The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn’t necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable “best" thing. Instead, it’s more just us picking out the single game out of the week’s releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.
These picks might be controversial, and that’s OK. If you disagree with what we’ve chosen, let’s try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.
Call of Champions
I’ve been playing League of Legends on my PC for years now. It is without question my favorite game, for more reasons than I could ever realistically list. Knowing that, you’d probably peg me as a guy who just can’t get enough of all the various mobile MOBA’s that have popped up, right? Well, you’d be wrong, as none of them really feel like they solve any problems or innovate in any substantial ways that make them better than League of Legends.
Knowing that, you’re not likely thinking, “Why is this idiot continually comparing mobile games to stuff he’s playing on his PC?" The reason they’re comparable is because prior to Call of Champions, mobile MOBA’s take just as much attention, and just as much time as just playing a “real" MOBA on my PC. So, if I’m committing to a 20-30 minute play session where I can hardly even look up from my screen, why not just play my favorite MOBA instead? It’s something I’ve really struggled with, because I feel like I should like mobile MOBA’s, but I just… Don’t.
That’s where Call of Champions comes in. It’s the first mobile MOBA that does something super clever with the formula. The typical MOBA gameplay curve includes the lane phase where you’re last hitting minions to get gold to buy items, applying pressure to towers, watching out for ganks from the jungle, and all this other stuff which all compounds to the end of the game where you’re getting in team fights. Each individual part of the process of the game is important, as it all plays in to your overall strategy to win. Or, at least, I thought it was important.
In Call of Champions, nearly all of this is just entirely skipped. Instead of the often extensive laning phase where you’re building up your dude, figuring out which items and abilities you’re going to prioritize and all that, you’re just thrown directly in to the mix. Creeps have been replaced by balls which are pushed towards the enemy tower. If you have the team fighting presence to push the ball all the way to the tower, you and your teammates can destroy the tower. The same goes for destroying the final base.
It sounds simple, because it is. They manage to maintain just enough of what vaguely feels like wha you do during the laning phase of a MOBA, while speeding it up significantly to get to the good part which is the roaming around and team fighting… Which is primarily what you do in Call of Champions. It’s real clever, and I’m not sure why someone else didn’t think of something like this to speed up MOBA’s.
Additionally, it’s really rare for a game to come out in a genre which feels like it has such firm rules with regards to how a MOBA should play. So, if you’ve played a MOBA before and just couldn’t get into it, or thought it was boring, too slow, or whatever else, you need to try Call of Champions. Similarly, if you’re like me and play a ton of MOBA stuff, it’s doubly worth checking out just to see the clever ways they sped up the formula so much.
