Hi-Rez Studios is mostly known for their PC offerings, the MOBA Smite and the first-person shooter Paladins, which have also made their way to the console world over the years. But they’ve also had a presence on mobile. Back in early 2016 they released the original action game Jetpack Fighter (Free) which utilized a really cool gesture-based combat and movement system. We enjoyed it a lot in our review but sadly Jetpack Fighter hasn’t been updated for modern devices.
Then about a year later they announced Smite Rivals, which was to be a take on the Clash Royale-style mini-MOBA but featuring the fantastic characters from Smite. It sounded promising, but unfortunately just a few months later Hi-Rez decided to put development of Smite Rivals “on hold" and there hasn’t been a peep about it since. Maybe someday.
Another mobile project Hi-Rez had in the works was Bot Smashers, which they announced during their Hi-Rez Expo in January of last year. Bot Smashers was designed from the ground up for mobile and is like a super concentrated real-time strategy game with a really clever “open ended" type of design. Eli and I attended that Hi-Rez Expo last year and went hands on with Bot Smashers and really enjoyed it, but like Smite Rivals there’s been not a peep about the game in almost a year, and although it hasn’t been officially cancelled or put on hold I’m not feeling super confident it will ever see the light of day.
More successful on mobile for Hi-Rez has been Paladins Strike (Free), which they originally unveiled in August of 2017 and then soft-launched two months later. It’s a top-down, somewhat MOBA-fied spin on their full Paladins game and after a six month soft launch period the game officially launched just shy of a year ago. While it hasn’t received an update since November, Paladins Strike has seen quite a bit of support since its release and seems to still have a thriving online community behind it. Which isn’t a surprise because it’s a ton of fun and plays really well on the touchscreen.
Anyway, this brief Hi-Rez Studios history lesson is because the company has recently launched a new play-testing program called Hi-Rez Labs where they’re looking for people who are interested in trying out their upcoming projects, updates, and experiments. This will obviously include their PC and console games, but they also explicitly mention mobile which is why I’m mentioning it here. I know TouchArcade readers are big on beta testing and so this could be an opportunity to help shape any future mobile releases from Hi-Rez. If you’re interested in signing up, then head over to the official Hi-Rez Labs website where you’ll need to fill out a short form and agree to a non-disclosure clause to get in on the action. We’ll be keeping our ears to the ground for any news on mobile stuff from Hi-Rez but in the meantime get signed up and maybe you’ll be at the forefront of whatever future projects they’re working on.
