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…

Juicy Realm

For my money there’s nothing quite like a great dual-stick shooter on mobile. Since the inception of gaming on touchscreen smartphone devices, dual-stick shooters have been one of the genres that have fared the best by not having any physical buttons for input. And since classics like iDracula and Minigore found massive success in the early days of mobile gaming, countless others have followed in their footsteps. Yes, there has been NO lack of dual-stick shooters on mobile, but even with the many MANY ones that I’ve played over the years I still get excited when a really good one comes along. And Juicy Realm is a really good one.

This is a port so chances are you may already be familiar with Juicy Realm by way of desktop or console. If not, this is a game where fruits have sprouted arms and legs and become sentient beings. Humanity wants to get to the bottom of why the heck this is happening, so they send a ragtag team of soldiers into the depths of where these fruitations have begun. That’s really all the setup you need to be able to have a team of extremely cool and unique playable characters facing off against wacky and colorful enemies.

Juicy Realm is a “looter shooter" so there’s an emphasis on unlocking and equipping all sorts of cool weapons and gear. It’s also a roguelite game, so levels and enemies are randomized each time you play, but there’s a healthy amount of permanent progression that acts like the carrots on the stick to keep you playing just one more game. That includes the aforementioned unlockable arsenal of weapons, unlockable characters, upgrades, perks, additional modes, difficulty levels, and tons more.

Sure, there are a ton of dual-stick shooters on mobile, but the majority of them are typically more straightforward affairs. Console and PC gamers have many more options for a dual-stick shooter with the type of depth and replay value of Juicy Realm, but mobile gamers don’t have as many options for that particular brand of game. Juicy Realm fits the bill incredibly well, and is an easy recommendation for anyone who wishes games like Enter the Gungeon or Nuclear Throne were on mobile. That the mobile version is currently at a launch discount price of just $1.99 feels borderline criminal, as does its eventual regular price of just $2.99.