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…
Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition
Don’t Starve was one of those Steam indie games that everyone was always talking about, but I never downloaded because I have an unofficial personal moratorium on getting more Steam games until I play through my existing catalog of hundreds of games purchased on sale which I’ve never even bothered to download. Anyone who knows what the Steam Summer Sale is like knows exactly what I’m talking about. Anyway, I heard about it a ton, I knew it was cool based on people whose opinions I trust speaking highly of it, and knew I’d probably enjoy it… But I had no idea just how much I’d enjoy it.
Backing up a bit, Don’t Starve is a survival game, kinda-sorta in the same light as Minecraft’s survival mode, but it feels far more complicated. Comparisons to FTL are apt, and potentially more appropriate, as much like FTL, one tiny mistake can mean complete ruin in Don’t Starve. In the game, you (initially) play as a guy with the single goal of not starving, prompted by the title of the game. So you start bumbling around, not sure what to do, picking carrots and berries, eating them because you’re hungry, and so on.
Eventually you reach your first night cycle and are greeted with complete and total darkness, because you didn’t know that you needed a fire to keep you safe. If you were lucky enough to stumble across the materials for a torch or a fire, you hunker down, and see out the night before deciding that maybe you should plan ahead a bit more for the next night. From there, you likely discover the incredible endless Alice in Wonderland-scale rabbit hole of depth this game is hiding.
It’s hard to even fully describe, as I’m not even sure I understand all of it, as the best I’ve been able to do is survive long enough to get an alchemy engine online. However, if you check out the Don’t Starve Wiki you’ll see the crafting system in this game is just incredible, and people have figured out how to build fully functional settlements inside the game- Meanwhile, I’m getting mauled by scary dogs at night.
But, even though I died as quickly as I got started, I’ve been going back for more, and more, and more, and incrementally discovering more depth in the game. Reading more into the Wiki, there’s apparently weather, seasons, lightning stikes, and all sorts of other ridiculous stuff to come once I get over the hump of, well, not getting eaten by dogs. I can’t get enough of it, and this is a game you need to play if you at all like open world survival games.
It sort of sucks that it’s iPad-only right now, but recent news has hinted that it’s also coming to the iPhone. Otherwise, if you’re jailbroken and willing to spend some time tweaking the game, you can get it running on your iPhone right now. We’re hard at work on a “full" review of the game, but, from where I’m standing, Don’t Starve is going to live a very long and happy life on my iPad.
