I feel like I’ve said it a million times now around here on TouchArcade, but one of my favorite things about the App Store recently is how many Steam games are getting ported to mobile that I’ve heard nothing but good things about but just never really played largely because my PC is in my basement and my iPhone is always with me. (The same can be said for Switch ports, which I mentioned when I posted about Stardew Valley.) The latest Steam game I’ve been meaning to play, but never did, and now will likely totally get lost in on my iPhone is 505 Games’ Portal Knights ($4.99). Also, thanks to it being nearly impossible to sell premium games on mobile, the pocket-sized version of Portal Knights will only run you five bucks, down from the twenty it costs on Steam.
The way I always seem to see Portal Knights being pitched is, “It’s like Terraria ($4.99), but in 3D." Honestly, that’s a pretty great way to put it. The game leans heavily on Minecraft-y style crafting with loads of additional complexity added through surprisingly complex RPG trimmings. You’ll craft all sorts of gear, level up your dude, fight loads of baddies in all sorts of different biomes, and tons more. Better yet, it’s all multiplayer. (The PC version has split screen, which friends of mine that have kids have raved about.) Currently, the mobile version offers four player local multiplayer over WiFi, but man the hope of online multiplayer (or even cross-platform online multiplayer) is something I’m really going to keep my fingers crossed for in future updates.
Portal Knights was also recently ported to the Switch as well, although it’ll run you $29.99 over there. I’m waiting to get some clarification back from the developers on the differences between the different versions of the game, but so far it seems to be the same game on each platform with the only difference being world size, online versus local multiplayer, and overall world size. I’ll update this article once I get that clarification.