great as this might sound though, there are lots of things Apple didn’t talk about as it relates to this new service. A lot of what Apple said yesterday may sound exciting, but I have my doubts about the service given what wasn’t covered in their presentation. There’s just too many unknowns, and—given Apple’s track record on games—I’m not sure Apple Arcade will seem all that great when we get the answers.
See below for some of the biggest mysteries looming over the announcement and my thoughts on why their absence has me worried about this service.
You could call Dragalia Lost Nintendo's outlier. It is, to all intents and purposes, a pretty expensive shot in the dark. It's got all of Nintendo's polish and shimmer, but unlike the other big N games we've seen coming to the App Store, this one isn't backed up with a massive license.
The game has already been successful in the territories it's been out in, raking in some massive numbers that Nintendo must be pretty pleased with. And that poses some pretty dramatic questions about the future of Nintendo's mobile business.
The bigger the company, the more it needs to fret about a game making bank - there are loads of people to pay, and material success is going to be way more important than critical praise. Nintendo has often managed to blend both of those things together, but the mobile gaming landscape is very different to the home console one, and Dragalia Lost could well be the a marker as to where Nintendo is going to be heading. In what way? Well, in quite a few.
Hi there, and welcome to a new weekly feature here at 148Apps. It's called the Friday Digest, and it's going to keep you up to date will all the important comings and goings in the world of mobile gaming. We're not just looking to the past here, we're looking to the future as well.
We've rounded up the choicest morsels of mobile gaming news from the last seven days from our sister-site Pocket Gamer, picked the best new releases, and chosen the finest sampling of AppSpy's Youtube channel, then put it in one place. This place. The place you're looking at right now. If that wasn't enough, we've picked what we think are the best pieces of content we've posted on 148Apps this week, as well as selecting some of the awesome games we're excited about playing next week.
And we'll be doing the same thing next week, so make sure to keep coming back. Your mobile gaming knowledge is definitely going to be the envy of all of your friends if you do.
Can you believe it? The App Store turns ten years old today. Ten years of amazing apps, games, and experiences. There's a collective tear in our eye here at 148Apps. Our little App Store, all grown up and getting ready to head out to big school next year.
So we thought it was high time to look back at the past decade and see how much has changed in the world of mobile gaming, and how far we've all come since the App Store's inception back in 2008. Lordy, that was a long time ago. If you've got your own suggestions about how the ravages of time have deformed us all, stick them in the comments at the bottom of the article.
:: TEMPTINGLY FUN :: Read Review »Earlier this week, Microsoft unveiled their new tablet platform, Surface. Today they revealed not only the next version of their mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8, but also how their whole Windows 8 ecosystem will play together.
Windows Phone 8 adds a lot of features that developers have been hoping for. These features should, in the end, mean better apps. Better multitasking, in-app purchase, and finally, native code apps. This last one is a big deal because it will allow game developers to quickly port games between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. It will also give the ability for developers to port iOS games to Windows Phone 8 much quicker.
For example, Fairway Solitaire from Big Fish Games was demoed on screen and according to Patrick Wylie from Big Fish, it took just two weeks to get the title from iOS to Windows Phone 8 for the demo.
In addition to native programming support, some third party game engines like Havoc will be coming to Windows Phone 8. Notably missing was an announcement of Unity support for Windows Phone 8. Unity has quickly become the number one game development engine and it's lack of support for Windows Phone 8 will be an issue.
Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 will share the same core for easier app migration. While it falls short of the hope of a single app that works across all screens, this does mean that developers can quickly port their apps between the different Windows 8 devices. All that will be needed is to take into account the differing input methods and screen sizes.
In the biggest disappointment of the day as revealed by The Verge was that current Windows Phone devices will not be supported in Windows Phone 8. Some current devices will get version 7.8 that will contain many of the user facing features. While on the surface this seems like a big deal, especially since iOS users are used to getting upgrades for 3 years or more, it's not really the same on Android for example. On Android less than 10% of users are given the option to upgrade to the latest OS. What on the surface seems like a PR headache for Microsoft, but it might not matter to end users -- unless they hear there is a new version of their phone that they can't have.
