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.
Without further ado…
OneBit Adventure
You’d think with how many retro-inspired roguelike dungeon crawlers get released all the time, that I’d be sick to death of the genre despite it being one of my favorites. Well to a certain extent that’s true, but once in a while one comes along that pushes all the right buttons and offers an experience that’s different than the others, and once again I find myself hooked. That’s exactly what has happened with OneBit Adventure (Free) from developer Galactic Slice, which launched on iOS this week.
I think what I love so much about OneBit Adventure is how straightforward and simplified it is. You don’t roam around the maze-like corridors of a randomly generated dungeon, you simply traverse an overworld that scrolls forward as you move, fighting enemies and searching for loot. You’ll come across caves you can dive into which operate mostly the same but are also filled with tons of types of ore which you can collect and put towards upgrading your equipment. The caves also feature an optional boss fight at the end which can net you some additional rewards if you succeed, but comes with the risk of death.
OneBit Adventure plays in portrait mode which fits perfectly to its vertically-scrolling nature, and by default is controlled with a virtual d-pad but I’d highly suggest going into the options to switch on the swipe movement as it works far better in my opinion. The game is largely just roaming the lands fighting enemies and collecting loot, but there’s some hidden depth in terms of upgrading your equipment and weapons as well as leveling up your character and increasing their stats. There’s even several different classes you can play as which each have unique attributes and offer some variety in play.
What OneBit Adventure does so well is offer an experience that feels like it was built for mobile play, as opposed to a game that simply plays well on mobile. It’s there for you for as much or as little time as you’d like to invest in it at any given time, and its core loop of exploration and collection makes it hard to put down. It’s also sufficiently challenging and surprisingly strategic. My main gripe is that some of the UI isn’t formatted properly for iPhone X screens, not in a way that prevents you from seeing anything but it’s just a little sloppy. Other than that I love everything else OneBit Adventure is all about, and being that it’s free you should check it out for yourself.
