Nick Tylwalk

Nick Tylwalk enjoys writing about video games, comic books, pro wrestling and other things where people are often punching each other, regaardless of what that says about him. He prefers MMOs, RPGs, strategy and sports games but can be talked into playing just about anything.

News
February 19, 2014
Non-app game revenue is higher, but app game sales are growing faster
By Nick Tylwalk
The United States leads the way when it comes to the consumption of digital content, a glimpse of the future can be had by looking at the East, and games, especially mobile games, are the current kings of digital media.Those are just a few of the insights to be gained from a new joint study from App Annie and global research firm IHS, the first to be produced by the combined efforts of both organizations. The report takes a detailed look at trends across all kinds of digital content — including digital games, game apps, other kinds of mobile apps, movie and music streaming — and also identifies how the markets in different countries differ.Probably to no one's surprise, digital games led the way globally in 2013. Consumer spending on games rose to $34 billion last year, accounting for more revenue than online movies and mobile apps combined.That number includes all types of games with digital distribution, such as online PC and browser-based titles, digital downloads on consoles and mobile game apps. But it's the last of those subcategories that has been driving the overall growth. In seven key markets (the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Russia, Japan and South Korea), spending on mobile games distributed through the iOS App Store or Google Play rose 2.9 times between 2012 and 2013, whereas spending on the entire digital games category in those same nations was up only slightly year-over-year.
News
February 13, 2014
If at first you don’t succeed, adjust: The lesson of Arena of Heroes
By Nick Tylwalk
Everyone likes to hear the tale of the indie developer who bucks the odds and turns into an overnight success.The story of Sneaky Games and its turn-based MOBA/tactical hybrid Arena of Heroes isn't one of those. It's more a saga of mild success followed by more hard work to try to shine a bigger spotlight on a product the studio truly believes in, all while financial uncertainty swirls around in the background. As such, it's probably a lot more typical of the indie experience than going from rags to riches in one fell swoop.Sneaky Games was known mainly for social games before it dreamed up Arena of Heroes. The game's high concept was a good one: take the framework of a MOBA, but make the action turn-based and put it on multiple platforms to expand the potential player base.Released last summer for iPad, PC and Mac, it attracted enough players to get some traction but didn't take off the way the studio hoped. Part of it was likely due to a bit of an identity crisis. Was the game a MOBA that just happened to be turn-based? Or was it a tactical game with some MOBA trappings?
Reviews
January 28, 2014
Suits and Swords Review
By Nick Tylwalk
As someone who makes most of his income working in the casino industry, but also enjoys playing and writing about RPGs, I sometimes feel games like Suits and Swords are messing with my head. Splicing together blackjack and a fantasy RPG could be really intriguing. Or it could be a disaster, as splicing in general sometimes is. This game manages to be neither, ending up a middle-of-the-road experience in both content and execution.Unlike some other casino-RPG hybrids, having the inhabitants of the Suits and Swords world play blackjack to fight their battles makes some sense. That's because the whole place is themed like a deck of playing cards, with four distinctly different lands - Heart Union, Diamond Empire, Club Kingdom and Spade Nation - in which to adventure."As Captain Black Jack (get it?), you return to find all four nations have come under the sway of the evil Joker. No, not the famous one, but their inspiration is clearly the same. To get to him and set things right, you've got to defeat a number of enemies and brainwashed friends by defeating them in head-to-head blackjack play.Most people know at least the basics of blackjack, so I won't go into the rules here. Suffice it to say that in each round of play, if you get closer to 21 without going over than your opponent, your character attacks. The reverse is also true, and if both sides bust or have equal totals, it's a push and no damage is done either way. Better totals do more damage, so a 21 takes away more hit points from an enemy than a 19.
Reviews
January 20, 2014
NBA Rush Review
By Nick Tylwalk
You would think that the life of an NBA player is stressful enough trying to figure out how to dethrone LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat. But no, we're asking them to fend off alien invasions too. If you think I'm just babbling incoherently, you need to check out NBA Rush, a competent but unspectacular endless runner made notable mostly by the unusual premise I just laid out.Granted, RenRen Games could have made this just another sports-themed runner, so the devs get props for coming up with something different. Yet it's never really explained why NBA stars would be the proper people to help fight off the aliens, except, I guess, that they look more like super heroes than mere athletes thanks to the game's angular, stylized art.No matter. The game gets you right into the action with controls very familiar to anyone who's ever played anything in this genre: swipe to either side to switch lanes, swipe up to jump, and swipe down to slide under certain obstacles. Notice how your player keeps his dribble going at all times? You wouldn't want to be called for traveling or double dribbling, even under these dire circumstances.Along the way, you'll be looking to pick up coins, but also to defeat the aliens whenever possible. The ones on the ground can be defeated by jumping on them, which also gives you a boost to get on top of otherwise unreachable places. Flying aliens are a little trickier, as you have to wait until you find a "DUNK" icon to be able to smash their flying saucers with some seriously aggressive jams.