Nokia have been using the tagline 'Smartphone Beta Test is Over' -- well it seems that Windows Phone 7.5 users have been the real beta testers. Expect a backlash from current Nokia Windows Phone users who were sold by that Nokia rhetoric.
In the end, Windows Phone 8 is a huge new release and advances the platform by leaps and bounds. By far the biggest new features are the expanded support for games. Native code and Havoc support are huge as is support for in-app purchasing. These features should lead to greatly expanded game support. It's bad that Microsoft have done yet another 'do-over' by making Windows Phone 8 unavailable to all current users. But something that many users won't even notice. This might not be the release that makes Windows Phone 8 a real force in the mobile world, but it is a step in the right direction.
You may be wondering why we are reporting this on an what is purportedly an iOS site. As the mobile world adapts and matures, we think it's important to keep abreast of the major changes. We will continue to report on those changes from an informed iOS perspective.
Update: We received a response from EA that will at least make it possible to get Tetris for iPad back if you paid for the original version. Check the bottom of the post for more details.
Let's say someone who has purchased Tetris for the iPad moves to a new iPad, or even gets a replacement under warranty. If that user, like many, doesn't back up to iTunes on the desktop, they will no longer have access to the Tetris app they previously paid for.
Developers that want to put out new versions of apps and charge for them are more than welcome to. We'll let consumers vote with their downloads on wether that is a good idea. But to make unavailable to download a previously purchased item? That's a pure anti-customer, and obvious revenue-based decision.
The lack of an ability to download previously paid for digital goods, in the case an app, is the real problem. In the world of digital distribution, one where we are moving to a cloud-based backend and a Post-PC world, the apps and other digital media you buy in the App Store, you expect to be available forever. But the sad truth is, they are not available if the developer chooses to pull them. There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of Tetris for iPad users that will find that out next time they upgrade devices and try to download the app.
And that is not the idea that Apple had when it introduced iTunes in the Cloud and subscribed to the Post-PC idea of the future.
This isn't the first time EA has done this either. The original Bejeweled 2 has been pulled in favor of an IAP loaded version of the same just called Bejeweled. And of course, the same trick was played with Tetris for the iPhone/iPod touch.
And to make things even worse, the previous Tetris for the iPad was publicized and put on sale as recently as last week, in EA's Easter app sale.
EA, please stop cheating your loyal and paying customers. There's no reason they should be required to re-pay for new apps because the decision is made to update them. If they are happy with the old version, they should still have access to it.
Note that we have asked EA for comment on this, but due to multiple timing issues including deadlines, time zone differences, and our contact being out of the office, we have yet to hear back. We will update this post when we do get an official response.
Update: 4/13 We heard back from Alexis McDowel, PR Director for EA. The following is their response to our query on where Tetris for iPad the original version went.
As you know, the “old” version of Tetris was recently removed from the App Store in order to accommodate the new version of the game (which is also titled “Tetris” but has several new/different gameplay modes and features ), but consumers who have previously purchased Tetris should still have access to it via their “Purchased” account in the cloud—even if they’ve bought a new device and are trying to access the game from that newer device, it should be in there.
We just tried it on our end (i.e., trying to pull up the “old” purchased Tetris on a new device), and we were able to do it with by following these steps on our new device:
1) Click on App Store
2) Purchased
3) Not on this iPad
4) Scroll through to find your title and download.We also checked with one of our on-site support members and were told that your previous Tetris purchase should not go away as long as your firmware is updated—no sync to a desktop necessary.
So there you have it. I have verified this on my iPad and see that Tetris for iPad is available to download even though it's no longer available in the App Store. In light of that, calling this cheating customers is way out of bounds. But confusing and annoying it most certainly is. Since the app can not be searched for in previous purchases for unknown reasons, this will still lead to many users thinking they need to pay for the new version. Confusing and annoying, yes.
