There couldn’t have been a more perfect time to play a Kingdom Rush game — I had just finished replaying through the series during a hospital stay, and when I got home, I saw that Ironhide Game Studios’ new release, Kingdom Rush Vengeance, had released on Android. Excited, I rushed to purchase it and for some reason, was surprised when I saw the amount of microtransactions in the game. It doesn’t make any sense that I was surprised. Despite always being a premium franchise that requires an up-front payment, Kingdom Rush has also controversially locked most of the game’s heroes behind additional paywalls. You generally get three-four heroes in the base game, and the other 10-plus heroes are individual microtransactions, some that cost more than the game itself. It’s never been a good, customer-friendly business model. Feeling like you’re locked out of content that you feel like you’ve already paid…
Pocket City is the best city-builder on Android, but it’s over too fast
Pocket City, from Codebrew Games, came out over the past couple months on Android and it’s just about everything I ever wanted out of a mobile city-builder … until it ended.
Revisit: Faif
I don’t remember how I originally stumbled across Faif, a battle-based puzzle game from Beavl Games. I do remember that the game was new at the time, and it was multiple years ago. It wasn’t even finished at the time I first downloaded it, before Early Access existed on Google Play, but I loved it all the same. I’ve just gone back to it for the first time in a very, very long time and the game is still just as good. It also appears to have received a facelift at some point since the last time I played it — a good sign as it plays nice with my S9+. The goal of Faif is to reduce your opponent’s life to zero without being killed yourself. The playfield is a board made up of four types of tiles: swords, skulls, hearts and gems. The player then picks five adjacent…
Breakout meats Mr. Driller in Holedown, out now on Android
Holedown, the latest game from the mind behind twofold inc. and rymdkapsel, is all about seizing the means of production, at least according to my worm (ghost? ghost worm? space ghost worm?) friend at the bottom right of my screen. I assume they’re my friend — they call me comrade, after all — as they have been sticking with me on my journey to dig deeper!
Life Is Strange finally releases on Android, is a must-own for new players
Life Is Strange, developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix, has finally made its way to Android and the Google Play Store, officially releasing all five episodes on Wednesday. As expected, the first episode is free, while the full pack comes in at $9. I can’t recommend it enough.
Reigns: Her Majesty drops free ‘Transformations’ update packed with content
Reigns: Her Majesty is a delightfully wicked game that many have likened to a fusion of Game of Thrones and Tinder, with the player taking the role of the Queen as she manages the day-to-day operations of her kingdom by swiping right or left to make decisions. It just got a big new update.
I’m bad at logic puzzle games, but I love Hexologic
Something about the presentation of Hexologic hooked me in a way that made me persist through my initial confusion and into what is simply a very well-put together puzzle game that is exactly what it says it is.
Dr. Meep is a fun Android puzzler that doesn’t approach mental health with subtlety
It’s extremely rare that I lead an article with a content warning and then proceed to talk about a game I enjoy quite a bit, but that’s the case with Dr. Meep, a match-three puzzle game where you play the role of a telepathic therapist progressively helping cartoonish characters through various mental issues via a match-three puzzle interface with a twist.
Game Dev Tycoon developer claims Google removed ‘over 77 percent’ of positive reviews
Greenheart says at one point they lost 400 reviews, then the next day lost 430 reviews, followed by drops of 655 and “500-plus,” respectively. That’s a staggering number of reviews, an the question here is whether or not they were legitimate. Greenheart says they are, and at this time, there is no reason to suspect otherwise given the response on Twitter and general positivity surrounding the game’s Android release.
Supernatural thrillers, hard partying and a full galaxy to explore in the Humble Mobile Bundle 22
If you need a fresh infusion of games on your Android devices, look no further than the latest Humble Mobile Bundle. The 22nd iteration of the mobile bundles, there are several games that are worth your time, and we’re going to break it down by tier.