I don’t know if the .io game craze has come and gone yet, but the idea of itinerant, pick-up-and-play multiplayer mobile games seems like a market with some potential to this day. On5 has some interesting ideas for the genre with Squake, which has just soft launched in Canada. First off, the production values are a lot higher than many .io games. There’s some crisp artwork and a variety of visual effects to keep things looking really nice off the bat. You’re driving cars around, picking up icons to add to your train of items you’re towing behind you for other players to run into, Snake-style:

But where things go from there is that there’s a variety of game modes. There’s a team-based mode where you’re competing to pick up bundles of TNT, trying to take ones of your color back to your base to get the right amount to win in time. You also have a goal in the free-for-all mode, where you’re aiming to be the leader for 1:30 total time before anyone else in an 8-person arena. It adds an attainable goal to a genre where winning can be fleeting, or seemingly unattainable when powerful players have a massive advantage.

This has the potential to be a standout take on the itinerant multiplayer genre that .io games popularized, so keep track of this one, folks. If you’re in Canada, or have a Canadian iTunes account, you can check out the soft launch right now. Also, check out our guide on how to download soft launch games. We also have a handy forum thread where you can discuss the game!

Canadian iTunes Link: Squake