One year begins, another one ends. 2015 has been a great year for games, filled with titles that have defied the genre, and big juicy stories that have torn across subreddits and newsfeeds. Gaming could never be bigger, and so much smaller.
For this year, we’re doing short review/retrospectives on the past games that came out (Or just any game that caught my attention), and which ones are my favorite. We’re starting with mobile games. Each game will be given a scale out of 5 stars, which is something I normally don’t do with reviews. Most of the titles here are free-to-play games.
(This is UNDER CONSTRUCTION: The post will be given pictures to complement the titles later).
Fallout Shelter
Welcome Home.
- iOS/Android, F2P, Bethesda Game Studios
Fallout Shelter was a big surprise at E3 2015. A free-to-play vault sim from the massively popular franchise that takes a unique spin on things. While it’s great the game doesn’t push it’s microtransactions too hard, the game slows down in progression once you unlock all of the buildings and have amassed 100+ vault dwellers. There simply isn’t too much content for staying, and that’s a absolute shame. It’s one of those games you’ll pick up and play for about a month, then put down for awhile. It’s still highly addictive and something I still highly recommend. It’s just not that great of a game.
2015 Rating: ***
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper
Fantasy on the Go
- iOS/Android, F2P, DeNA games
DeNA does not exactly have a good track record when it comes to mobile, since a lot of their games consist of the typical japanese mobile game model. But Record Keeper happens to be so much more. Microtransactions don’t feel too important and it’s got an insane amount of depth like a FF game. It’s UI is somewhat clunky and the Auto ability basically turns it into a idle game a lot of the time, but it’s still a great pick-up for FF fans.
2015 Rating: ****
Sonic Runners
Sanic slows down from microtransactions
- iOS/Android, F2P, Sonic Team
Oh ho ho boy, here we go. Sonic Runners is actually a really fun game. Botched by horrible F2P mechanics and generally being a outright broken mess of a game. It’s prone to cheating, is unoptimized as hell, and it’s way of unlocking characters is about as bad and annoying as gambling. It is quite frankly incredibly frustrating to play. On the surface, there’s a really cool game here, but it’s hard to see that now. Stay clear unless you really need a Sonic game to fill your quench this year.
2015 Rating: *
Rayman Adventures
Rayman slows down but still rises from microtransactions
- iOS, F2P, Ubisoft
Like Sonic, Rayman has been in a complete drought of games for awhile, and his only recent game is now the mobile platformer “Rayman Adventures”.
It is surprisingly not horrible. It’s a bite-sized version of Rayman Legends, and while is stoked with the typical Ubisoft bullshit you see in most games, is a fun game with stellar presentation. There’s no energy system and for the most part the game’s main currency (which comes in low quantity a lot of the time) is not needed at all to “improve your stats” and is only for buying additional boosters. It does piss me off that this requires always online-play, this would be a great game to play on the bus!
2015 Rating: ****
Mortal Kombat X
Crappy Mobile Version of OK fighter
- iOS, F2P, Netherrealm Studios
I like the card aspect of MKX on mobile. It’s interesting, addictive, and it kept me going for about a few weeks. But the combat is so dreadful (Since there’s literally like zero combos) and so bare bones that it’s really hard to enjoy. The Injustice Mobile game had more combos then this, and that’s quite frankly terrifying. Give it a shot if you want, but if you are expecting a good Mortal Kombat game, well prepare to be disappointed. And slightly annoyed.
2015 Rating: **
Assassin’s Creed: Identity
Viva la Australians
- iOS, F2P, Ubishit
So if you’re wondering, you can only play this game if you downloaded it from the Australian/New Zealand App Store. Been in softlaunch since 2014.
Which certainly doesn’t excuse it from being critiqued
First of all, as expected by Ubisoft, it’s a pretty buggy mess. Softlaunch or not, this is still somewhat inexcusable. Like Rayman Adventures, it tries to be a bite-sized version of Assassin’s Creed, and that’s not bad at all, but it still needs major improvement. For one, controlling your character is a hassle, with them clinging/climbing to walls you didn’t want them to or going in the most annoying direction possible if you’re using the “tap” mode to direct them. The microtransactions are somewhat bothersome but don’t detract from the main experience, since the actual game is too easy. What hooks is that after you finish the 10 levels in the game, you unlock Heroic Mode, which gives you bonuses upon completing random contracts. As repetitive as it is, it does give some good incentive to get a bunch of common loot, turn that loot to one piece of uncommon loot, and then contribute that to max up gear.
There’s zip content as of now, which hopefully changes later on. Not a bad game, but definitely not worth making a freaking itunes account for Australia
2014-2015 Rating: ***
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