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…
Castle of White Night
I have been a huge fan of developer Game Stew for a long time now, as their special blend of low-fi visuals and interesting usage of game mechanics has produced some excellent mobile games over the years. I also feel that the retro-style first-person dungeon crawler is an underserved genre on mobile. So when I found out that their new title Castle of White Night would be “Game Stew does the first-person dungeon crawler" I was all but sold already. Having now played the game for myself, I can say for certain that for fans of Game Stew’s style these guys have done it again.
As is always the case with Game Stew games, Castle of White Night is a mixture of different game types. It’s a first-person dungeon crawler first and foremost, but with some survival elements blended in. As you’re searching the expansive maps you’ll have 3 categories to keep an eye on: Torch, Food, and Water. While losing all your Torch will mean you can no longer see what you are doing, Food and Water are necessary to stay alive, and just moving through the game will slowly diminish each.
These survival elements keep you grounded and force you to make the most of each step you take as you explore, find items, and engage in real-time combat with a number of awesome enemies. There is one main quest and multiple smaller side quests to occupy yourself with, as well as the overarching goal of freeing 100 souls to lift the curse on the castle, which basically means defeating 100 enemies. There are also plenty of unlockable treasures to help you out along the way, a simple crafting system, a basic character leveling system, and 4 unique classes to play as.
Castle of White Night is monetized in the typical Game Stew way. The game is $3 and comes with one of the character classes unlocked. You can then unlock the additional classes by using coins earned through playing, or for a one-time $3.99 IAP. You can also buy coins in packs ranging from $1-10. Unlocking the additional classes through playing will be very time-consuming, but also pretty satisfying if looked at as longer term goals. On the other hand, just buying the one-time unlock and thinking of this as a $7 game seems more than fair too. No matter which way you go, if you’re a fan of Game Stew’s quirky style I can definitely recommend this one.