Reviews
January 15, 2014
Archangel Review
By Nick Tylwalk
Sometimes all you need is to hear a game's name and see a few awesome screenshots to know that it's going to be cool. Yes, it's the digital equivalent of judging a book by its cover, but it does work on occasion. Other times, you end up with something like Archangel, a dungeon crawler that boasts attractive graphics but misses the mark with so many other things that it ends up a depressingly dull experience.Let's get the positives established up front. Black Tower Studios and Unity Games definitely came up with a decent enough concept, placing you in control of a vengeful archangel who looks like he means business. He's got the big wings, a menacing weapon, and a shield: all the things you'd need to rough up anyone defying the will of Heaven (though technically the Powers are the warrior angels; just saying).But as soon as you're done admiring how awesome everything looks during the opening cinematics, the doubts start creeping in pretty quickly. The animation doesn't do justice to the character designs, as everything moves very stiffly. It's almost like the forces of Heaven and Hell don't have as many joints as us mere mortals. The beautifully rendered scenery also gets in the way, making it hard to see more than an inch or so in front of you.That wouldn't be so bad if it was used to create some tension or something, but the bad guys simply stand there and wait for you to approach. You do that by tapping to get the archangel to move from one point to another, meaning you'll be tapping a lot to get him from one end of the dungeon to another. A virtual button is used for attacks, which can increase along with movement speed after defeating strings of enemies without taking too much damage in return.
Reviews
January 9, 2014
Battle Supremacy Review
By Nick Tylwalk
If anyone ever figures out how to make the mobile equivalent of the popular online game World of Tanks, they stand to make a boatload of money, possibly even with a capital 'B.' The thing is, no one has quite been able to execute that game's quality and precision on touchscreens. Battle Supremacy by Atypical Games and Revo Games is the latest to give it a shot, but despite some worthy efforts, it's still no mobile substitute for the real thing.It's certainly not for a lack of visual oomph. Battle Supremacy looks gorgeous, if that's an appropriate word for a game featuring rolling death machines. From the tanks themselves to the little flourishes like butterflies and snow, the developers did things right. The introductions and cutscenes during the solo missions are notable highlights, made to look like old war footage in all its sepia-toned antiquity.Yes, I said solo missions, which is something not all games like this have. The first one even serves as a tutorial, though you'll have to find it yourself as it's the first of many features that goes unexplained. Each mission gives you several AI partners to help you tackle multiple objectives. The lone drawback is that you don't know how long each mission will last, giving you no way to tell if you can go for broke or play things more cautiously.Completing solo missions gets you experience points to improve your rank - needed to unlock the game's eight tanks - and upgrade points to improve the main gun, armor, engine, treads and radar. You can see how each upgrade affects your stats before you buy, and the points are universal, so you can spend them on any tank you're able to use. Unlike World of Tanks, there's no real life equipment involved, simply boosts to the gear you've got.
News
January 9, 2014
Game of Thrones Ascent: After a year of success, a mobile future looms
By Nick Tylwalk
Disruptor Beam got a pretty nice present from Facebook just before the holidays. It came in the form of Facebook's games team naming Game of Thrones Ascent a staff pick as one of the top games to debut on the social network in 2013.Though Game of Thrones Ascent isn't just a Facebook game since it's playable through more than one site (and will be headed to mobile, which we'll get to in a bit), the nod was still a significant one. For starters, it served as a validation that high quality games can succeed on the network even at a time when the total number of people is down from its peak a few years ago.It also helped reinforce the idea that Disruptor Beam is doing things right when it comes to its story-driven, highly social take on Westeros. Ideally, it serves as a way for hardcore Game of Thrones fans to be able to interact with their favorite fantasy world, an attractive way for core gamers to get compelling gameplay in bite-sized chunks, and as a "gateway drug" for people who know the IP but have yet to dive into the books or the HBO television series.That's a tall order, but as Disruptor Beam CEO Jon Radoff told Gamezebo in a recent phone conversation, the game does indeed seem to be reaching all three audiences.
Reviews
January 7, 2014
Eternity Warriors 3 Review
By Nick Tylwalk
Here's a timely lesson straight from the just-ended holiday season: empty calories can taste really, really good. Sure, you might regret that extra helping of stuffing or second desert, but not while you're eating it. Glu Mobile's Eternity Warriors 3 is something like that, a gluttonous serving of free-to-play action-RPG carnage that provides little nutritional value but tempts you to keep coming back for more.At the risk of stretching that opening analogy to the breaking point, one of the ingredients in the Eternity Warriors 3 recipe is a story. That is, there's a reason you're taking your Warrior or Monk and pitting them against hordes of enemies in Diablo-esque fashion. It's just not that important. Consider it a garnish, there for presentation purposes only."The real meat is in hacking and slashing your way through dungeons, and the game gets you into the action quickly, teaching what you need to know along the way. The controls are simple, and despite my general disdain for virtual thumbsticks, this one is responsive enough to deal with the fast-paced combat. A large button handles basic attacks with smaller ones for skills, which draw down your mana and also have cooldown timers.There's nothing subtle about what you're asked to do in each level, which is eliminate undead, demons, wolves, and other monsters in the shortest possible time - and you're actually graded on how fast you can clear them all out. Mini-bosses in the final zone of most levels are a little tougher, and the actual bosses of the three kingdoms provide nice challenges. Mostly though, it's quantity over quality, putting your reflexes to the test against waves of enemies.