This was a cool week for game reviews, as Test Chamber sneaking up out of nowhere and being such an awesome game is one of my favorite things about the App Store. There’s other great games in this list too, but if for some reason you passed on Test Chamber because of its sterile name or block pushing puzzler gameplay, it definitely deserves a second look.
Test Chamber - Mind-bending Puzzles, Free [Review] – Test Chamber (Free) is a gift for any game reviewer. The minimalist indie puzzler sneaked on to the App Store a couple of weeks ago with very little fanfare, and went largely unnoticed. But those who did play it discovered a wonderful logic game, with a unique physics twist and some excruciatingly tough but very satisfying puzzles. And now, dear reader, I get to share it with you, and you can discover its delights for yourself.
Wedding Escape, Free [Review] – I think that when the world ends and cockroaches roam the Earth in search of Twinkies, there will still be working match-three devices out there. People just can’t get enough of the match-three puzzle subgenre (myself included), and even after playing hundreds of them, Wedding Escape (Free) still feels fairly fresh.
Trulon, $4.99 [Review] – Like everyone, I have my own set of personal biases and preferences that I have to work around. I love RPGs, but after years of social games and broken hearts I’ve come to flinch when I hear anything about a card battle system. I like card games well enough, but when they’re used as an RPG concept, they tend to overtake the whole game. That’s not to say I’ve never enjoyed an RPG with a card-based battle system. The Baten Kaitos games on the Gamecube were pretty good, and I certainly enjoyed the somewhat recent Card City Nights ($0.99) from Ludosity. But I’m not going to lie, it dampens my enthusiasm for a game just a little bit when I hear that cards are a major component. Because of that, even though Trulon ($4.99) was coming from a developer whose work I’ve greatly enjoyed in the past, I was still a bit hesitant as I loaded it up.
Dungeon of Madness, $1.99 [Review] – If you know Game Stew, you’re probably already enamored with their high innovation to pixel ratio. There is always much fun to be had in their 8 bit styled titles and Dungeon of Madness($1.99) is no exception. They burst onto the scene strong with 2012’s Tower of Fortune($1.99) and have been carefully extending their visual charm to various game types since then. Game Stew has successfully built a franchise in which they can now deliver various game types under a very solid unifying motif. The one in question today definitely lives up to expectations.
Additionally, we reviewed a few other games this week. As always, you can dig into all of our reviews by clicking here. Alternatively, you can hit up specific scores by using these links:
Mobile is the platform I use the most for gaming, but I don't think we should be celebrating the "demise" of consoles like these last few articles on the subject seem to be doing. For the record I don't think consoles are dying or are going to die, there's room for all platforms.
Gamers are always in peril of losing their little corner in the arcade.
In Japan, consoles have been dead for a long time. So don't see this story so much as a celebration of that demise, but rather a celebration that Japan's interest in gaming didn't go with it.
I don't think any of it will die anymore then DVDs players, Internet, TV, wallets, photo albums, or music, or PCs. They are going to merge little by little. It's becoming the all in one and linked to everything around us.
This is why we can't have nice things, with nice things referring to premium mobile games or handheld games on 3DS/vita
I have plenty of nice things that have held my interest and enjoyment for months. And i didnt pay a cent for them, or rather i wasnt forced to but because i enjoyed them so much i put 5 or 10 into them because i felt so guilty for having played for 100s of hours for free.
Mobile is not a sure thing, often times mobile is about catching lightning in a bottle. Japanese studios are in a position where they need to focus on that because it's there best option in a world where they don't reach the west as well and there audience prefers there phones.
Sega spoke on this 15 years ago when they abandoned the Dreamcast . They were going to concentrate on mobile devices instead of consoles . Who knew ?? Sega did !
I really like monster strike, but I can't fathom anyone spending money on it. The drop rates are abysmal.
Pardon me? 4million.....what? WHAT? I can't even comprehend that. Especially since the game sucks. It's no tallowmere
I just checked this out on the App Store, and I can't even tell what the game is about from the screenshots. No idea what is going on in those shots. It's probably too flashy, fast, and energetic for my laid-back tastes.
A better reference, instead comparing profit and revenue, would be that Square Enix just posted a yearly revenue of $932M or an average of $233M a quarter. Or stated another way, Square is bringing in about 2/3rds of this one game.
That is a better reference, thank you for posting that!
Wish they put monster strike in Europe. Annoying they haven't yet.
Not in Australia yet either. Nor is Terra Battle for that matter. Both make me sad.
Neither in Brazil, and the same happens to Terra battle and even Puzzles and Dragons.
I am forced to play some games on an america account and I would really prefer not to.
Any idea on why this particular game is more popular in Japan then, say, Candy Crush? Does it have to do with this social network that promotes it, or is it about the kind of gameplay and Japanese gamers preferences?
I think there's a few reasons. First it's very similar in some ways to Puzzle and Dragons, especially with the menus/UI. The game also uses a location based multiplayer (otherwise uses chat apps which adds a few steps before playing), which works much better in Japan due to population density. Lastly I'd say the art is very well done and might be a bigger cultural draw over there.
For what it's worth I'm still playing 200+ days after downloading. I wouldn't spend money, but I think that this isn't a game where you should expect to own everything. It rewards multiplayer games much better than solo, and with only 4 character teams it becomes much easier to form an optimal one. The hatcher rates are pretty bad though, so I do see the draw.
It's interesting how the tech world in Japan and Korea has always been a few steps ahead of the rest of the world. We in the US never really text messages until smart phones while in Asia they text messages with regular phones by tapping the number keypad to choose a letter and did so without looking at the keyboard. Thank goodness for our iPhones as other smart phones since I would never had done what they did in asks with texting.
Although the game may suck and I haven't even tried it the fact is the game makes $4 million a day???? Wow! Small businesses in the US would die to make make a million or two a year...
I texted on my old Nokia flip phone until the keys fell out. :P I could do it pretty fast, too. After a while, your fingers just memorize the locations and number of taps each letter takes.
I do prefer my iPhone, though. :)