A game worth shouting about…
Ever since Howl appeared in last November’s Nintendo Indie World Showcase, the game has been making waves among fans of smart, innovative, graphically adventurous indie strategy games.
Developed by Mi’pu’mi Games and published by astragon Entertainment, Howl is billed as a “tactical folktale” with a fantasy medieval setting.
Howl takes place in a world where hearing is a major disadvantage. That’s because a “howling plague” is on the loose, spreading by sound and transforming its victims into slavering wolves.
You play as a deaf heroine, inoculated against sound and therefore free to save the world by taking down wolves, rescuing villagers, and searching for a cure.
Gameplay-wise, this entails plotting up to moves per turn, playing action cards, and outmanoeuvring the hazards that await you in every stage of the game’s sprawling campaign.
Howl is an elegant blend of turn-based strategy and puzzle, but it’s also a work of art. Mi’pu’mi Games has used a “living ink” art style to create the impression that you’re working on a touchscreen tapestry as you play.
Available since January on consoles, Howl has made the leap to Android and iOS. Here are five reasons we think the mobile version is right in the sweet spot.
Howl is a game made for a touchscreen.
It’s just so much easier to navigate around the grid-based stages, access cards, create commands, and more with the tip of your finger than it is with a controller, or even a mouse and keyboard.
There’s another big advantage to playing Howl on a touchscreen: it brings you right up close to the action.
We’re not normally fussy about how far away from the screen we are, but there’s something about Howl’s fairytale setting that makes it feel like a book. This isn’t just a game: it’s a story that you write in ink and blood.
As such, snuggling up with it just feels like the right way to play.
Howl is a pretty big game, with 60 stages set across four massive story chapters.
But that doesn’t mean you need to invest a lot of time into playing it. Each stage in Howl takes up a single screen, albeit increasingly dense with traps, challenges, and tactical opportunities.
You can spend a couple of hours on Howl, or you can squeeze in a quick session while waiting for the kettle to boil.
Howl isn’t a multiplayer game, but having it on your phone makes it so much easier to share with others and work together on particularly gnarly stages.
If you’re a seasoned strategy gamer, you may not feel that you need this kind of support. But take it from us: once you start getting deeper into the campaign you’ll appreciate the option to tap your buddy on the shoulder and ask for their opinion.
Money talks, and there’s no getting around the fact that Howl is significantly cheaper on mobile than it is on any other platform.
While the big-screen versions of the game will all set you back around $14.99, unless you’re prepared to wait for a sale, the Android and iOS versions cost a third that much. Plus, the base download is free, so you can try it out before committing.
To take advantage of this financial loophole, head to the Google Play Store or the App Store and download Howl right now.
